There lived a man who was devoted to Buddha with all his heart. And he had a beautiful old wooden statue of Buddha, a real masterpiece. He treated her like her greatest treasure. One cold winter night this man was left alone in a thatched hut. It was bitterly cold, and he was shivering in despair from the cold. It looked like his death hour had come. There wasn't a wood chip to start the fire. At midnight, when the man was almost numb, Buddha appeared before him and asked: “Why don’t you burn me?”
The wooden statue still stood against the wall. The man was very scared. It must have been a demon. "What did you say? Burn the Buddha statue? Never! No way!"
Buddha laughed and said: “If you see me in the statue, you are missing me. I am in you, not in the statue. I am not in the object of prayer, I am in the one praying. And it is I who tremble in you! Burn the statue!”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru