The Call of the Zen Bulls | 1 - The Search for the Bull

“The whole search for the ox, for the bull, is the search to find your own life force, your own vitality, your own self, your chi, your power: your connection again with life, with existence.”-Vasant SwahaIn a silent retreat in Dharma Mountain in Norway, Swaha read and commented on the Ten Bulls of Kakuan in Satsang. In the Sacred Silence, in the stillness of wintertime, the call to come back to ourselves grew more pronounced each day. We could hear it in the crackling of the wood stove, the bare trees creaking in the breeze, in the falling snowflakes, and the deep silence of the valley.1 - The Search for the Bull“ "In the pasture of this world, I endlessly push aside the tall grasses in search of the bull.Following unnamed rivers, lost upon the interpenetrating paths of distant mountains,My strength failing and my vitality exhausted, I cannot find the bull.I only hear the locusts chirring through the forest at night.” Commentary: “The bull never has been lost. What need is there to search? Only because of separation from my true nature, I fail to find him. In the confusion of the senses I lose even his tracks. Far from home, I see many crossroads, but which way is the right one I know not. Greed and fear, good and bad, entangle me.”Kakuan ShienVasant Swaha is a modern mystic sharing his love, joy, and wisdom in retreats. This is an excerpt from a Satsang during the Sacred Silence Retreat at Dharma Mountain, in Norway, in the 07th of January of 2011.For more information visit www.vasantswaha.net