Oxherd Herding Oxherd

It’s a lovely parable
Of self-domestication,
Born of early Buddhism.

An oxherd has a wild ox.
The ox represents desires,
Uncontrolled, suffering self.

The oxherd spends years taming
That uncontrollable ox,
Yanking it back by the rope

Through its nose, admonishing
It with a switch. Finally,
The ox becomes well behaved.

The oxherd takes off the leash,
And the ox grazes calmly.
In later versions, the ox

Undergoes transformation.
It turns into a white ox.
In Zen tellings, it ascends

Into the clouds, vanishing.
The oxherd vanishes, too.
In Puming’s illustrations

The last panel is a blank circle
That is the absent presence
Of oxherd and ox and moon.

Setting aside happiness
Or suffering’s transcendence,
Which is the promise, the lure,

Don’t you love the suggestion
That self-domestication
Ends in evaporation?