Teaching Zen’s Ten Oxherding Pictures through Leonard Cohen’s “Ballad of the Absent Mare”

Ronald S. Green is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Coastal Carolina University. He received a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include Buddhist philosophy, Buddhism in film, and Buddhism in Japanese literature. He has studied the principles and practices of a number of Buddhist traditions in Japan. This paper describes how to teach Zen’s famous Ten Oxherding Pictures through Leonard Cohen’s song “Ballad of the Absent Mare.” It also explains how instructors can contextualize these pictures within the history of Buddhist visual culture and thereby frame Cohen’s adoption of them as a cowboy ballad motif. The essay begins by describing the metaphor of the ox. It then reviews three theories about the origin of the pictures, contextualizing them within the history of Buddhist visual culture. Finally, it provides a PowerPoint presentation that connects each of the Ten Oxherding Pictures to verses of Cohen’s song and offers comments for instructors’ use in class.