Jinhua Juzhi
Jap., Kinka Gutei
born:  c. 810
died:  c. 880

place:  China
Chan master:  Hangzhou Tianlong
Chan disciples:  ...
Jinhua Juzhi is known in Zen circles as the
"One Finger" Chan Master, describing his
way of always holding up one finger as an
answer to any question from his students
(see story on this page).
stories:
Wumenguan, Case 3, One Finger Zen

Osho
No Water, No Moon, ch. 5
The name Juzhi (alt. "Judi") is said to be a
nickname for this Chan master, deriving
from an Indian Buddhist chant that he
constantly recited, that had the word "koti" in
it. "Judi" is simply a transliteration of that
word--the meanings of the characters are
not applicable.
Jinhua lived and taught in ancient Wuzhou,
now in modern Zhejiang Province, south of
the city of Hangzhou.
          oshobob  The Living Workshop                                         
                                                          Zen Masters
The Zen Master Gutei made a practice of
raising his finger whenever he explained a
question about Zen.

A very young disciple began to imitate him, and
whenever anyone asked the disciple what his
master had been preaching about, the boy
would raise his finger.

Gutei got to hear about this, and when he
came upon the boy as he was doing it one day,
he seized the boy, whipped out a knife, cut off
his finger, and threw it away.

As the boy ran off howling Gutei shouted,
"Stop!"

The boy stopped, turned round, and looked at
his master through his tears. Gutei was holding
up his own finger.

The boy went to hold up his finger, and when
he realized it wasn't there he bowed.

In that instant he became enlightened.


Too severe! But the man Gutei must have
been very, very compassionate. Only out of
compassion you can be so hard. Difficult to
understand, because we think that cruelty,
hardness, is always there where there is no
compassion. No – then you will not understand
an enlightened person. An enlightened person
will not be hard on you if he has no
compassion – why bother? But he will be hard
on you because he bothers, he is worried
about you, he wants to help you. And less than
that won't do...

                                                --Osho
                              No Water, No Moon, ch. 5