When the Ox Disappears, the Practice of No-Mind Begins
In the Ten Oxherding Pictures, the scene where the ox disappears points to a state where there is no longer any need to hold the mind separately. There was a process of seeking, seeing, catching, and taming the ox; yet when we come to know that the mind is not originally some separate thing, even the ox seems to disappear.
When we are told to let go of a painful mind and then look for it, we cannot find a mind to hold. In the same way, when we look deeply, what we had been grasping as suffering has no fixed substance. The work of holding the mind as a separate object and fighting with it naturally begins to lessen.
Even then, we must be careful. If thoughts such as "I have awakened" or "Now my practice is finished" remain, they too are another attachment. The disappearance of the ox is not the end. Rather, a deeper practice begins.
No-mind does not mean knowing nothing. It is a clear place where we are not dragged around by discrimination and attachment, and where life is lived naturally. Because the mind is not grasped, life becomes more at ease, and action becomes more natural.
Today, do not hold the mind separately and grow suffering. May you illuminate the mind as it arises and continue into the natural practice of no-mind.
When we look deeply into the mind, we come to see that there is no fixed mind apart from us that must be grasped. Yet even the thought "I know" can become attachment. Today, may you live without holding the mind, in natural awareness.
