This week was the beginning of the Chinese New Year and we are now in the Year of the Ox. Today on Waking up with Zen! I wanted to celebrate this special occasion by telling you a Zen allegory about an Ox. It is called, “The Tending of the Ox,” which actually starts us off right at the beginning of Noah and the Flood, and will take us the rest of the way through Noah's story.

The Tending the Ox allegory is broken up into ten images and poetic verses. The ten oxherding pictures describe the Zen path to enlightenment. The images tell the story of a young oxherder who becomes enlightened and how he came to be an INDIGOS, Independent Non-Dominating Intuitive Governing One's Self. His quest will lead him to tame, train, and subdue a lost ox.