In this beloved Zen Buddhist allegory, a boy is searching for his missing ox–his true self. And once he finds it, he struggles to tame and train it. For the journey of the young ox herder is also the story of our journey toward enlightenment. Award-winning author, Demi, presents the story of the herd boy and his ox with all the simplicity and beauty of the traditional Zen Buddhist representations. An appendix provides further details on the history and meaning of the oxherding pictures and on the special branch of Buddhism called Zen, which flourished in China, Korea, and Japan, and was later introduced to the West in the early 20th century.