The symbol of the ox nose ring dates back to the beginnings of Zen Buddhism in China. During this time there were many artistic renditions of the herder and ox, with emphasis on taming the ox through harnessing it by use of a nose ring. The image of 10 oxen, or sometimes six oxen, in Zen Buddhism was popular during the 1100s in China. The 10 block prints called, "Taming the Wild Ox," painted by Zen Master Kakuan, were widely known. The images follow a herder searching for the ox, encountering the ox and finally harnessing the ox. Kakuan uses the ox to symbolically illustrate the transformation of human consciousness and the search for enlightenment through Zen Buddhism.
Kakuan's poetry describes the images. The herder and the ox are shown in tandem beneath a vast open space, which can be seen as heaven. He wrote of the ox and self transcended, "Whip, rope, person, and bull -- all merge in No-Thing. This heaven is so vast no message can stain it." Kakuan seemed to be saying that all is one, which merge into nothingness, an enlightmenment beyond which words convey.
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, resident teacher of Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple, explains the symbolism of the ox on the Zen Mountain Monastery website: "The 10 ox herding pictures are another way of describing the life of a practitioner from their entry to the Way on to the end of their training. When we begin practicing there are things that we can't see, that aren't even in our universe yet. We're exposed to them, but we don't hear them, we don't see them. Later, we are able to see, hear, and experience that which was always there, but not yet revealed to us. Something is changing."
The illustrations ask the Buddhist practitioner to see beyond the tangible to the intangible. By lacing the rope through the nose ring of the ox, the herder first quiets her mind (the ox), mastering her ability to move into silence.
Many poems were inspired by the prints of the 10 oxen. The poems emphasize the Zen Buddhist's long path toward enlightenment. Searching for the ox seems endless to the beginning Zen Buddhist, just as the path to enlightenment is long and arduous.
Later in the series of poems the poet finds the ox, and describes piercing the nose, "I rush forward and pierce the Ox's nose!/ It wildly jerks and jumps/ But I feed it when it is hungry and give it water when it thirsts." The poem reflects the moment of piercing the ox's nose as symbolic of the mind's resisting taming.
The Zen imagery of an ox tethered to a tree by rope and nose ring may date as far back as the third century B.C. Ancient Buddhist texts connected the mind of the ox, and taming it, with the goal of mindfulness.
Buddhism is a silent inward journey, a meditation that can be guided by spoken thought, and imagery, but one of transcendence beyond the spoken word. The 10 images of the oxen reflect the journey of each sage in his journey to enlightenment, with the nose ring of the ox as a captive point in the journey of Zen Buddhism.