Inside the Grass Hut
Living Shitou's Classic Zen Poem
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shitou's "Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage" is not as well-known as his poem "Harmony of Difference and Sameness." Connelly, a Soto Zen priest in Minnesota, turns his attention to the a deceptively simple 32-line poem, which depicts the quiet lifestyle and worldview of a person living in a grass hut. Connelly offers line-by-line meditations, extracting lessons on how to live simply, let go of habitual thoughts, and connect with the world as it is encountered. His analysis will speak to those familiar with Buddhist thought, but it also provides gentle guidance about accepting both oneself and one's surroundings to the uninitiated. Above all, his wish for this book is that he " it helps you to be kind", reinforcing his emphasis on living the Buddhist path in all its difficulties rather than reading or thinking one's way through it. Connelly's reconsideration of a poem that still has much to teach the modern world is a welcome addition to the literature.