Transcript of the first lecture in a four-part series on the Dhammapada delivered by Sensei Michael Brunner at One River Zen in Ottawa, IL

A Zen teaching on Book of Equanimity Case 45, “The Sutra of Complete Awakening,” exploring delusion, uncertainty, Great Doubt, and what happens when we stop trying to fix ourselves and meet life directly.

In this talk by Sensei Michael Brunner on Shoyoroku Case 27, we explore how quickly the mind turns direct experience into judgment, meaning, and explanation, and what Zen practice asks of us instead: to meet life as it is, engage what is directly in front of us, and allow that encounter to make a real demand on how we live.

There is a great temptation in our practice to simplify the story of the self by excluding the feelings of others.

When we look carefully, we notice that there are many different identities contained within our notion of self. Each of these identities, when we cling to it or dwell within it, drives our actions, or karma.

Until we know who is living our life, until we see what is operating unconsciously as we try to hold the idea of self together, we will remain bound by it.

Complaining is a kind of spiritual impotence. When we complain, we sit around saying that we are no longer in the driver’s seat, that we are no longer exerting the activity required to mend what, in our opinion, has gone wrong.

Past, future, and the direct intimacy of this moment

Where do we enter the practice of Zen?

We often imagine that practice begins when our circumstances improve, when our minds become quiet, or when we finally understand what we are supposed to be doing. Yet Zen always begins in the life that is already here. Grief, uncertainty, pleasure, pain, memory, hope, and doubt are not obstacles standing between us and the Way. Each one is an entrance.

This talk considers Case 81 of the Shōyōroku, “Gensha Comes to the Province,” and the invitation to meet our whole life within the immediacy of the present moment.

…when you find yourself feeling like you’re running out of steam, simply go out and give whatever little love you think you have left away. Avoid the temptation to fall into the loop that says, "There’s nothing left. There’s nothing I can do. There’s no one I can help.”

We all recite the Bodhisattva Vow together. We don't take this vow simply to step into the happiness that's already present in life or to hope for smooth sailing. We take a vow to step into suffering wherever we encounter it.

In this twenty-fifth and final installment of his commentary on Dōgen’s Uji, Sensei Michael Brunner explores practice as an ongoing expression of being-time. Coming to training, continuing practice, arriving, and going beyond arrival are each complete manifestations of uji, revealing that awakening is not a final destination but the living activity of practice itself.

In this twenty-fourth installment of his commentary on Dōgen’s Uji, Sensei Michael Brunner explores “half,” “counterfeit,” and even “false” being-time as complete expressions of the moment. The teaching challenges fixed ideas of progress and correctness, inviting us to investigate each experience fully and continue practice without turning completion itself into something to grasp.

In this twenty-third installment of his commentary on Dōgen’s Uji, Sensei Michael Brunner explores obstruction, intention, expression, arrival, and “not arriving” as complete expressions of being-time. The teaching shows how even obstacles and realization itself must be released, inviting us into a continuous practice of becoming Buddha.

In this twenty-second installment of his commentary on Dōgen’s Uji, Sensei Michael Brunner explores intention, expression, arrival, and hindrance as complete manifestations of being-time. Through Master Kisei’s imagery of the donkey and the horse, the teaching invites us to see practice not as a linear progression but as the full expression of each moment of uji.

In this twenty-first installment of his commentary on Dōgen’s Uji, Sensei Michael Brunner explores the Buddha’s awakening, the morning star, and the raising of the udumbara flower as complete expressions of being-time. The teaching connects Uji with Genjōkōan, inviting us to forget the small self, experience profound unity, and recognize the Dharma Gate opening in this very moment.

In this twentieth installment of his commentary on Dōgen’s Uji, Sensei Michael Brunner explores the teaching that mountains, oceans, and our own lives do not merely exist within time—they are time. The commentary examines being-time as the complete activity of existence, inviting us to release fixed ideas of self and meet the present-infinite directly.

In this nineteenth installment of his commentary on Dōgen’s Uji, Sensei Michael Brunner explores Baso’s teaching of eyebrows, eyes, mountains, and oceans as complete expressions of being-time. The commentary examines the intimacy of perceiver and perceived, while challenging fixed ideas of right and wrong, action and non-action, as each moment fully manifests uji.

In this eighteenth installment of his commentary on Dōgen’s Uji, Sensei Michael Brunner explores Yakusan’s awakening encounter with Baso and the limits of intellectual understanding. Through the imagery of raised eyebrows, twinkling eyes, and the iron ox, the teaching shows how awakening arises through direct engagement with being-time rather than conceptual grasping.

In this seventeenth installment of his commentary on Dōgen’s Uji, Sensei Michael Brunner explores awakening not as a distant goal but as a complete expression of being-time. Through Dōgen’s teaching on transiting and the Zen question of the “original face,” the commentary invites us to recognize practice, awakening, and this present moment as inseparable manifestations of uji.

We must be incredibly careful in our practice not to cling to the mere idea of getting things done.