Gutei Raises One Finger

Engo's commentary on the case

Understand it on the finger and you betray Gutei. Do not understand it on the finger and you resemble something cast from raw iron. Understanding goes this way; not understanding goes this way. High and low, right and wrong—all go this way. Thus it is said: the instant one mote rises, the whole earth is gathered; when one flower is about to open, a world arises. A lion appears at the tip of one hair, and at the tips of a hundred billion hairs. Yuanming said, “When cold, all heaven and earth are cold; when hot, all heaven and earth are hot.” Mountains and rivers reach down to the Yellow Springs; the dense array of things reaches up to the Milky Way. What is so extraordinary? Recognize it and one pinch is unnecessary. Fail, and it obstructs people to death. Gutei came from Gutei in Wuzhou. When he first lived in a hermitage, a nun named Shiji entered without removing her travel hat. Holding her staff, she circled his seat three times and said, “Speak and I will remove my hat.” Three times she challenged him; Gutei had no answer. As she left, he asked her to stay the night because it was late. She said, “Speak and I will stay.” Again he had no answer, and she departed. Gutei sighed, “Though I bear the form of a man, I lack a man's spirit.” He resolved to clarify the matter, abandon the hermitage, and seek teachers. That night a mountain spirit told him, “Do not leave. Tomorrow a flesh-and-blood bodhisattva will teach you.” The next day Reverend Tenryū arrived. Gutei bowed and recounted the events. Tenryū only raised one finger. Gutei suddenly greatly awakened.¹ At that moment he was earnest and concentrated, so the bucket's bottom easily fell out. Thereafter, whenever anyone asked anything, he raised one finger. Changqing said, “Fine food does not suit someone already full.” Gensha said, “Had I seen him then, I would have twisted the finger off.” Later teachers asked whether Gensha approved Gutei or not: if so, why threaten the finger; if not, where was Gutei's fault? Sōzan said, “Gutei was rough and careless where he took responsibility. He recognized only one working and one scene.” Yet another teacher asked whether Gutei had awakened: if not, why say his one-finger Zen was inexhaustible all his life? Before awakening Gutei truly did not understand. Afterward, why did he answer every question with one finger? Thousands and tens of thousands could neither enclose nor break him. Make it an understanding of the finger and you certainly do not see the ancient's intent. This Zen is easy to investigate but hard to understand. People today raise a finger or fist when questioned, merely playing with spirit. They must see through to bone and marrow. A child attendant at Gutei's hermitage was asked outside, “What Dharma does your reverend ordinarily use to teach?” The child raised a finger. When he reported this, Gutei cut off the finger with a knife. The child screamed and ran. Gutei called him; the child looked back. Gutei raised one finger, and the child suddenly understood, the text says.² At death Gutei told the assembly, “I attained Tenryū's one-finger Zen and used it all my life without exhausting it. Do you want to understand?” He raised a finger and died. Myōshō later asked Guotai Shen how to remove Gutei's “three-line spell.” Shen also raised a finger. Myōshō said, “Without today, how would I have recognized this traveler from Guazhou?” Mimo used only a fork throughout his life. Reverend Dadi struck the ground once whenever asked. When someone hid his staff and asked “What is Buddha?” he only opened his mouth—still inexhaustible for a lifetime. Wuye said, “The patriarch saw that this land had capacity for the Great Vehicle and singly transmitted the mind seal to guide the lost. Whoever attains it is not selected as foolish or wise, ordinary or sacred. Much falsity is inferior to little reality. A great person should stop directly now, suddenly end the ten thousand conditions, transcend birth and death, and emerge from convention.” All his life Wuye answered every question, “Do not imagine.” Thus penetrate one place and a thousand places penetrate; clarify one working and a thousand workings clarify. People today indulge emotional explanations and miss the ancients' economy. Was Gutei unable to turn mechanisms? Why only one finger? Know that he had a deep and hidden way of serving people. Do you want effortless understanding? Return to Yuanming's saying: when cold, all is cold; when hot, all is hot. Mountains and rivers reach upward into solitary danger; the myriad forms penetrate downward into steep peril. Where could one-finger Zen be obtained? Setchō mastered balanced prose and moved freely in every direction. He especially loved versifying gnarled and extraordinary cases. “In direct exchange I deeply love old Gutei; if the cosmos came empty, who else would remain?” Students today raise and lower the ancients as guest or host, sustaining question and answer face to face. Gutei served people this way. What did Setchō love? Since heaven and earth opened, who else was there? Only old Gutei. Others mixed methods; Gutei used one finger until death. People form a crooked emptiness explanation: mountains and earth are empty, people empty, Dharma empty; even if the universe became empty at once, old Gutei alone remains. Happily, that has nothing to do with it. “He once cast a floating log upon the dark sea.” What is now called the sea of birth and death: beings surface and sink in the sea of karma, do not understand themselves, and find no time of emergence. Out of compassion Gutei met beings in that sea with one finger, like dropping a floating log to receive a blind turtle and bring beings to the further shore. The Lotus Sūtra compares the opportunity to a one-eyed turtle encountering the hole in a floating log and escaping drowning.⁴ Yet a great teacher receives a dragonlike, tigerlike person and teaches him to alternate guest and host in a world with buddhas, and to sit and control the crucial crossing in a buddhaless world. What use is receiving a blind turtle?