The Shelter

Once a Zen Nun was visiting a village where there were only a few houses, and as it was getting dark and she was all alone she went to the area in front of all the houses and asked the villagers, “Please let me stay in one of your houses.”
She was a stranger to them, and besides that she was of a different religion, so the villagers closed their doors to her.
The next village was very far away, and it was dark and she was alone. So she had to spend the night in a field and she slept under a cherry tree. In the middle of the night she woke up – it was cold, and because of this she could not sleep. She looked up and saw that the flowers had all blossomed; the tree was covered with flowers. And the moon had risen, and the moonlight was very beautiful. She experienced a moment of immense joy. In the morning she went back to the village and thanked all the people who had refused to give her shelter for the night. When they asked her, “For what?”

she said, “For your love, for your compassion and kindness in closing your doors to me last night. Because of this I was able to experience a moment of unbelievable joy. I saw the cherry flowers in bloom and the moon in its glory, and I saw something that I had never seen before. If you had given me shelter I would not have seen it. That’s when I realized your kindness, your reason for closing all your doors to me.”