ZEN

I was reading a book about Zen and I found one of the passages hilarious and very significant, here it is:

While staying at a shrine, master Tan-hsia was feeling cold, so he took a wooden statue of the Buddha off the altar and threw it into the fire. The keeper of the shrine was dismayed and angry. In response, the master began looking among the ashes. "What are you doing?" inquired the keeper of the shrine. "Looking for holy relics in the ashes" replied the master. "You won't find them in the ashes of a wooden statue" said the keeper. "If that is so" the master concluded, "can I have another couple of Buddhas for the fire to keep me warm?"