Fishing With A Straight Hook

Last updated on: June 1, 2019 at 2:48 pm by Dosho Port

Fishing With A Straight Hook 2019-06-01T14:48:06-06:00 Dosho Port

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Here’s a little Katagiri Roshi for ya on how Zen teachers fish. I’ve inserted a little biographical material and used Andy Ferguson’s translation of Decheng’s poem.

Letting down the line ten thousand feet,
A single breaking wave makes ten thousand ripples.
At night in still water, the cold fish won’t bite.
An empty boat filled with moonlight returns.

This is a poem by Chuanzi Decheng who was one of the disciples of Yaoshan Zen master who lived in China in the eighth century. Decheng lived toward the end of the eighth century to the middle of the ninth.

In July, 845, agitation was a foot for expelling Buddhism by the emperor’s proclamation. The emperor was really strong believer of Taoism so he tried to ruin Buddhism in China. It is said that the government destroyed 4,400 temples, and also they also forced almost 280,000 monks and nuns to return to secular life.

Decheng was living at that time. [After studying with Yaoshan for thirty years and receiving the mind seal, he told his dharma friends, Daowu and Yunyan, “You two must each go into the world in separate ways and uphold the essence of our teacher’s path. My own nature is undisciplined. I delight in doing as I please. I’m not fit [to be head of a monastery]. But remember where I reside and if you come upon persons of great ability, send one of them to me. Let me teach him and I’ll pass on to him everything I’ve learned in life. In this way I can repay the kindness of our late teacher.”]

Decheng was one of the monks that returned to secular life and he worked on a boat. People called him “boat monk” (Sensu). Everyday he worked to support himself and also practiced zazen on the boat. One day, one of the government officers came and asked him, “What are you doing every day?”

Decheng immediately held the boat oar straight up in the air and asked, “Do you understand?”

“No, I don’t understand.”

Decheng said “If you only row in calm water, it is rare to find a golden fish.”

You don’t like carp, but in China carp are regarded as wonderful fish, the symbol of the mature person. Even though he was a boatman, he was still a Zen monk. That’s why the officer asked him “What are you doing everyday?”

Decheng held the boat oar straight up, maybe meaning “I am always working as the boatman and trying to find his successor, but it’s pretty hard.”

He couldn’t find a disciple he really loved. That’s why he’s holding up the oar. Look. Look!

The officer, however, didn’t understand it, so Decheng explained. That’s why his poem says a thousand foot fishing line hangs straight down including hook. There is a hook but that hook is not a curved hook. It is a very straight hook. A thousand means eternally, forever he does this always. Every day Decheng held up the oar means he cast out the fishing line to get a golden fish. But his hook is straight. It’s pretty hard to get hooked, but I think if there is someone who gets this straight hook, they are a great practitioner.

As soon as one wave moves, ten thousand waves follow. “A thousand foot line hangs straight down” means Buddha’s world and phenomenal world are directly connected. Eternally, forever it is connected, with our intellectual sense to know it.

In everyday life, we are always creating one wave, and simultaneously ten thousand waves spread all over. This is our life. Buddha’s world and human world are connected without any gap between. Yet, we always create one wave, simultaneously ten thousand waves spread out.

“At night in still cold water, the fish won’t bite.”

“Still night” is a symbol of the peaceful world, perfect world of the truth. “Night is still and water is cold” means there is no space for emotions and your individual experiences, intellectual understanding, there is no space for them to get into. In common sense, it is pretty cold water for us, because we don’t understand the truth is exactly us without any gap.

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