From the author: An old article, I tried to unravel the symbolism of 10 Zen pictures a couple of years ago. I wrote down my guesses in the article. Let me make a reservation right away that I do not pretend to be the correct interpretation, it is not classical in the Zen tradition, but intuitive with a psychological bias (may the Zen monks not consider me a heretic)) In the tradition of Zen Buddhism, there is a series of short poems, accompanied by pictures illustrating the stages of comprehension of the practice leading to enlightenment. The so-called "10 bulls of Zen".1. I'm looking for a bull 2. I'm on the trail of a bull 3. I notice a bull 4. I'm catching a bull 5. I'm taming a bull 6. I'm riding home on a bull 7. I forgot about the bull, I'm left alone 8. I forgot about both the bull and myself 9. I reached the source 10. Returned to the world with gifts It became interesting to give a psychological interpretation of these stories, which essentially reflect different states of consciousness or internal resource states. In the Zen tradition, it is customary to interpret the picture of a bull as the original nature of a person, and each picture as a stage in the practice of meditation. In my opinion, these 10 Zen pictures, originally coming from the Taoist tradition, can help illustrate the stages of mental development in line with individuation. In the first picture, the beginning of the search for the bull, I see an ego that has already passed the stage of inflation and has come to understand its separation and alienation from the original nature from which the ego arose. Let us call this nature the Jungian term Self. If at the stage of inflation the ego did not separate itself from the self (unconscious identification, the ego is still poorly developed or undeveloped) and was not aware of itself separately, then the stage of alienation, or experiencing the “dark night of the soul”, led it to understanding this separateness, and then the desire to return back. It is possible to present both the internal conflict and its experience as the starting stage of the desire to return to a resource state “without conflict.” So, feeling separate, the ego unconsciously begins to strive to “return to Eden” to seek internal integrity. The first tendency of such a search is in the outside world, then they gradually deepen. These searches, a kind of alignment of the Ego-Self axis, are depicted, in my opinion, in the 10 Bulls of Zen. First, the ego has an impulse to find something that will return harmony and integrity to it. This state of the ego is looking outside, an extroverted attitude arises to find something that will make you happy. In Zen pictures, the image of this idea is represented by a bull. In my opinion, in this context, the bull is the idea that the ego strives for. The symbol of the bull is the satisfaction of the need for food, and a means of transportation, and someone who needs to be taken care of, etc., and gradually the image of this idea changes, and the needs and self-perception of a person also change. 2-3 pictures of the bull show how This idea is changeable - now a person sees a tail, then a back, each time he endows the image of his happiness with new qualities. In 4-5 pictures, the ego has almost found what gives it a state of harmony and there is a feeling that the source of integrity and happiness has been found, and that you can use it, or, by analogy with the resource state, call it at will (picture 6). But at the same time, the bull, as an external means, still remains, which means there is a need for some kind of technique for entering a resource state. I assume that at this stage a person can endow an external object with a sacred meaning and believe, for example, that the source of his internal state is something external.7 The picture is disappointment in the idea, in the crutches of external objects and identification with it. At this stage, the ego suddenly becomes aware of a force that is not outside, but "within." That the source of the resource state is the person himself, and not the action or relationship that caused this state in him. Quote on the topic from the Bible - “For the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” 8 picture - Forgot both about the bull and about yourself - in the Taoist tradition it was considered final. I suggest that this may be the achievement of a state in which the ego feels that it is dissolved in the Self, trusts in it and allows it to the governing principle/