Hold the Rope, Carrry Your Cross

Andrew McAlister Carlos Siqueira

Christianity and the Ten Bull Pictures of Zen

‘The deep simplicity of the Bull Pictures engaged the mind and imagination of two Christian meditators and produced this rich and intriguing book.’
– Laurence Freeman

At their best, spirituality, philosophy, and religion can help us to understand what it is to be human. Zen Buddhism and Christianity do this and do it in surprisingly similar ways. This book uses a re-imagining of Zen’s Ten Bull (or Ox-Herding) Pictures, seeing them with a Christian eye. In this, commonalities between Zen and Christianity are drawn out. These include the primacy of now, the challenge of the ego and awareness, emptiness and silence, compassion, as well as the importance of a practice like meditation.

Traditionally, within Zen, verse has been used to accompany the pictures. Here, new verse shapes a Christian approach. As well as this, an introduction and glossary provide explanation and context.
Zen challenges Christianity to its simple depths – a depth named in the introduction as a contemplative heart. At this heart, Christianity moves with Zen. Like Zen, the heart of Christianity is not a place or destination; it is a way of life forgetting itself. For the Christian, this way is love.

About the Authors

Andrew McAlister is an oblate of The World Community for Christian Meditation. He has been practicing meditation for nearly thirty years. Andrew spent some twenty years working in youth work, residential care, and counselling while studying psychology, theology, and spirituality. He now lives and writes in Bathurst, NSW, Australia.

Carlos Siqueira is also an oblate of The World Community for Christian Meditation. He has been practicing meditation for twenty-­five years. Carlos is a Yoga Teacher and lives in the countryside of Sao Paulo, Brazil.