Case 83 never ends, yet now we turn to CASE 84: GUTEI'S ONE FINGER:
One finger, but no one to hold it up.
A single fishing pole catches the whole world.
The Koan and Commentary can be found here ...
https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=...20pole&f=false
and
https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=...20head&f=false
(I do encourage everyone to get the book for their collection, as it is very good)
Some stories say that Gutei did not actually do violence and cut off anyone's finger, and just merely gave it a sharp twist.
I also heard some Zen jokester say that Gutei might have been holding up his middle finger.That also expresses a certain attitude toward the world, but I assure you that it did not have the same meaning in ancient China.
Gassho, J
STLah
