THE TEN OXHERDING PICTURES | 十牛図 | II. SPOTTING THE OX'S TRACKS

"Its tracks can be seen under the trees along the river,
Parting the brush, do you see it?
Even in such a remote place deep in the mountains,
How can the vast sky hide its nose?"*

As the stage of Searching for the Ox passes, we are left listening to the cicadas in what might seem an anticlimatic result of our efforts to penetrate the Way. In this silence, when our intellect is exhausted, a path begins to be visible as tracks come to the fore.

Perhaps it is through the efforts of our practice that the mind becomes subtly less attached to clinging, or maybe through witnessing the example of fellow seekers in our tradition that we begin to loosen our grip on the construct of self. Whatever the reason, a path opens before us as we part the brushes of the mind.

In this stage we loosen our hold on who we think we are and taste the possibility that we are something much larger. We start to accept the possibility that we need not identify with our thoughts and that our true nature is not embodied in them. The vastness of the mountains beckons us as the ancestors gently wave us on. It has always been as plain as the nose on our face, even though we've fervently searched elsewhere.

Although we are heartened by this glimpse into realization, we may still shudder as we shake off the coil of the small self. Still: we are drawn on. With a small faith we follow the path of life to take on the mantle of our original nature - the beauty and wonder of which we have yet to fathom...