Gutei's One Finger

Banshō's commentary on the case

Zen Master Gutei of Mount Gutei in Wuzhou first lived in a hermitage on Tiantai. A nun named Shiji arrived wearing a broad hat and carrying a staff. She circled the teacher three times and said, “If you can speak, I will take off my hat.” She asked three times; Gutei had no answer. Shiji started to leave. Gutei said, “The sun is already rather low. Stay one night.” Shiji said, “If you can speak, I will stay.” Again Gutei had no answer, and she departed.³ After she left, Gutei lamented, “Although I inhabit a man's form, I lack a man's spirit.” He planned to abandon the hermitage and travel among the various regions to study.⁴ That night a mountain deity announced, “Teacher, you need not leave this mountain. A great bodhisattva will come and explain the Dharma to you.” Sure enough, after ten days Master Tenryū arrived. Gutei welcomed him and bowed with complete sincerity, recounting the whole preceding affair. Tenryū raised one finger to show him. Gutei immediately attained great awakening.⁵ From then on, whenever a monk came, Gutei raised only one finger and offered no other instruction. A boy he kept was questioned outside, “What essential Dharma does your venerable teach?” The boy raised one finger. When the boy returned and showed Gutei what he had done, Gutei severed his finger with a knife. The boy screamed and ran out. Gutei called to him. The boy turned his head; Gutei raised one finger. The boy suddenly understood.² As Gutei was about to die, he told the assembly, “I obtained Tenryū's one-finger Zen and have not exhausted it in my entire life.” Having spoken, he manifested extinction. Banshō says: A fine thing to cut off that finger. Changqing answered on his behalf, “Fine food is unsuitable for a satiated person.” Banshō says: Not coveting the flavor of fragrant bait—this can be called a dragon in a blue pool. Gensha said, “Had I seen him at the time, I would have twisted that finger off.” Banshō says: He would not only have avenged the boy's wrong but also vented the anger of later people. Xuanjue said, “Now say: what did Gensha mean in speaking this way?” Banshō says: Sure enough, he became suspicious. Yunju Xi said, “Regarding Gensha's statement: did he approve Gutei or not? If he approved, why say he would twist off the finger? If he did not approve, where was Gutei's fault?” Banshō says: The fault lies in approval and disapproval. The former Sōzan said, “Gutei was rough and careless in what he received. He recognized only one mechanism and one scene, one kind of clapping hands and striking palms. Nanyuan was the extraordinary one.” Banshō says: To separate milk from water, one needs the king of geese. Xuanjue also said, “Now say: did Gutei awaken or not? If he awakened, why say he was rough in what he received? If he did not awaken, why say his one-finger Zen was inexhaustible? What was Sōzan's intention?” Banshō says: The tune is high and those who harmonize are few; one waits to meet a listener who knows the music. Later Zen Master Lai of Kassan was at Xitianning in Zhenfu. Someone asked, “Where is Master Iron Ox's stupa?” Kassan pointed with his hand and suddenly awakened. He composed a verse: Iron Ox, Iron Ox— seek nothing else. If someone asks me, I raise a finger. Banshō says: Though what he received was rough, at least he did not borrow from beside himself. Have you not seen? Myōshō, the One-Eyed Dragon, asked Zen Master Shen of Guotai, “An ancient said, ‘Gutei merely recited a three-line incantation and thereby gained a name surpassing everyone.’ How do you remove the three-line incantation?” Guotai raised one finger. Myōshō said, “If not for today, how could I have recognized this traveler from Guazhou?” Banshō says: Even if the symptoms differ, first one must treat their root.⁶ The Cantong qi says, “On receiving words, understand the source; do not establish rules of your own.” It can be called recognizing the road by which one came in the depth of night and leaving the pass without waiting for dawn. Foguō's verse says: How could opportunities of question and answer be easy to meet? Without money, fine elegance is hard to produce. There is a matter in the heart that cannot be spoken; amid the bustle, one only raises a finger. If you want to produce fine elegance and speak the matter in the heart, investigate Master Tendō further. Eternally empty through ten thousand ages, wind and moon on a single morning—why say merely that its use was not exhausted for thirty years? In the “Great Ancestral Teacher” chapter of the Zhuangzi, Confucius says, “They roam beyond the conventional world, while Qiu roams within it.” Without an art beyond convention, how could one see through to the source with the worldly and world-transcending entirely upon one fingertip? An old poem says, “No vulgar object before the eyes; though often ill, the body is light.”⁷ Tendō draws nearby from the body and uses only one finger. The easy and simple Way is essential and not elaborate. The Vimalakirti has a hair swallow the great ocean and is called a scripture of the small inconceivable. The Huayan has a dust mote contain the Dharma realm and is called a scripture of the great inconceivable. The Surangama says that a single hair-tip can everywhere contain the lands of the ten directions; it also says, “Upon a hair-tip, manifest the jeweled king's land; sitting within a mote of dust, turn the great Dharma wheel.”⁸ In the Zhuangzi, Prince Ren made a great hook and a huge black line, using fifty castrated oxen as bait. Crouching on Mount Kuaiji, he cast his rod into the Eastern Sea and fished every morning. For a full year he caught nothing. Then a great fish swallowed the bait, pulled the huge hook down, plunged beneath the water, rose in alarm, and thrashed its fins. White waves stood like mountains; the sea shook; the sound equaled ghosts and spirits and blazed across a thousand li. Prince Ren caught the fish, cut it apart, and dried it. From east of the Zhe River to north of Cangwu, no one failed to eat his fill of that fish.⁹ As it is said: When fishing rods are chopped away, plant bamboo again; do not calculate the labor—stop when you can. Later he caught the boy with the severed finger; Guotai Tao met the separate peak; Kassan Lai mistakenly entered Peach Blossom Spring. Today, after his verse, Tendō again raised one finger and said, “Look!” Great Recluse of Baishan said, “Great Tendō follows at other people's heels.” Master Wuzu Yan raised this: A monk asked Touzi, “What is the Tamer of the ten bodies?” Touzi descended from the meditation seat and stood. If a monk asked this old monk, I too would descend and stand. Why would that instead be tracing a cat from a model? Wait until I have finished calculating, then I will tell you. Thus we know: with Gutei's finger, one time one drinks water and another time one chokes. What different response would you have Banshō make? He threw down the fly whisk and said, “I leave it entirely to the various regions to inspect.”