For more than eight hundred years, the Ten Oxherding Pictures have guided seekers along the path of awakening. In the twelfth century, the Zen master Kuoan Shiyuan gathered the ancient image of the ox and its herdsman and shaped it into ten stages, from the first restless search for what we have never truly lost to the final, unremarkable return to the marketplace with open hands. This modern-English edition renders Kuoan's prose and verses in clear, inviting language while remaining faithful to the spare beauty and gentle humor of the original. Each chapter pairs one of the ten pictures with its commentary and verse, followed by reflections that help contemporary readers meet the text where they are. Whether you are new to Zen or returning to an old friend, this little book offers a complete map of the inner life—and a quiet reminder that the ox was never missing. Part of The World Scriptures Library.