BOOK REVIEW ©1996 Insight Publishing 

Title: Gentling the Bull
Author: Myokyo-ni
Publisher: Charles E. Tuttle
Format: 144 pages, soft cover
Price: US$12.95
Reviewer: Arturo Banta

Gentling the Bull, subtitled "The Ten Bull Pictures: A Spiritual Journey," leads the reader through an allegory common to all spiritual traditions of both East and West. Like all metaphors, the more it is explained, the more meaning it loses. And yet, paradox of paradoxes, if it does not get explained, the neophyte has no toehold on penetrating the meaning.

Metaphor, myth, and symbol are pathways to discovering the archetypes that hold the keys to transformation. In the Western tradition, the leading myths dealing with handling the raging beast that overcomes our "better nature" are the Theseus and the Saint George tales. Both of these familiar fables end with the violent deaths of the Minotaur and the Dragon. The West is awaiting a less brutal rendition of the archetype. Myokyo-ni's explication of Kakuan's twelfth century Ten Bull Pictures may be the right telling for our parlous times.

The Ten Bull Pictures is a rendition of the basic quest legend. It begins with a search for that which the novitiate seeks, believing it is outside himself. All quest legends begin from this point, which is depicted by Picture Number One: Searching for the Bull. However, as each succeeding picture progresses, we see how the Buddhist version of the story diverges from most Western versions. The titles of the pictures reveal the progression according to the Zen tradition.

I. Searching for the Bull.
II. Finding the Traces.
III. Finding the Bull.
IV. Catching the Bull.
V. Gentling the Bull.
VI. Returning Home on the Back of the Bull.
VII. Bull Forgotten-Man Remains.
VIII. Both Bull and Man Forgotten.
IX. Return to the Origin, Back to the Source.
X. Entering the Market-Place with Bliss-Bestowing Hands.

The ten Bull Pictures in the book are not reproductions of Kakuan's originals. Those have been lost to the ravages of impermanence (historical time). The pictures are, instead, renditions of the ten pictures by the 15th century Japanese Zen monk, Shubun. These are said to be "exact copies of the now lost series." "Exact" or not, they convey the story which carries us to the archetypes painted somewhere in the 1100s of the Common Era.

The venerable Myokyo-ni (Irmgard Schloegl), founder of The Zen Centre, London, has taken on the task of explicating the series of pictures for us. Her first gift to the English speaking world, I believe, is in identifying the beast as a bull rather than an ox. In all previous descriptions of Kakuan's allegory, I have seen the animal referred to as an ox. And, I always wondered, "Who needs to master an ox?" It appears to most of us, I believe, as a most docile beast. But, a bull. Ah, now I can see it as a match for the Minotaur or Dragon. The bull can represent for readers of English "the wild aspect of our heart, which is also the human heart." What in the world are we to do with these passions?

The Buddhist Beatniks of the San Francisco of the 1950s understood that the Dharma taught that we can just let the bull rip in all directions, and thus exhibit the Buddha-Nature. Kakuan, and later Shubun, and now Myokyo-ni are here to tell us that we neither kill the "monster" nor let the beast run amok. The Buddhist process, the Zen process, is depicted in this book.

In this book, Myokyo-ni has taken on the task of explaining the ineffable. Probably no one relishes the task of translating parables to prose. Three sets of poems have been translated from the original Chinese text by the author. But knowing the leap from picture and poem to any meaningful comprehension by Western rationalists is unlikely, Myokyo-ni has constructed this slim book as a tentative bridge across the chasm.

I, for one, have never really understood the bull (ox) Zen allegories before. With the help of this author, my imagination has caught a glimpse of the archetypal images.

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