One Finger Zen

One of the famous cases

Whenever he was questioned, Master Judi would just hold up a finger. Later one of the boys [in the congregation] was asked by an outsider, “What is the essential teaching of your master? ” The boy also held up a finger.

When Judi heard about this, he took a knife and cut off the boy’s finger. As the boy ran out howling in pain, Judi called him back. When the boy looked back, Judi just held up a finger. The boy was abruptly enlightened.

When Judi was about to die, he told the congregation, “I got Tianlong’s one-finger Zen and used it my whole life without exhausting it.” As his words ended, he died.

It doesn't take big brains to be a Zen Master, even though many of them were far more literate than you or me. Mingben said not to imitate the ease of Zen Masters; he also said to "befriend the Buddhas of past, present, and future. All the successsive generations of patriarchs have been in tacit agreement on this matter"

Befriending Judi doesn't mean imitating appearences, that's something he didn't tolerate within his own community. Wumen in his remarks on the case states, "Where Judi and the boy were enlightened was not on the finger. If you can see into this, then Tianlong, Judi, the boy, and you yourself are all strung through on the same string."

Being strung through on a single thread with every other Zen Master, what's that like?

Submitted February 28, 2023 at 05:01AM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/91Aoquc