Zen Buddhism: The 10 Ox Herding Pictures

Studying Zen Buddhism?  Here's a clip in which Shinzen Young, an American meditation teacher, explains the 10 Ox Herding pictures. The story of the ox and the oxherd come from an old Taoist story and according to Columbia University " the ox symbolizes the ultimate, undivided reality, the Buddha-nature, which is the ground of all existence."  The oxherd symbolizes the self.  Here is Part 2 and Part 3 of Shinzen Young's video clips.

Columbia University has a great site about the Ox Herding pictures with a great power point, which you can see below.  Buddanet also has a nice interactive site for the pictures worth investigating.