The Ox herder’s feet are going one way and his head another.  It implies confusion.

You Don't Know Something! What is IT?

In the book Zen Gifts to Christians, the author mentions the novel by George Elliot, Daniel Deronda. The novel tells the story of two characters who struggle with this peculiarly human question: "Who am I?"

Both the Zen Ox Herder pictures and George Eliot’s Victorian novel describe the confusion and struggles in our attempts to discover who we are.

Eliot’s characters are young and are launching into the world of adulthood in order to discover the answer. They, much like the Ox Herder, look out to the world to discover the answer. The world, however, does not provide a clear and resounding response to their search. It merely claims the direction of the search to be in the world and offers one attainment after another as a possibility.

In Zen, it is not to believe or disbelieve the lack or abundance of the world's possibilities to attain something or not, it is to find out whether or not the world provides satisfaction to the question, "Who am I?"

You don’t know something! What is IT that you don’t know?

Perhaps you like the Ox Herder and Eliot’s characters look outward into the world to find what IT is that you do not know? You look for your “worldly” identity to become somebody as the way to settle your confusion.

You may think a career, a child, a lover will satisfy you. You may have wish lists of "..."if only I was thin, young, handsome..." or ambitions for "prestige, money, luxury..." or acquisitions for "...stuff, excitement, intoxications." You may think that this next thing, this next attainment, even perhaps this next thought will settle everything. 

It is never enough in the world, because the world proliferates.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, whether you are a rank beginner or an old cowhand, the confusion may arise. It may come camouflaged as in the question, "What's next?"

You, like Eliot’s characters may be searching for your “worldly identity” or the reinvention of an old one rather than what Kennedy and many others call your “true nature.”

It doesn’t matter what you call it. These pictures as well as Eliot’s novel and Zen, in general, assert:

You don’t know who you are.

Zen cautions you not to believe this assertion. It requires that you find out if it is true. Practice is the way to find out.

Consider: Reflect on how you might respond to this assertion.  Are you happy to hear it? Does it ring true? Are you huffy? Do you think you know? Do you list out categories and words of who you are?

Read/ Watch: Stay with Chapter One in Kennedy’s book, if you have it.

Here’s a link to a free edition of Eliot’s novel.  Daniel Deronda - Free Edition

And a link to a condensed version by the BBC of Eliot’s novel. BBC Production- Daniel Deronda

Libraries are also an excellent resource.