Zen Contemplatives
A Mahayana Bodhisattva trusts without doubt.
After building his new hut next to his temple, Shitou explains to himself and to us that trust is an essential aspect to his life. Sure, he has lived in the hut, relaxed and calm, has seen it begin to change, which is inevitable for all worldly things, and reaches a place of illuminating forms and their nature.
He sounds set, doesn’t he?
…trusts without doubt.
But he goes on to tell us he needs the vision of trust against any doubt that might be within him. A better word is confidence. He is confident in being a practitioner of light – a bright light without uncertainty or hesitation. Hurrah!
And still, he continues to give us more understanding…when he points out that those of us who are still playing around with the material things of worldly life question the validity and truth of this move Shitou has made.
Those who are …middling or lowly can’t help wondering…will the hut perish or not?
The depth of our wondering is an opportunity to those of us who follow this path. When we wonder, doubt, feel uncertain, hesitate, worry about whether our life as it is will perish or not, we are subject to the worldly ego-mind and have lost not only our confidence but our master. This brings to light the question, “who is our original master?”
And if we know who that is, do we have confidence that our original master is ever-present in our life right where we have built our life? A better definition will help us understand.
Our original master that is present in all aspects of existence is unborn, undying, immutable – which goes by many names. There is THAT which was never born, does not die and does not change. So, the things of the world, our worldly life, change and perish and change and change and change and in THAT the original beloved is present. Our problem is that we do not know who and what we are.
We are as Shitou exclaims he is…a being of light, the light that sees THAT. But our tendency is to see the change as frightening and uncontrollable – the ego-self sees THAT as frightening and uncontrollable because we are attached to the worldly things that delude us. We are attached to comfort. And we get frightened by change.
Not dwelling south or north, east, or west…is the line that gives a clue of our unborn, undying, immutable existence. The original master is everywhere, not dwelling in one specific place. But is One consciousness. When we know this…we begin to rest in the confidence of this truth.
Firmly based on steadiness…
Yes, this is what we need. A shift to resting on concentration & focus, a steady hand, a focused eye – a wise and unselfish mind.
Our conditioned mind does not trust without doubt because it has been trained to label and acquire forms which we think and believe will protect us from change. It is the standard fare of “…if only…or if when I do, get, have, keep…I will feel safe, happy, content, at ease, steady, relaxed…” and the list goes on. Unfortunately, this conditioning leads to a distorted view of the delusion we are in.
We have been trained to think and believe that the world is concrete – an actual, substantial thing that is eternal. Something we rely on. And yet, we know the world itself changes.
Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage Part Three
It is hard for us in the 21st century to image building a grass hut up in a far-off mountain range. A place we would call home! It is unthinkable. We love all our conveniences – running water, heat when it is cold, air conditioning when it is hot and every imaginable device from stoves to air cookers to electric light. We want an endless array of amenities and deem them essential.
But less we forget – we are spiritual seekers, much like Shitou Xiqian an 8th century Zen Master. We are seeking realization. Maybe we are not ready to give up indoor plumbing, yet. But we who seek liberation from suffering surrender our passions and demands. At the very least, we practice with the hardships of this modern era in the same light as Shitou. The light of no value. That is the light that builds the grass hut.
“Nothing of value” is a universal knowledge of spiritual surrender. It is often said and perhaps over-used as “letting go.” We let go of any iota of self-attainment, self-achievement, or self-praise and gain. Another way to understand this universal knowledge is to see and know it as “emptied out.” It is what the Great Awakened Masters did. They were dispassionate and lived a renunciate life.
Shitou is an exemplar of dispassion and renunciation. He had built a temple. Disciples came. And, yet… legend says he built a grass hut right next door to his temple… then. moved into it, alone. Moved into a grass hut he built where there was nothing of value.
The GRASS ROOF HERMITAGE is both a place in the external world and a description of Shitou’s internal destination. It is a solitary place where he eats, relaxes, and enjoys a nap where there is nothing to measure or tote up or evaluate and appraise.
When the hut was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
Now it’s been lived in covered by weeds.
Once the hut is finished, fresh weeds appear. Once he lives in it, he sees that it is covered by weeds. We know that Shitou accepts the immediate change in the hut without complaint and with acceptance. As the Song goes on to explain.
The person in the hut lives here, calmly, not stuck inside, outside, or in-between.
NO regrets. NO worries about his new digs getting worn down by time and use. NO worries about the property value. Or the neighbors. Or how comfortable it will be or how long it will last. Or resale profits. Shitou is aware of the nature of the world as being of no value and impermanent.
He is not caught up in where he will live and how much it is worth. He does not get attached. He is not a worldly man. He does not love the things and places of the world.
Places worldly people live, he doesn’t live.
Realms worldly people love, she doesn’t love.
Neither the external desires for things nor internal desires of feelings plague him. Shitou knows all he needs to know about the world. He knows that the hut is small, and he knows all the vagaries of the mind including passions and attachments are in this hut. There is nothing special about the hut – in the sense it prevents all the suffering of desires, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and a self-centered consciousness. NO. Building the hut does not stop the world because Shitou he does not go there. Nor does he go towards the mental realms of his mind forms.
In ten feet square an old man illumines forms and their nature.
Whatever is in the world is in the small hut because Shitou is in the small hut. The light of Shitou is the same light we have. The difference is he used the light to illumine forms and their nature in a ten feet square grass hut. We are to sing the same song and illumine forms, so we know their nature.
PART THREE TO FOLLOW.
This Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage is a sutra, which means thread, a thread of the Dharma. It was written by Shitou, a devoted ancestor of the Chinese Caodong lineage in the sixth century. He is also the author of another thread, The Merging of Difference and Unity. Both threads are exemplary works.
Although his works are old, the light shines from them in the 21st century. If we commit to a spiritual practice of everydayness, Shitou’s works sustain us along our daily path. Yes, the teachings are as true for us as they were for Shitou. All we need to do is to interpret them for our time and place.
We begin with a song of praise for whatever comes into our life as our life. Whether we live in a mansion or a hut, there is nothing left out. Everything right here, right now is in the place we live. We may, however, not know this reality to be true. Our conditioned tendencies and habits keep us caught and blind.
Instead of knowing this truth we yearn, long for, daydream, wish for something else, someone else, somewhere else. When this infatuation occurs, we have been blinded by the shadow of the world. We believe whatever we seek is somewhere else, something else, someone else. The Truth, however, is everything-all-at-once right wherever we are, whatever thing we focus on and with whomever we are within the present.
We are very much like the bear that went over the mountain. A silly, curious bear who decided to see what was on the other side of the mountain. His desire led him away from where he was.
The bear went over the mountain
The bear went over the mountain
The bear went over the mountain
To see what he could see
To see what he could see
To see what he could see.
The other side of the mountain
The other side of the mountain
The other side of the mountain
Was all that he could see
Was all that he could see
Was all that he could see.
His curious impulse carried him over to see the other side of where he was – and nothing more.
At some point, we realize we have been doing the same old thing in the same old place with the same old people. This awareness, if we attend to it, helps us STOP the desire for being somewhere else, with someone else and attaining something else. We concentrate and attend to what is right at hand with nothing in for our gain. This last point is a key to realization. It requires us to forget ourselves. Forget all the myriad mental forms that are pulling, tempting, pressuring us to do, to get, to have, to keep.
*****
So…let us look at the text and let the text show us the place where we realize the undying person in our grass hut right where we are. We may build and sing our song along with Shitou.
Have a look at what you have built. Is it full of yourself or empty of any value at all? Where there is nothing in it for your ego-self. The first line of the Song cannot be skipped. Here it is.
This line is challenging in a world that measures success, achievement, triumph according to amount and price of things. But THAT is the point of Shitou’s brilliance. It is clear and simple.
What have you put together?
The thread refers to whether we measure success – achievement and triumph from the point of view of “I – me – my – mine.” In other words, the focus on the ego-self is the problem. Or we do not measure at all. We do not get invested in “me, my, mine.”
Sounds impossible?
It isn’t impossible for those of us who do not get stirred up by thoughts, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and a consciousness of memories. Those who do not get stirred up know that all the mental pop-ups are merely fragments of conditions tempting us to go after something in the material realm. They are the ghosts in the mind that lead us to be worried, anxious, angry, hurt, fearful, foolish, and ignorant. In simple language, suffering comes when we follow something for me-my-mine.
Find out for yourself.
Yes, this is the Way. Study what you have built. Are you counting on whatever it is to give you success – fame, name, accolades, attainments, achievements. What else? Or the other side giving you failure – shame, calumny, penury, losses. In either success or failure, we have placed values that will never provide freedom from suffering. This is not to be believed – it is to find out for yourself.
Ask yourself – do you measure yourself according to the measurements of success and failure, whatever that might be. Each one, whether success or failure, suffering follows. See for yourself if that is true in your life.
And…consider the first teaching of this song by Shitou…
And consider what Shitou says after constructing a grass hut…
Yep. That’s it. The mind is not out of control. He does not run after anything.
Photo by Bill Arsenault
Sawaki Roshi
Topic: Morning Sitting
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