In this picture, the ox herder finally sees some footprints. It represents the stage when we decide to do something about the dissatisfaction. We look around for something. We discuss philosophy, read about psychology and various states of consciousness. We hear about meditation and Buddhism or Zen. We might have a friend who is practicing or we might listen to a talk by a Zen teacher. We are impressed by the peacefulness and clarity of the Zen teacher, we are attracted to the Zen stories but we stop there. We just read about it. It becomes part of our repertoire of ideas but we do not apply its tenets. So, very little changes, we continue to have the same sufferings, the same disturbing emotions and the same negative patterns. Reading or hearing about Zen only is not going to make a great difference in our life.

~ commentary from Zen, by Martine Batchelor.