Gift of life

as u all must b aware that very few women have attained to the zen ultimate...Rengetsu is one of those rare women...before starting the story i would like to explain u what exactly Zen ultimate is...''many r aware of it already but m making it easy to understand fr those who do not have any idea abt it...as i want u to absorb everything in the story without being lost...the word zen is from Japanese,,but also Cantonese..its a meditative state..zen emphasizes experiential wisdom in attainment of enlightenment..its Buddhas gift to the world....coming back to story........,



Rengestu was on a pilgrimage, and she came to a village at sunset and begged for lodging for the night., but the villagers slammed their doors on her. They must have been traditional Buddhists in the town, and they wouldn't allow this zen women to stay there; they threw her out of the village.


it was a cold night, and old woman with no lodging ...and hungry. she had to make a cherry tree in the fields her shelter...


it was really cold, and she could not sleep well as she had nothing to cover herself on the cold night ... and it was dangerous too- wild animals and all. at midnight she woke--and saw , in the spring night sky, the fully opened cherry blossoms laughing to the misty moon. overcome with the beauty, she got up and made a reverence in the direction of the village and wrote :




''through their kindness in refusing me lodging i found myself beneath



the blossoms on the night of this misty moon..''


with great gratitude she thanks those people who refused her lodging, otherwise she would have been sleeping under an ordinary roof and she would have missed this blessing-these cherry blossoms, and this whispering with the misty moon, and this silence of night, this utter silence of night. she isn't angry, she accepts it-not only accepts it ,,she welcomes it. she feels grateful.


so as to say...life is immense, and each moment it comes with a thousand and one gifts for you. but you are so engaged, preoccupied, with your desiring mind, you are so full of your thoughts, you refuse all those gifts....god comes; you go on refusing. a man becomes a Buddha the moment he accepts all that life brings with gratitude...''