Shihtou - Song of the Grass Roofed Hermitage

I've built a grass hut where there's nothing of value.
After eating, I relax and take a nap.

When is 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.

Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.
In ten square feet, an old man illumines forms and their nature.

A great vehicle Boddhisatva trusts without doubt
The middling or lowly can't help wondering.

Will this hut perish or not?
Perishable or not, the original master is present.

He does not dwell south or  north east or west
Firmly based on steadiness it can't be surpassed.

A shining window beneath the green pines,
Jade palaces and vermillion towers can't compare with it.

Just sitting with head covered all things are at rest
Thus this mountain monk doesn't understand at all.

Living here he no longer works to get free
Who would proudly arrange seats only to entice guests.

Turn around the light to shiine within, then just return
The vast inconceivable source can't be faced or turned away from.

Meet the ancestral teachers, Be familiar with their instruction
Bind grasses to build a hut, and never give up.

Let go hundreds of years and relax completely,
Open your hands and walk innocent.

Thousands of words, myriad interpretations
Are only to free you from obstructions.

If you want to know the undying person in the hut
Don't separate from the skin bag here and now.

Song of the Grass-Roofed Hermitage

How wonderful that you've made the effort to study this marvelous text!  Memorizing it is a good idea.  Just living with texts such as this one is the best way to understanding.

As to the two lines you quote:

I basically agree with what you say about the first line.  Awakening is not something to be "achieved."  If we see it as something to go after, we are going off in the wrong direction.  This way of understanding is nothing but our usual way of thinking:  we do x to get y.  We go to school to get educated to get a job, e.g.  This is ok for usual things, but not for the Ultimate (and even for relative things, the awakened approach is to act  wholeheartedly in all situations).  We can't "achieve" awakening" because we are already awake.  It's more a matter of giving up, letting go than of striving.  Everything we need is right here, every moment.  Of course, we shouldn't be lax either.  Being awake requires some effort, but it must be right effort, the effort to be aware, mindful moment to moment. All the rest is the result of a confused mind that looks for satisfaction in "outside" things including spiritual things.

The second line, as I see it, continues that theme.  "Guest" is often used to mean seekers, students.  It also implies seeking for fulfillment outside of our own homes, i.e. ourselves.  It seems to refer to teachers whose aim it is to entice students to study with them.  It implies duality to me--as if there are separate beings called teachers and students.  As if a teacher can bring a student to awakening.  As you say and as Shitou says, just "shine the light within".  Dogen tells us to "learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self.  Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest."

The main thrust of the poem, as I read it, is to point us to learning that backward step.  Ultimately, as Linji says, there's "nothing to do, nowhere to go."  If we just settle the mind, well-being will arise of itself, "body and mind will drop away."  It's so simple, but we constantly miss it, getting tangled in our own thinking, our own views.  Dukkha, as Dharma Field teacher Bev Forsman put it, is living in the container of our thoughts.

Those are some thoughts that arise from your question.  I think they are close to what you too are saying.  Anyhow, let the words point you to that which is beyond words.

As to other works by Shitou, he also wrote a wonderful poem called The Merging of Difference and Unity.  I've attached a copy.  There's a book of Suzuki Roshi's commentaries on this poem called Branching Streams Flow in Darkness.  I have a copy.  I was thinking perhaps we could study that book and meet a few times to discuss it.  What do you think?

'via Blog this'

You are Not Your Emotions

You are not your emotions

A fire reflected in a lake cannot burn the water. Neither can emotions
disturb the mind when you don't get involved in them. Don't identify
an emotion as your self. The fear or anger is not you, only and
impersonal phenomenon.

Mentally pull back from the emotion and turn
your awareness around to observe it. When in the grip of negative
emotion we tend to believe it will never end. But emotions are no more
permanent than thoughts.

With continued practice you'll find that you
only have to wait and any emotion, whether pleasant or unpleasant, is
bound to change.

–Cynthia Thatcher, from Just Seeing: Insight Mediation and Sense-
Perception (Buddhist Publication Society)