During the Sung dynasty a Zen teacher called Seikyo[8.2] illustrated stages of spiritual progress by a gradual purification or whitening of the cow until she herself disappears. But the pictures, six in number, are lost now.[f163] Those that are still in existence, illustrating the end of Zen discipline in a more thorough and consistent manner, come from the ingenious brush of Kakuan,[8.3] a monk belonging to the Rinzai school. His are in fact a revision and perfection of those of his predecessor. The pictures are ten in number, and each has a short introduction in prose followed by a commentary verse, both of which are translated below. There were some other masters who composed stanzas on the same subjects using the rhymes of the first commentator, and some of them are found in the popular edition of “The Ten Cow-herding Pictures.”
The cow has been worshipped by the Indians from very early periods of their history. The allusions are found in various connections in the Buddhist scriptures. In a Hinayana Sutra entitled “On the Herding of Cattle,”[f164] eleven ways of properly attending them are described. In a similar manner a monk ought to observe eleven things properly in order to become a good Buddhist; and if he fails to do so, just like the cow-herd who neglects his duties, he will be condemned. The eleven ways of properly attending cattle are: 1. To know the colours; 2. To know the signs; 3. Brushing; 4. Dressing the wounds; 5. Making smoke; 6. Walking the right path; 7. Tenderly feeling for them; 8. Fording the streams; 9. Pasturing; 10. Milking; 11. Selecting. Some of the items cited here are not quite intelligible.
In the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka Sūtra, Chapter III., “A Parable,” the Buddha gives the famous parable of three carts: bullock-carts, goat-carts, and deer-carts, which a man promises to give to his children if they come out of a house on fire. The finest of the carts is the one drawn by bullocks or cows (goratha), which represents the vehicle for the Bodhisattvas, the greatest and most magnificent of all vehicles, leading them directly to the attainment of supreme enlightenment. The cart is described thus in the Sutra: “Made of seven precious substances, provided with benches, hung with a multitude of small bells, lofty, adorned with rare and wonderful jewels, embellished with jewel wreaths, decorated with garlands of flowers, carpeted with cotton mattresses and woollen coverlets, covered with white cloth and silk, having on both sides rosy cushions, yoked with white, very fair and fleet bullocks, led by a multitude of men.”
Thus reference came to be made quite frequently in Zen literature to the “white cow on the open-air square of the village,” or to the cow in general. For instance, Tai-an of Fu-chou asked Pai-chang,[8.4] “I wish to know about the Buddha, what is he?” Answered Pai-chang, “It is like seeking for an ox while you are yourself on it.” “What shall I do after I know?” “It is like going home riding on it.” “How do I look after it all the time in order to be in accordance with [the Dharma]?” The master then told him, “You should behave like a cowherd, who, carrying a staff, sees to it that his cattle won’t wander away into somebody else’s rice-fields.”
The “Ten Cow-herding Pictures” showing the upward steps of spiritual training, is doubtless another such instance, more elaborate and systematised than the one just cited.
THE TEN STAGES OF SPIRITUAL COW-HERDING[f165]
I
face p. 357
Looking for the Cow. She has never gone astray, and what is the use of searching for her? We are not on intimate terms with her because we have contrived against our inmost nature. She is lost, for we have ourselves been led out of the way through the deluding senses. The home is growing farther away, and byways and crossways are ever confusing. Desire for gain and fear of loss burn like fire; ideas of right and wrong shoot up like a phalanx.