dharma<\/a> friends, Daowu and Yunyan, \u201cYou two must each go into the world in separate ways and uphold the essence of our teacher\u2019s path. My own nature is undisciplined. I delight in doing as I please. I\u2019m 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\u2019ll pass on to him everything I\u2019ve learned in life. In this way I can repay the kindness of our late teacher.\u201d]<\/p>\nDecheng was one of the monks that returned to secular life and he worked on a boat. People called him \u201cboat monk\u201d (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, \u201cWhat are you doing every day?\u201d<\/p>\n
Decheng immediately held the boat oar straight up in the air and asked, \u201cDo you understand?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Decheng said \u201cIf you only row in calm water, it is rare to find a golden fish.\u201d<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t 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.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the officer asked him \u201cWhat are you doing everyday?\u201d<\/p>\n
Decheng held the boat oar straight up, maybe meaning \u201cI am always working as the boatman and trying to find his successor, but it\u2019s pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
He couldn\u2019t find a disciple he really loved.\u00a0 That\u2019s why he\u2019s holding up the oar. Look. Look!<\/p>\n
The officer, however, didn\u2019t understand it, so Decheng explained.\u00a0 That\u2019s 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\u2019s pretty hard to get hooked, but I think if there is someone who gets this straight hook, they are a great practitioner.<\/p>\n
As soon as one wave moves, ten thousand waves follow.\u00a0 \u201cA thousand foot line hangs straight down\u201d means Buddha\u2019s world and phenomenal world are directly connected.\u00a0 Eternally, forever it is connected, with our intellectual sense to know it.<\/p>\n
In everyday life, we are always creating one wave, and simultaneously ten thousand waves spread all over. This is our life. Buddha\u2019s world and human world are connected without any gap between.\u00a0 Yet, we always create one wave, simultaneously ten thousand waves spread out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt night in still cold water, the fish won\u2019t bite.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStill night\u201d is a symbol of the peaceful world, perfect world of the truth.\u00a0 \u201cNight is still and water is cold\u201d means there is no space for emotions and your individual experiences, intellectual understanding, there is no space for them to get into.\u00a0 In common sense, it is pretty cold water for us, because we don\u2019t understand the truth is exactly us without any gap.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s a little Katagiri Roshi for ya on how Zen teachers fish. I\u2019ve inserted a little biographical material and used Andy Ferguson\u2019s translation of Decheng\u2019s 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\u2019t bite. An empty boat filled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n