When I first entered university as an art history major, one of the strongest recommendations I received was to take an introductory course on Buddhism. The professor who taught it was famous for his engaging lectures-stories about the Buddha\u2019s life, the difference between Theravada and Mahayana traditions, and anecdotes about the great monk Wonhyo. Each class felt like opening a new window into a world I didn\u2019t yet understand, and I remember feeling proud of myself for choosing the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as the semester drew to a close, the weight of preparing for the final exam began to grow heavier. My notebook was packed with dense handwriting from weeks of lectures, and the sheer amount of content I needed to review made me increasingly anxious. While I was buried in pages of notes, a classmate casually told us he had already finished studying. He claimed he was ready for any question with just one answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t believe him at all. He seemed far more interested in hanging out with friends than studying, so I ignored his boast and went back to my mountain of notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the day of the exam, the test paper arrived with a single prompt: It wasn\u2019t at all what I had expected. For a moment I froze, then decided to pour out everything I had memorized. Three sheets of paper quickly filled, and I was halfway through a fourth when I noticed that same classmate confidently turning in his paper and leaving the room. I envied the certainty in his stride, while I wasn\u2019t even sure whether any of my frantic writing captured the \u201cessence\u201d of anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t remember the grade I received-which probably means it wasn\u2019t very good. What I do remember is that the same classmate proudly announced later that he had received a C+ after writing just eight Chinese characters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u8272\u537d\u662f\u7a7a \u7a7a\u537d\u662f\u8272<\/strong> At the time, I thought it was unfair that such a short answer passed at all. But as the years went by, my pages of writing faded from memory, while his eight-character answer remained with me. Slowly, I began to understand that the professor\u2019s entire semester of teaching was essentially a journey toward that paradox: that form and emptiness depend on each other, and that the truth of life can sometimes be held in something surprisingly simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later in my studies, I encountered the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures<\/strong>-a series of drawings and poems that depict the seeker\u2019s path toward enlightenment using the metaphor of a boy searching for his lost ox. Unlike solemn Buddha statues or complex Buddhist diagrams, these images felt almost like a children\u2019s storybook. Yet the deeper I went, the more profound they became.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The version most widely known today developed from the Song dynasty and grew into a ten-stage sequence across East Asia, including Korea during the Goryeo and Joseon periods. Each stage symbolizes a step on the spiritual path: searching, finding traces, catching, taming, returning home\u2026 and then encountering something unexpected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all the effort of finding and taming the ox-after the struggle, discipline, and return-the ox suddenly disappears. Rather than despair, this disappearance becomes the moment of transformation. In the eighth picture, both the boy and the ox vanish<\/strong>, leaving behind only a single, empty circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This stage is called \u201cInu-gumang\u201d (\u4eba\u725b\u4ff1\u5fd8)<\/strong> – \u201cMan and ox both forgotten.\u201d<\/em> The simple circle is not an absence but a fullness-a symbol of freedom from grasping, wanting, or clinging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I first saw that circle, it brought back the same shock I felt years earlier when I heard that a friend had written only eight characters on his exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am not a Buddhist, and I don\u2019t live a monastic life. But the eighth Ox-Herding picture has stayed with me through the years as a quiet companion and a personal mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It reminds me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like the empty circle-and like the story of those eight characters-some of the deepest insights arrive in the simplest, most unadorned forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That lesson has woven itself into my life-into the way I think, create, and write. The Lesson of the Eighth Ox-Herding Picture A reflection rooted in my art history studies and a memory from my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[83,78,72,76,73,77,75,82,81,71,80,79,74,67,70],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-history","tag-baengnyeonsa-temple","tag-buddhist-philosophy","tag-empty-circle","tag-enlightenment-path","tag-inu-gumang","tag-korean-art-history","tag-korean-buddhist-art","tag-life-lesson","tag-ox-herding-illustration","tag-ox-herding-pictures","tag-personal-reflection","tag-simplicity","tag-ten-ox-herding-pictures","tag-travel-korea","tag-zen-buddhism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cDescribe the essence of Buddhism.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Korean reading: \u201c\uc0c9\uc989\uc2dc\uacf5 \uacf5\uc989\uc2dc\uc0c9\u201d (saek-jeuk-si-gong, gong-jeuk-si-saek)<\/em>
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nDiscovering the Ox-Herding Pictures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It represents a state where the division between self and world dissolves, where duality disappears, and where one reaches a clarity beyond form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/maplelog.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Picture1-2-649x1024.avif\")
\uac15\uc9c4 \ubc31\ub828\uc0ac\uc758 <\uc2ed\uc6b0\ub3c4> \uc5ec\ub35f \ubc88\uc9f8 \uadf8\ub9bc \u201c\uc778\uc6b0\uad6c\ub9dd(\u4eba\u725b\u4ff1\u5fd8)\u201d \u2014 Photo Source: \uc6b0\ub9ac\ubb38\ud654\uc2e0\ubb38, 2015.04.04<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nA Lesson That Stayed With Me<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
And perhaps that is why I remain drawn to the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures after all these years: they speak quietly, yet hold a wisdom that continues to unfold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"