Buddhist youth see what NO.8
The Monk and the Flying Fish
What is desire?
Some people say that desire is what makes you clumsy like a child and cunning like a fox.
Master Koichi once realized that there are two kinds of desires - meat desires and vegetarian desires. The former is the desire for red dust, lust, materialism, appetite, sexual desire, which is easy to solve, just like a hungry person gives him a meal; the latter belongs to the desire for silence, desire for tranquility, desire for emptiness, once committed, the desire is difficult to reconcile.
Sometimes, you don't know where your desires come from, and you think that there are too many temptations from the outside world, like a fish that appears all the time but can't always catch it.
A French animated short film ,The Monk and the Flying Fish," profoundly depicts the story of the chase and game between man and desire. The short film won the 1995 César Awards in France and the European Golden Animation Award, and was nominated for the Best Animated Short Film award at the 67th Academy Awards.
How would a Western screenwriter and director tell a story about a monk? How does he show universal emotion and value in his story? Zen Fengjun took everyone to watch "The Monk and the Flying Fish" together.
Click to watch: The Monk and the Flying Fish
Desire: A fish that cannot be caught
On an ordinary afternoon, the young monk walked alone through the heavy halls of the temple to the pond to meditate, practicing as usual.
Suddenly, ripples appeared on the calm surface of the water, and a small fish jumped up. The little monk, who was originally meditating, unconsciously learned to jump up with the fish. The state and thoughts during meditation are completely disrupted.
The little monk seemed to be a little annoyed, and his eyes chased after the small fish, trying to see it clearly, and then tried to catch the small fish. At this time, the idea of meditation was completely forgotten by him.
The little monk quickly ran back, took the fishing rod and bucket, and ran to the pond to catch fish. Anyway, this little fish is very slippery, churning happily in the water. The little monk didn't even touch it at all, and finally accidentally fell into the water.
The little monk who had climbed up from the pond became more and more annoyed, and he couldn't help but punch and kick on the shore, as if he had treated the air as if it were the fish that disturbed people's cultivation.
Seeing that the little fish was still swimming freely in the water, the little monk had no choice but to return to the monastery. The sun shone through the window, and it was a good time to read, and he flipped through the scriptures in boredom, but none of the words on the books really caught his eyes.
The little monk who had been devoted to meditation could not let go of the fish that he could not catch. Finally, he broke the jar and broke it, and quietly slipped out of the temple, determined to catch the fish.
He called in many brothers and sisters and asked them to help catch fish together. The brothers did not want to mess around with him, so they returned to the monastery and continued to concentrate on their practice.
In the evening, the little monk tossed and turned, but he still couldn't help but get up. In the bright moonlight, the monastery became more and more quiet, but the little monk restlessly lit a candle to catch fish.
From the pond, to the stream, to the paddy field under the mountain, a line away, but how can not be caught, the little monk's heart has been completely caught by this fish. He followed the fish farther and farther, and finally walked out of the monastery, into the fields, into the void world.
Finally, the little monk finally touched the fish, but there was no longer the anger and anger of the fish, and they could finally coexist peacefully, and everything returned to peace.
Many of the images in this short film are symbolic, and the little monk seems to be immersed in cultivation, but like all sentient beings, he lacks a firm and courageous heart. The fish that cannot be caught is the desire of the human heart.
Desire blinds the heart, and sometimes people just blindly want to get it, but they don't know if it is their real need. Even if you try your best to get it, you may not necessarily reap the happiness and satisfaction you imagined.
The Monk and the Flying Fish is director and screenwriter Michael Dudwitt's first solo animated short film. Directors who make such a unique perspective and theme film naturally have a certain understanding of Buddhism.
He was also deeply influenced by Chinese and Japanese calligraphy and was very keen on the aesthetics of Asian calligraphy, so the drawings of "The Monk and the Flying Fish" were all done with brushes, and the final short film was also in a strong ink style.
And the thinking of "desire" has always accompanied his "practice". This is also something that can happen in everyone's life experience.
Nanquan Beheading Cat: Cutting off the desire for "evil"
Perhaps, everyone who sees "The Monk and the Flying Fish" will have a different understanding, just as everyone's attitude towards desire is different. In Buddhism, "desire" is divided into three types: good, evil, and unremembered. Self-altruistic desires are good dharma desires, those who harm others for self-interest belong to the category of evil, and those who are not good and non-evil belong to unremembered.
In real life, there are often many people who cause disputes because of their fiery desires. This is a similar situation in the Zen case, so how does the wise Zen master solve it?
There is a public case recorded in the Jingde Chuan Lantern Record, which has been circulated for more than a thousand years and is known as the "difficulty" in Zen Buddhism. This is the "Nanquan Chop Cat" that has aroused countless people's hot discussion.
Shi because the east and west halls fought for cats, and when the master met him, Bai Zhongzhi said: "The public Tao is to save the cat, and the Tao cannot be cut off immediately." "If there is nothing right, the master will cut it off." Zhao Zhou returned from the outside, and the teacher showed it in the preface. The state is out of the way. The Master said, "If the Son is there, he will save the cat." ”
The protagonist of the story is the Zen master Nanquan Puyan, a disciple of Matsu Daoyi, and a famous monk of the Tang Dynasty. There were two churches under the seat of the Zen master, east and west, and one day, the two monks were somehow competing for a cat.
When the Zen master passed by, he happened to see it, and without saying a word, he picked up a knife and put it on the cat's neck and said, "If all sentient beings have the Tao, the cat can be saved, and if there is no Way, he will cut off the cat."
None of the monks present answered, so the Zen master went down with a knife and beheaded the cat. Soon after, monk Zhao Zhou, a disciple of Zen Master Puyan, returned from outside and learned what had happened.
After the monk Zhao Zhou listened, he didn't say a word, took off his shoes and put them on his head, and walked out. Master Puwan said that if the Zhao Zhou monk was present just now, he would have saved the cat.
The quarrel between the two monks for a cat is obsessive, possessive. The Zen master advised them that pure cultivation is the goal that monks should pursue, and it is not "not the way" to lose great ambition for small profits.
When the monk of Zhao Zhou heard about it, he put his shoes on the top of his head, which means "putting the cart before the horse", which also means that the monk who quarreled endlessly for the cat was the end of the house.
For more than a thousand years, there have been many opinions on the interpretation of this public case, with some praising Zen Master Puyan's decision-making on the spot, and some accusing him of killing and committing crimes, which was too cruel. Whether it is biased or quite, what the Zen master really wants to cut off is the "evil" desire in people's hearts.
Having desires is not always a bad thing, but indulging desires like the little monk in "The Monk and the Flying Fish", and like a monk who argues when he sees a cat wanting a cat, it is to bring trouble to himself.
And what Shakyamuni Buddha told us is that we also want to be more suffering, less desire to be content, and be at ease. In life, seeking happiness is everyone's desire, but the way to find happiness is not to try to satisfy all desires, but to use wisdom to choose their own needs.