Musings

5. Taming the Ox



The whip and rope are necessary,
Else the ox might stray off down some dusty road.
Being well trained, it becomes naturally gentle.
Then, unfettered, it obeys its master.
 
The metaphor of the whip and rope in the ox herding pictures refers to the necessity of a practice to realize the “Unborn Buddha Mind,” within which, according to Bankei, “all things are resolved.” There is something reassuring about being reminded that the norm is for the mind to wander, that the attention will follow, and that it is possible to train to keep custody of attention. 
 
May all find simplicity the joyous and practical guide.
— Daily Recollection
 
Training the attention may not sound terribly spiritual, but there is tremendous wisdom in having a clear and simple training objective, especially when pursuing mastery over that maestro of turbulence and confusion, the mind. 
 
It is liberating to recollect that “we are here to pay attention” when the voices of conditioned mind would have us believe that we are failing to
 
---be the good person,
---do the right thing,
---meet the standard,
---feel the way we ought to feel,
---get results,
---achieve outcomes,
---deliver on expectations.
 
The training objective, custody of attention, doesn’t include any of the above. It doesn’t define an outcome, a quality of experience, a timeline for achievement, a standard of perfection. It isn’t measured by grades, by titles or by yardsticks of worth or value. It’s a practical guide, a simple, repeatable structure that supports the practitioner to get their bearings when attention follows conditioned mind down some dusty road.
 
Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.
— Martha Graham
 
The beauty of a practice of attention is that it delivers the “perfection desired.”
 
On the cushion, we anchor the attention to the breath, to the count. “One” embraces the one that returns to it, ever-present, patient and serenely nonjudgmental, content to let the practitioner discover the benefits of not drifting off with the mind. Practicing this return to rest, remaining at rest becomes more and more available, not just on the cushion but in all spheres of activity. The habit energy of a wandering attention attenuates, and getting lost in the morass of the mind happens with less frequency. 
 
Which, then, begs the question…
 
If repeating a practice movement invites the perfection desired, do formal practice structures (whip and rope) become unnecessary at some point? Does “unfettered” mean free from having to practice? 
 
There beckons another dusty road.
 
The practitioner recollects the training objective: Custody of attention, and comes back to One.
 
The Master keeps her mind
always at one with the Tao;
that is what gives her her radiance.
 
The Tao is ungraspable.
How can her mind be at one with it?
Because she doesn't cling to ideas.
— Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell
 
Gasshō
ashwini