The Ten Oxherding Pictures

A regular reader of this blog, Pete White (Cornell), sent me a message I'd like to share because it addresses an issue I was unaware of:

“In a recent paper “Does Pyrrhonism Have Practical or Epistemic Value?,” you describe a scholar for whom the reading of Sextus's writings prompts a blissful experience similar to that from reading certain Buddhist texts. I have had that experience but it is not with a written text. Perhaps you are familiar with The Ten Oxherding Pictures from the Buddhist tradition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Bulls. I first saw them over 50 years ago and was moved in a way I could not put into words. Pyrrhonism later provided those words. The first 2 pictures “In Search of the Ox” and “Discovery of the Footprints” correspond to noticing the anomalies. Pictures 3 and 4 “Perceiving the Ox” and “Catching the Ox” correspond to the search. “Taming the Ox” and “Riding the Ox Home” are isosthenia. “The Ox Transcended” and “Both the Ox and Self Transcended” are epoche. “Reaching the Source” and “Return to Society” map to ataraxia. The connections between Buddhism and Pyrrhonism have been extensively discussed, but The Ten Oxherding Pictures have been left out of the discussion. Apart from the 'bliss' this overlap provides, this correlation is of practical import. As you and others have discussed many times, critics from ancient times through David Hume to the present day have said Pyrrhonism is not really liveable. Buddhism is followed by millions and I am not aware that critics say Buddhism is unlivable. Since Pyrrhonism maps to Buddhism as presented in those Oxherding Pictures and Buddhism is livable, Pyrrhonism is just as liveable.”