MASTER GUTEI
In ancient Japan, there was a zen master named Gutei. Every day he would walk through the village near his monastery, where he was a sort of local celebrity. During his walks the peasants would ask him about the nature of Zen, and he would reply, (with that look of serene mischief practiced by those who have knowledge of the Absolute), by raising his index finger. The folk found this reliably amusing, laughing at the absurdity of the no-liner. They were simple folk.
Eventually the local youths began to imitate Gutei, and one young man in particular, the son of a wealthy local merchant and a naturally gifted actor, became renowned, (amongst the few thousand illiterate peasants in and around his village), for being able to perfectly immitate the look of good-natured mystery and exact finger positioning utilized by the zen master, duplicating the precise height and angle of the joints, the location of the other four digits, the curl of the wrist, etc..
Hearing of this immitator, Master Gutei approached the youth one day and asked him the nature of zen. This new reversal of the old routine created a buzz of excitement among the villagers observing the exchange. When the young man responded to the master’s question by raising his finger in his carefully-studied way, Gutei seized him and sliced off his finger. The peasants stood agape in confused horror, and the young man clutched the bloody wound and let out a short gasping wail. Gutei picked up the young man’s severed finger and held it up, and the young man was enlighted.
And so the enlightened young man, through the pain and shock of his sudden disfigurement, adopted again his studied look of divine mystery and raised his middle finger to Gutei.