10 IMAGES OF THE OX
Idan Goldberg
Ten Bulls or Ten Ox Herding Pictures is a series of short poems and drawings used in the Zen tradition to describe the stages of a practitioner's progress1. The one represented here is a Chinese version of the Ox Herding Pictures, by Kuòān Shīyuǎn (Jp. Kaku-an) (12th century)2. The silent verses accompanying the images in this piece are modern musings by the author inspired by the encounter with the original series of poems and drawings.
1Quoted from: Piya Tan (2004), The Taming of the Bull. Mind-training and the formation of Buddhist traditions, dharmafarer.org
2Source of the images: wikimedia commons - Ox herding pictures by Kuòān Shīyuǎn - Created: 15th century, after lost 12th century originals
By Tenshō Shūbun - Shokoku-ji Temple website,
Public Domain link
Images: https://gothamist.com/news/matador-jumps-on-cop-car-by-wall-street-bull-rodeo-clowns-arrested
https://cdn.cms.prod.nypr.digital/images/110911bull2.width-1200.jpg
https://www.chinimandi.com/wall-street-marks-longest-ever-bull-market/
https://storage.googleapis.com/stateless-chinimandi-com/2018/08/2711930893_317cb94428_b.jpg
https://im.indiatimes.in/content/2020/May/cow_5eb53c5cdff2b.jpg?w=725&h=379
https://cdn.britannica.com/01/196201-050-25B01C92/El-Juli-Spanish-bull-Barcelona-June-6-2010.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/1b00ca98583a3242a5a05b776e5f6ef5/tumblr_mfpm82hKrt1qknuxro1_500.jpg
Wabi - Sabi
The term wabi-sabi embodies a unique view in Japanese aesthetic philosophy, rooted in Zen Buddhist traditions. It developed in the aesthetics of Tea ceremony in Japan, since the 9th century. It is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and the embracing of imperfection.
Wabi originally meant the misery (or freedom) of living alone in nature. In the current use of the term it represents the beauty of imperfection - such as asymmetry - incompleteness and impermanence in nature. Echoing with the inner or spiritual experiences of human life.
Wabi is a reminder for a different approach to Matter, as a "transformative practice".
References:
Koren, Leonard (1994). Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers. Stone Bridge Press. Woodgate, R. G., a brief history of wabi-sabi - short post https://medium.com/subliminal-stimulation/a-brief-history-of-wabi-sabi-dbebcb3e3e1c
Picasso image:
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/pablo-picassos-bulls-road-simplicity/
https://dam-13749.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Picasso_taureau.jpg
Ma
Ma is a Japanese concept which describes a form of “negative space”. A way to describe reality, not as what is seen or depicted, but as what lays in between the lines. For example in ikebana art the space around the flowers is considered to be as equally important as the flowers and plants themselves. Ma is the empty space between the edges, it is the pause in speech needed to convey meaning, it is the silence between the notes that makes music.
Reference: Unique Japan, website https://new.uniquejapan.com/ikebana/ma/
In past and present tales alike,
a ‘self’ maneuvered by shimmering lures and hidden spikes...
Upon which difference, if at all, one may take any respite?
With the old,
one eventually glimpses the beauty of things as they exist, impermanent and incomplete (Wabi). Embracing the transient one dissolves, decomposing the structured, as a key to open a softer, less fixed, reality.
With the new,
we cannot possibly unsee (!) how much credit goes for the binary battle (winners take all) of catching the ox. Yet every new catch ends up being an irrelevant patch. (And all the way through, unaware, while the ox serves us for main course).
Can one free the battle from the ox,
opening the wearing fight into a game of possibilities…?
In this image a thread is connecting old and new. While the full is dissolving, space is unveiled, the empty gap between the edges, of what was the ox, and is now a new key. An empty space (“Ma”) coming forth, which emerges without being defined, allowing different options to co-exist.
Rather than locking upon a stubborn ox, a process gradually accompanies one into a play of possibilities. More and more diverse. To refine and redefine space, as in the old practices of Wabi, and MA.
The action ( or un-action) of bringing forth the negative space (Ma), which happens in between..
Catching the ox directly may well be impossible...
Yet drawing around it an edge of clarity allows the dissolving and reforming of the unforeseen.
