Dhammic Life

On a cold winter night, a big snow storm hit the city and the temple where
Dan Xia served as a Monk got snowed in. Cut off from outside traffic, the coal
delivery man could not get to the Zen Monastery. Soon it ran out of heating fuel
after a few days and everybody was shivering in the cold. The monks could not
even cook their meals.

Dan Xia began to remove the wooden Buddha Statues from the display
and put them into the fireplace.

"What are you doing?" the monks were shocked to see that the holy Buddha
Statues were being burnt inside the fire place.

"You are burning our holy religious artifacts! You are insulting the
Buddha!"

"Are these statues alive and do they have any Buddha nature?" asked
Master Dan Xia.

"Of course not," replied the monks. "They are made of wood. They cannot
have Buddha Nature."

"OK. Then they are just pieces of firewood and therefore can be used as
heating fuel," said Master Dan Xia. "Can you pass me another piece of firewood
please? I need some warmth."

The next day, the snow storm had gone and Dan Xia went into town and
brought back some replacement Buddha Statues. After putting them on the
displays, he began to kneel down and burn incense sticks to them.

"Are you worshiping firewood?" ask the monks who are confused for what he
was doing.

"No. I am treating these statues as holy artifacts and am honouring the
Buddha." replied Dan Xia.

Gassho,"Heitetsu"Christopher
[Re:
Buddha's Bones?
by JohnsonCM
on Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:25 pm ]