The Ox-Herder and the Good Shepherd: Finding Christ on the Buddha's Path

Zen Buddhism's classic Ten Oxherding Pictures originated with Chinese Chan Master Kakuan around 1200 CE and has served for centuries to illustrate Mahayana Buddhism's path to enlightenment. Hart (former college chaplain, Northern Illinois Univ.; Knowing Darkness: Reflections on Skepticism, Melancholy, Friendship, and God) first encountered the pictures in Paul Reps's Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (1957) and here continues to draw upon their treatment including in D.T. Suzuki's Manual of Zen Buddhism (1960) and Philip Kapleau's Three Pillars of Zen (1965). Encouraging Christians to find Jesus and God via the contemplative tradition implicit in this iconic set, Hart presents copies of the ten original drawings as well as his reworking of Kakuan's accompanying poems and commentary. He then offers his own simple, clear, even elegant explication of embedded Christian meaning with references to the works of such Western writers as St. John of the Cross and Martin Buber as well as to Dante's The Divine Comedy, The Philokalia, and the Bible.