Welcome to Koanversation, a podcast exploring Zen nuggets to free your mind and inspire new thinking.
In this episode, host Sanj Krishnan is joined by guest Priya Sudarsanam, an intuitive healer, mindset coach and host of Unmute with Priya, to delve into the surprising (and a little brutal) third koan in The Gateless Barrier, in which a Zen master cuts off the finger of a boy who’s imitating him.
The koan opens the door to discussion about intergenerational pain, breaking our attachment to the ideas we cling to, and becoming mindful of our unquestioned habitual thinking. Of course, a koan wouldn’t be a koan if it were just “about” that stuff—it’s a powerful device for realisation, and we grapple with what this might be getting at.
And you can hear Sanj’s creative response to the koan, a song entitled “Finger-Zen Blues”.
Text of the Koan:
Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger.
Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened.
When Gutei was about to pass from this world he gathered his monks around him. "I attained my finger-Zen," he said, "from my teacher Tenryu, and in my whole life I could not exhaust it." Then he passed away.
Mumon’s comment: Enlightenment, which Gutei and the boy attained, has nothing to do with a finger. If anyone clings to a finger, Tenryu will be so disappointed that he will annihilate Gutei, the boy, and the clinger all together.
Gutei cheapens the teaching of Tenryu,
Emancipating the boy with a knife.
Compared to the Chinese god who pushed aside a mountain with one hand,
Old Gutei is a poor imitator.
Song: Finger-Zen Blues
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Koanversation Ep. 3 - Gutei's Finger