Monshin Nannette Overley: Relax Completely: Shitou’s Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage – Fall Practice Period 2022 (4 of 11)

Upaya is in the middle of Fall Practice Period, studying the teachings of Hongzhi and the practice of silent illumination. The Caodong/Soto school of Hongzhi and Dogen, with its emphasis on just sitting, traces itself back to the 8th Century Chan (Zen) Master Shitou. Sensei Monshin Nannette Overlay brings her characteristic honesty, gentleness, and care to this Dharma talk on Shitou’s seminal poem, Song of the Grass Room Hermitage.

Shitou’s Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage is a poignant and accessible poetic teaching on just sitting (or standing, walking, cooking, cleaning, and so on) in open awareness, relaxed yet responsive.

This state of complete relaxation is ours naturally, prior to all of our attempts to actualize it. Sensei Monshin assures us that we will find our natural state, our Buddha nature, our mind before thinking, not by adding anything but by relaxing into the spaciousness of this moment.

Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.

Open your hands and walk, innocent. 

Is there anything you are unwilling to let go of?

And who would you be without it?

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Upaya Podcast Series: SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Cultivating the Empty Field