From Ritual to Romance
Chapter IX, The Fisher King
Jesse L. Weston

In Buddhist religion the symbols of the Fish and Fisher are freely employed. Thus in Buddhist monasteries we find drums and gongs in the shape of a fish, but the true meaning of the symbol, while still regarded as sacred, has been lost, and the explanations, like the explanations of the Grail romances, are often fantastic afterthoughts.

In the Mahayana scriptures Buddha is referred to as the Fisherman who draws fish from the ocean of Samsara to the light of Salvation. There are figures and pictures which represent Buddha in the act of fishing, an attitude which, unless interpreted in symbolic sense, would be utterly at variance with the tenets of the Buddhist religion.

Exploring The Waste Land - [Home] [E-mail] File date: Sunday, September 29, 2002