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at the fire -- it was almost burnt -- of course he was MAD; and he said to Ikkyu: What are you doing? Are you mad? You have burnt my Buddha! You have committed the greatest sin that a man can commit, and we were thinking that you are an enlightened man!
The fire was going down now; Ikkyu started to poke in the ashes.
The priest asked: What are you doing? He said: I am trying to find the bones of the Buddha so that they can be preserved. The priest started laughing, seeing the whole stupidity. He said: This is a wooden Buddha, there are no bones. You are really mad! Ikkyu said: Then bring the other two Buddhas also; the night is long and very cold.
And in the morning -- of course he was thrown out in the night, out of the temple, because he would burn the whole temple -- in the morning when the priest came out of the temple Ikkyu was sitting just near the milestone on the road, and worshipping it.
The priest could not contain his curiosity. He asked: Now what are you doing, madman? Ikkyu said: I am worshipping the Buddha and every day in the morning that is my first thing to do.
This is the contradiction. But if you can SEE it is not a contradiction at all, it is a simple fact. A fact, the deepest fact of all mysticism.
STRIKE YOUR MASTER HARD AND WORSHIP IN FAITH. Love your Master so deeply that there is no clinging -- you can kill, you can drop, the other disappears, the other is absorbed, only you in your crystal purity remain. But this is possible only if total faith is possible.
Of course this Ikkyu must have loved Buddha tremendously, otherwise how is it possible to burn Buddha? How is it conceivable? He must have loved so totally that there was NO PROBLEM. He could burn the wooden Buddha.
Buddha died. Mahakashyap, one of his greatest disciples, did not utter a single word: as if nothing had happened. He remained sitting under his tree. People were running here and there, there was much turmoil -- Buddha has said he is leaving today! But this Mahakashyap never moved from his tree.
Many people said: Mahakashyap, what are you doing? This is the last day! Buddha is leaving the body! It is said that
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