Inside the Grass Hut

Living Shitou's Classic Zen Poem

Ben Connelly

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781614291213
• eBook ISBN:
  9781614291442
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

Enter the mind and practice of Zen: apply the insights of one of Zen's classic poems to your life--here and now.

Destined to become a trusted, dog-eared companion.
Shitou Xiqian’s “Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage” is a remarkably accessible work of profound depth; in thirty-two lines Shitou expresses the breadth of the entire Buddhist tradition with simple, vivid imagery. Ben Connelly’s Inside the Grass Hut unpacks the timeless poem and applies it to contemporary life. His book delivers a wealth of information on the context and content of this eighth-century work, as well as directly evokes the poem’s themes of simple living, calm, and a deep sense of connection to all things.
Each pithy chapter focuses on a single line of the poem, letting the reader immerse himself thoroughly in each line and then come up for air before moving on to the next. Line by line, Connelly shows how the poem draws on and expresses elements from the thousand years of Buddhist thought that preceded it, expands on the poem’s depiction of a life of simple practice in nature, and tells stories of the way these teachings manifest in modern life. Connelly, like Shitou before him, proves himself adept at taking profound and complex themes from Zen and laying them out in a practical and understandable way.
Eminently readable, thoroughly illuminating, Inside the Grass Hut shows the reader a path of wholehearted engagement—with the poem, and with the world. Destined to become a trusted, dog-eared companion.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Table of Contents
• Foreword by Taigen Dan Leighton
• Introduction
• A Note on Chanting and Recitation
• Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage by Shitou
• 1. Living Simply in the Changes: I’ve built a grass hut where there’s nothing of value.
• 2. Enjoying the Middle Way: After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.
• 3. Unwithering Fertility: When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
• 4. Here with the Weeds: Now it’s been lived in—covered by weeds.
• 5. Who Is This Person?: The person in the hut lives here calmly...
• 6. Cultivating the Way, Inside and Out: Not stuck to inside, outside, or in between.
• 7. Retreat and Living in the World: Places worldly people live, he doesn’t live.
• 8. What Do You Mean When You Say “Love”?: Realms worldly people love, he doesn’t love.
• 9. Everything’s Included: Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.
• 10. Ten Feet Square: In ten feet square, an old man illumines forms and their nature.
• 11. Trust, Faith, and Ease: A Great Vehicle bodhisattva trusts without doubt.
• 12. Don’t Judge: The middling or lowly can’t help wondering...
• 13. Life and Death Is the Great Matter: Will this hut perish or not?
• 14. Who Is the Original Master?: Perishable or not, the original master is present...
• 15. Have You Ever Transcended Space and Time?: Not dwelling south or north, east or west.
• 16. The Foundation of Freedom: Firmly based on steadiness, it can’t be surpassed.
• 17. Light on the Mountain: A shining window below the green pines...
• 18. Zen Plays with Irony: Jade palaces or vermilion towers can’t compare with it.
• 19. Protection, Shelter, Refuge: Just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest.
• 20. Only Don’t Know: Thus, this mountain monk doesn’t understand at all.
• 21. Home Is Where You Are: Living here he no longer works to get free.
• 22. Host and Guests: Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests?
• 23. Buddhism Is Meditation and Kindness: Turn around the light to shine within, then just return.
• 24. What Do You Depend On?: The vast inconceivable source can’t be faced or turned away from.
• 25. Meeting Our Teachers: Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instruction...
• 26. Don’t Give Up: Bind grasses to build a hut, and don’t give up.
• 27. Freedom from the Past: Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.
• 28. Lay Down My Sword and Shield: Open your hands and walk, innocent.
• 29. The Joys of the Human Mind: Thousands of words, myriad interpretations...
• 30. One Taste: Are only to free you from obstructions.
• 31. Timeless Intimacy: If you want to know the undying person in the hut...
• 32. Here and Now: Don’t separate from this skin bag here and now.
• Acknowledgments
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author
• About Wisdom
• Also Available from Wisdom Publications
• Copyright