The Golden Giant-Fish

One day Xue Feng was asked by Ch'an master San Sheng:

"You know, the golden giant-fish is so big it cannot be netted,"

said the master. "Say, what kind of bait should be used to fish

for it?"

"Let me look at the net you have prepared, and then I will tell you,"

was the answer.

"How come!" exclaimed San Sheng, "Such a celebrated master

as you, who has one-thousand five hundred disciples, cannot find

the appropriate answer. I'm flabbergasted!"

Blushing slightly, Xue Feng said with regret, "Sorry, but lately

I am quite busy attending to my duties as abbot."

Brief Commentary:

The golden giant fish is a symbol of self-nature. San Sheng

Was asking about a method through which he could cause

the pure nature of the self to become attainable. He had

realized that the self-nature wasn't a thing that could be

limited within the space between Heaven and Earth. At the

same time, his mind was contaminated by his opposing

concept of "big" and "small." To his thinking, there was

a certain net or structure which could be spread and laid

outside the nature of the self. He didn't see the point that it

had no form and was thus boundless. No inside, no outside.

In so asking, San Sheng demonstrated his fall into the net of

forms  and misconceptions. In Chan thinking, any spatial

relativity in the mind such as "inside" and "outside," "big"

and "small," constitute a barrier on the way to enlightenment.