Osho on Zen Master Ikkyu

Osho - Ikkyu is one of the greatest masters, a very rare, revolutionary, nonconformist. Once he stayed in a temple. The night was very cold and there were three wooden Buddhas in the temple, so he burned one Buddha to warm himself. The priest became aware -- he was fast asleep, it was in the middle of the night and the night was very cold -- he became aware that something was going on, so he looked.

Buddha was burning! -- and this man Ikkyu was sitting, happy, warming his hands. The priest became mad; he said, "What are you doing? Are you a madman? -- and I thought you to be a Buddhist monk, that's why I allowed you to stay in the temple. And you have done the most sacrilegious act."
Ikkyu looked at the priest and said, "But the buddha within me was feeling very cold. So it was a question whether to sacrifice the living Buddha to the wooden one, or to sacrifice the wooden one to the living one. And I decided for life."

But the priest was so mad with anger, he couldn't listen to what Ikkyu was saying. He said, "You are a madman. You simply get out of here! You have burned Buddha."

So Ikkyu started to poke the burned Buddha -- ashes were there, the statue was almost completely finished. He started to poke with a stick. The priest asked, "What are you doing?"
He said, "I am trying to find the bones of Buddha."

So the priest laughed, he said, "You are either a fool or a madman. And you are absolutely mad! You cannot find bones there, because it is just a wooden Buddha."

Ikkyu laughed, he said, "Then bring the other two. The night is still very cold and the morning is still far away."

This Ikkyu was a very rare man. He was turned out immediately, out of the temple. In the morning he was sitting just on the side of the street outside the temple -- worshipping a milestone, putting flowers, doing his prayers. So the priest said, "You fool! In the night you misbehaved with Buddha. What have you done? You have committed a sin, and now what are you doing with this milestone? This is not a statue."

Ikkyu said, "When you want to pray, everything is a statue. At that time the buddha within was feeling very cold. At this time the buddha within is feeling very prayerful."

This man Ikkyu had thousands of disciples all over the country, and he used to wander from one place to another to help disciples.

Source - Osho Book "No Water, No Moon"

Related Link:
Osho on Zen Master Ikkyu Poems

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