Dear All,We are going to leave aside the Book of Serenity for a time (we will come back). From today, we will commence reading and reflections on INSIDE THE GRASS HUT: LIVING SHITOU'S CLASSIC ZEN POEM by Ben Connelly.
From a review ...
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.
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Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen priest in the Katagiri lineage training with Tim Burkett at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. Connelly began teaching at MZMC in 2006, was ordained in 2009, and was made shuso, or head monk, in 2012. Ben is also a professional musician and developed and leads Mindfulness in the Mountains backpacking/meditation retreats in Northwest Montana. He lives in Minneapolis, MN.
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Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen priest in the Katagiri lineage training with Tim Burkett at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. Connelly began teaching at MZMC in 2006, was ordained in 2009, and was made shuso, or head monk, in 2012. Ben is also a professional musician and developed and leads Mindfulness in the Mountains backpacking/meditation retreats in Northwest Montana. He lives in Minneapolis, MN.
I am also pleased to say that I was in touch with Ben just today, and he will be coming to Treeleaf to lead Zazen and offer a Talk, probably on Sunday March 22nd.
I hope to post a short section about each week, maybe two, usually on Fridays. Most sections are short, but today I would like folks to read the following introductions, longer than most sections:
Forward by Taigen Dan Leighton from page IX
Introduction by the author on pages 1 through 6
You might also look at the poem itself, on pages 11 and 12
I believe that the Forward and Introduction are available here for those awaiting delivery of the book ...
There will be no particular questions or discussion this time, but please introduce yourself in this thread if you intend to join in the readings. Let me know if you have any question.
I know that many folks are going to cherish this book.
Gassho, Jundo
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