I found Gaylon Ferguson’s newest book Welcoming Beginner’s Mind: Zen and Tibetan Buddhist Wisdom on Experiencing Our True Nature a rewarding reading experience. I read it slowly over a couple of months, highlighting passages and making notes; these are insights that I will return to when I need them.

I liked getting to know the traditional ten oxherding pictures more thoroughly and seeing how they illustrate the dharma and the path to enlightenment. Ferguson also calls attention to the “beginner’s mind,” which is our true, questioning nature. He introduces the Welcoming Exercise, a time of “not doing,” rather than meditation, where one sits and allows whatever is happening to happen. It is revisited many times as the reading progresses, with question and answer sections about the experience.

Each of the ten oxherding images in this particular sequence brought something new for me to contemplate, but I particularly enjoyed reading around the first image (Seeking the Ox), where he discusses the notion of “lack,” leading to uncertainty and suffering; and the fifth picture (Taming the Ox), as Ferguson discusses the need to let go of control in order to allow the ox to truly walk alongside us. This again should be a welcoming stance rather than a punitive one.

This book varies significantly in its complexity. After section seven, the narrative was starting to get too complex for my stage of Buddhist practice. I’m sure that in these more complex sections there will be much for the advanced practitioner to contemplate.

I loved Ferguson’s comment near the end of the book:

“Each step along the way is the way. Here is the feeling: even in making a thousand-mile journey, we arrive where we are with each step. How could it be otherwise? Seeking is the way, glimpsing the ox is the way, taming and riding and forgetting the ox are all equally the way. Yes, there are many steps and stages along the way, but wherever we are, the way is the way.”

I’d recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a deep look at Buddhist practice and philosophy. I really valued the wisdom!

This text from Gaylon Ferguson is great for helping people learn how to explain the Buddhist mindset. To find the right path at the right time. Much of it was over my head as I am not a practicing Buddhist but I love to read and learn about religion. Absolutely fascinating. Everything is explained using the 10 famous ox herding pictures and their stories.