Matthew 5:30 (KJV): And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
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D.T. Suzuki tells the story of Gutei who, when confronted by a nun to “say a word of Zen,” finds himself unable to say a proper word and feels pitiful. After the nun leaves, a Mountain God tells Gutei that he will be visited in the flesh by a Bodhisattva to enlighten him regarding Zen. Sure enough, the Bodhisattva Tenryu visits Gutei. Gutei tells Tenryu of his humiliation with the nun and of his “firm resolution to attain the secrets of Zen.” Tenryu says nothing, but just lifts one finger and, all at once, Gutei’s mind opens to “the ultimate meaning of Zen.” Thence, whenever anyone visited Gutei and asked him about Zen, he said or did nothing, but just held up his little finger.
A boy in the temple observed his master Gutei and imitated him. When the boy told Gutei about this imitative practice, lifting his own little finger, his master Gutei cut off the boy’s finger with a knife. “The boy ran away screaming in pain, when Gutei called him back. The boy turned back, the master (Gutei) lifted his own finger, and the boy instantly realized the meaning of the ‘one-finger Zen’ of Tenryu as well as Gutei.”
Neither Matthew 5:30 nor the D.T. Suzuki story are invitations to self-mutilation. They provide images intended to jar us out of complacency, without the need for actual bloodletting.
In this life, if we do not die suddenly, we may spend many hours, weeks, or months on our deathbeds. What will we do with such an opportunity to reflect on our lives? At that point, we might ask, Have I, like the boy in the Buddhist temple, maintained some “outer form” of ritual and tradition – perhaps even posing as pious? Have I maintained some “outer form” of “responsibility or success” though truly my words and actions were devoid of depth and meaning?
Drawing from Matthew 5:30, on our deathbeds, we might ask ourselves, What actions, speech, ideas, concepts did I hold onto as essential even though they wrought me in “hell” on this Earth? What so-called “necessities” might I have cut away? And, if I had, would I have escaped the hellish hungry ghost realm in this life? Would I have been more than a “living corpse,” “one of the dead burying the dead”?
What would it have taken to jar me out of my complacency?
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We are all dying. Of course, in this moment, few of us are on our deathbeds. Death may be years – perhaps several decades – away, yet we may still begin to ask the above questions. You may, today, choose to copy down or compose one “deathbed question” and tape it to your bedroom wall as a daily reminder. You are invited to choose a question that invites you into the difficult, on-going praxis of cutting and casting away the ideas, words, projects, lifestyles, thoughts, things, and actions which place you in the hellish hungry-ghost realm. You are invited to do this so that “thy whole body” may dwell in heaven on this Earth, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
(Music: Courtesy of Adrian Von Ziegler, “Circle of Life.” )