19Juzhi's One Finger

Introduction 垂示

一塵舉，大地收；一花開，世界起。只如塵未舉、花未開時，如何著眼？所以道：如斬一綟絲，一斬一切斬；如染一綟絲，一染一切染。只如今便將葛藤截斷，運出自己家珍，高低普應，前後無差，各各現成。儻或未然，看取下文。

One speck of dust lifts and the whole earth comes up with it. One flower opens and the whole world springs to life. But before the dust lifts, before the flower opens, where do you set your eyes? That's why they say: cut one thread and you cut them all; dye one thread and you dye them all. So right now, slice through the tangle. Bring out the treasure already yours. Meet high and low alike, no gap front or back, each thing standing there complete. And if you're not there yet, read on.

俱胝和尚，凡有所問，只竪一指。

Whatever he was asked, Master Juzhi just held up one finger.

Verse 頌

對揚深愛老俱胝，
宇宙空來更有誰。
曾向滄溟下浮木，
夜濤相共接盲龜。

How I love old Juzhi, answering them all:
the whole universe gone empty, who else is left?
Once he dropped a log adrift on the deep blue sea,
and through the night surf the blind turtle found it.

Pointer

Juzhi was a Chinese teacher with exactly one move: whatever anyone asked, hard question, easy one, anything at all, he raised a single finger, and that was the complete answer. The "blind turtle and the floating log" in the verse is a stock Buddhist image for impossibly long odds. Picture a blind sea turtle that surfaces once a century, and somewhere on the open ocean drifts one board with a single hole in it; the chance of the turtle pushing its head up through that hole is the chance of meeting a true teacher and actually waking up. The verse says Juzhi's finger was that log, a foolishly simple thing that still gives a drowning person something to grab. The trap is treating the finger as a code with a hidden meaning. It points at no secret. It just points. There is a darker sequel to this finger, recorded elsewhere; here, only the gesture.