Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage

I’ve built a grass hut

Where there’s nothing of value

After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.

When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared.

Now it’s been lived in

Covered by weeds.

 

The person in the hut

Lives here calmly,

Not stuck to inside, outside,

Or in between.

Places worldly people live,

He doesn’t live.

Realms worldly people love,

He doesn’t love.

 

Silvery moon hangs high in the sky.

I ride a tiny boat in the vast and misty sea.

Moon and sea forgotten;

I forget that I have forgotten.

And before the window

I sit quietly in meditation until midnight.

-Jakushitsu (1290–1368)

The Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage recalls the fleeting moments of reverie when my thoughts are absent, and I am fully experiencing the present moment. The moment passes and I think about the experience. My thoughts emerge from the feeling I recognize, and the reverie passes. Meditation is a practice to still the thoughts that stream through our conscious awareness. Psychoanalysis is a practice to ride in the tiny boat and observe those thoughts and feelings that interrupt our reverie. My client and I work together to cultivate a calm state of mind that is not stuck on difficult feelings or resentments, a state of mind that appreciates the moments at hand and the quiet meditation that can be found in this complex and challenging world.