There is a contradiction between love & faith. That’s what Zen Masters have been saying to their disciples: If you meet Buddha on the way – kill him immediately! And they loved Buddha tremendously. Read this beautiful Zen story about that you can worship the Buddha anywhere.
A Zen Master, Ikkyu, was staying in a temple. The night was very cold and he had no blankets – he was a beggar, and the whole temple was so cold – it was made of stones: stone coldness. In the night he couldn’t sleep, so he went in, into the shrine, found a Buddha, a wooden Buddha; burnt a fire with the Buddha; and enjoyed and delighted in the fire.
The sound of fire, the movement of this Ikkyu – and the priest became awake. Seeing the fire inside the temple he came running and when he saw that one of the Buddhas was missing (there were three Buddhas in the shrine) and he looked 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 worshiping 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.
