Buddha’s story is very interesting because he had a very good situation, but he gave up this good situation to have a suffering situation. He did suffering practice for six years, and then BOOM! got enlightenment. So today is Got Enlightenment Day. Everybody understands this day, but when Seon Master Mangong celebrated this day, he called it "I Lost Enlightenment Day." That’s a famous story.

Chunseong Sunim was the disciple of a very great monk, Seon Master Mangong. He did not give the usual style of teaching. So only some people understood. Chunseong Sunim’s temple(Mangwol-sa) was in the Mt. Dobongsan of Korea.

It was wintertime. Buddha’s Enlightenment Day was coming, so many people came to the temple. They were very cold, so everyone went outside and cut trees to make firewood.

But there was a law against cutting down trees, so a policeman came and took this great Seon Master to the police station. He asked Chunseong Sunim, "Why did you cut down these trees?"

"You already understand."

"WHY?! It’s not correct!"

"What is ’correct’? What is ’not correct’?"

"That is the rule!"

"Who makes the rule?"

"The country!"

"Oh! That’s a country rule. I don’t care about country rules. My rule is important."

"You cut trees, and now you must go to jail. You speak strangely. Who are you?"

"I am a monk."

"Where do you come from?"

"My mother’s --------." (Seon Master Chunseong was famous for his scatalogical speech.) A very strange thing to say to a policeman, right?

"WHAT? Where is your hometown?"

"My father’s --------."

"You’re crazy!" shouted the policeman. "Go away!" And he let Chunseong Sunim go. That was Seon Master Chunseong’s action.

On Buddha’s Enlightenment Day, Chunseong Sunim said, "Buddha is number one stupid man!" Everybody asked themselves what this meant.

"Everybody already has enlightenment. Why did he sit for six years, see a star, and then get enlightenment? That’s stupid! If you see a star, you get enlightenment NOW!"

So everybody wondered: now see a star, now get enlightenment? Where is this star?

Nobody understood. "HERE! HERE! This is the star!" But still nobody understood. Then he hit the floor with his Seon stick and yelled "KATZ!!" Still nobody understood him. But under the floor a sleeping dog was woken by the hit. Jumping up, it hit its head. The dog howled.

"Only this dog has enlightenment," Seon Master Chunseong said.

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