Feb 8 – 14

Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.

-Ray Bradbury

Practice Meetings

Friday Feb 13, 7:00pm

 

This Week’s Koan

Gateless Gate #3
“Juzhi’s One Finger”

Whenever Gutei Oshõ was asked about Zen, he simply raised his finger.

Once a visitor asked Gutei’s boy attendant, “What does your master teach?”

The boy too raised his finger.

Hearing of this, Gutei cut off the boy’s finger with a knife.

The boy, screaming with pain, began to run away.

Gutei called to him, and when he turned around, Gutei raised his finger.

The boy suddenly became enlightened.

When Gutei was about to pass away, he said to his assembled monks, “I obtained one-finger Zen from Tenryû and used it all my life but still did not exhaust it.”

When he had finished saying this, he entered into eternal Nirvana.

Mumon’s Comment

The enlightenment of Gutei and of the boy does not depend on the finger.

If you understand this, Tenryû, Gutei, the boy, and you yourself are all run through with one skewer.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *