Master Tennen Tanka once visited the temple and stayed there overnight. The temple abbot was happy because Tennen Tanka was a very famous teacher, and it was a great blessing for the temple that he came here. But at night Tennen did something that amazed the abbot of the temple. The night was cold, and Tennen burned a wooden Buddha to keep warm. The abbot of the temple was shocked. When he saw the fire in the temple, he rushed in and found that one of the great Buddha statues was missing and its head was half burned. He shouted:
- What did you do? You are crazy! You burned my Buddha!
Tennen laughed and stirred the ashes with his staff. The abbot asked:
- What are you doing now? Are you crazy?
Tennen said:
— I'm trying to find the remains of Buddha.
It was the abbot's turn to laugh. He said:
-You are definitely crazy. The wooden Buddha has no remains.
Tennen asked:
-Are you sure?
The abbot replied:
- Yes, I'm sure. How can a wooden Buddha have remains?
Then Tennen said:
- “Bring other Buddhas too. There are many of them in your temple, you don’t need so many. The night is cold and I'm shaking. Look, the living Buddha is trembling, and the wooden Buddhas are sitting on their pedestals. Bring them.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru