Grass Hut - 38 - "Timeless Intimacy"

[Jundo]

As we come to the penultimate chapter of the book, Chapter 31 "Timeless Intimacy" ...

Any feeling that your sense of "self" is like a house you construct and hide within?

Any sense of having timeless intimacy in knowing Shitou? That Shitou is just who you are? That the undying one is who you are?

Gassho, J


(PS - There will be no Book Club next week, and the Forum will be closed December 5th and 6th so that all our attention may be on our Rohatsu Retreat).

[Myosha]

Hello,

With gratitude -

Shitou is nothing and everything.

The book is pretty wordage - everything, and nothing.


Gassho
Myosha sat today

[Mp]

Thank you Jundo ... I am the house and the house is me. This house is not a house of wood and stone, but a house of experiences ... a house build by the trials and tribulations of life.

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Jishin]

Before I was born, I had no house. Then I popped (or pooped?) out from my mothers womb. When I was hungry, I was fed. When I looked at my hand, I could make it move. When I made noises, things around me moved. Were these things me or not me? I started making things and creating my world. When I smiled I got a smile back. When I cried I got food and comfort. I created smiles with smiles and comfort with my cries. Then I named the lady that fed me ma ma ma ma. She thought I said mama so that became her name. Likewise I named my old man ba ba ba ba but he heard dada and that was ok. Then I made my name when my parents called me by my name and I answered to my name. Then I made many many more things, mostly by imitating others around me. I made my house like this.

There is nothing wrong with my house just as long I try to remember it's just a house. It's where I hang out for now.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Jeremy]

I've read this chapter a few times now and it's left me lost for words, which is fine.
Anyway, it's almost Zazen time...

step lightly... stay free...
Jeremy

[Shinzan]

When I'm feeling threatened by circumstances, I can clearly feel in my body-mind how I throw up a "wall" to defend myself from experience. The stronger the affect, the thicker and more massive the wall. Zazen helps me take a breather, take a step back, enough time to notice the wall-arising pop. That feels like a first step to relating differently, more intimately, to what's here now.

2 cents. _/st\_ Shinzan

[Getchi]

My house is on fire, and my toys are calling to me.

Luckily a person is outside calling for me to leave......



Seriously, im starting to think just one glimpse of Tuth is a total game changer. Constantly I am reminding myself that "I AM" this or that concept. Of coure just what "I" am is up for debate...


SatToday
Geoff.

[AlanLa]

OK, well, this chapter just blew my mind Like Jeremy, I've read it a few times now. I have also gone back and read the whole poem a few times with me as Shotou. I love the metaphor, and it really transforms the poem, so I need to sit with it a while, starting now.

And this is what I came up with after zazen.

Shitou’s Hut

Shitou’s hut is my hut,
Our hut,
An undying hut.
Frail and in need of reference,
Reverence,
Life blows through it like wind,
Like zazen.
Walls built of grass and weeds,
Ideas and delusions
Obstructing freedom beyond intimacy,
Oneness transcended.
Open the door by sitting down,
Stepping back
And letting go
In order to discover who lives here with me:
Everyone
Everything.

[Jeremy]

And this is what I came up with after zazen.
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Shitou’s Hut

Perfect!

Jeremy
st