Zen Koans: A Library of Teachings and Commentary
For centuries, Zen practitioners have engaged with koans—encounters, questions, and expressions drawn from the lives of the ancient masters that challenge our habitual ways of understanding ourselves and the world. Far from being riddles to solve, koans invite us to move beyond conceptual thought and encounter the living reality of our experience.
This collection brings together Dharma talks and written commentaries by Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner, founder and abbot of One River Zen, organized according to three classical collections: The Gateless Gate (Mumonkan), The Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku), and The Book of Equanimity (Shōyōroku).
Each teaching offers an opportunity to encounter the wisdom of these ancient cases within the circumstances of contemporary life, bringing the practice of Zen into direct conversation with the challenges, relationships, and possibilities of our everyday experience.
The Gateless Gate (Mumonkan)
Chinese: 無門關 — Wúménguān
Japanese: 無門関 — Mumonkan
Also known as: The Gateless Barrier, The Gateless Checkpoint, Wumen's Gate
Compiled in 1228 by the Zen master Mumon Ekai (1183–1260), The Gateless Gate is a collection of forty-eight koans drawn from the teachings and encounters of earlier Zen masters. Each case is accompanied by Mumon's own commentary and verse. One of the most widely studied collections in the Zen tradition, it opens with Jōshū's famous koan, Mu.
Mumonkan Case 1 — Jōshū's Mu (趙州無)
A monk asks Jōshū whether a dog has Buddha-nature. Jōshū responds with a single word: Mu. This deceptively simple exchange is one of the foundational koans of Zen practice.
The Gateway of Mu — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores Mu as a gateway beyond the judgments, fears, and fixed ideas that constrain our lives. Through the practice of Mu, we discover the freedom to meet life directly.
Mumonkan Case 2 — Hyakujō's Fox (百丈野狐)
An old priest, having denied that an awakened person is subject to cause and effect, is condemned to five hundred lifetimes as a fox. When Hyakujō declares that cause and effect cannot be obscured, the priest is liberated. This celebrated koan challenges our understanding of karma, awakening, and the possibility of freedom within the circumstances of our lives.
Hyakujō's Fox — Ango Opening Ceremony 2025 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how our attachment to personal narratives and expectations keeps us trapped in suffering. Rather than offering an escape from karma, awakening invites us to meet the conditions of our lives directly and creatively. Even the fox's five hundred lifetimes become an expression of grace when we recognize that freedom is found not beyond our circumstances, but within them.
Mumonkan Case 8 — Keichū Makes Carts (奚仲造車)
Master Gettan asks what remains of a cart when its wheels and axle are removed. This deceptively simple koan challenges our attachment to names, forms, and conceptual explanations, inviting us to discover the living activity beyond our fixed ideas of things.
Keichū Makes Carts — Mumonkan Case 8 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how we confuse the stories we tell about our experience with the experience itself. Through Gettan's question, he examines the relationship between conceptual understanding and direct encounter, revealing that genuine Zen practice is not merely about being present, but about functioning freely and intimately within the whole of life.
Mumonkan Case 9 — Daitsu Chishō Buddha (大通智勝)
A monk asks why Daitsu Chishō Buddha, having sat in meditation for ten kalpas, failed to attain Buddhahood. The master's reply overturns the assumption that awakening is something to be achieved through effort, time, or spiritual accomplishment.
Daitsu Chishō: The Non-Attained Buddha — Mumonkan Case 9 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen examines our tendency to approach spiritual practice as a journey toward some future state of perfection. Through the paradox of the non-attained Buddha, he reveals that awakening is not produced by practice or accumulated over time, but is already functioning within the immediacy of our ordinary lives.
Mumonkan Case 10 — Seizei the Poor (清税孤貧)
Seizei tells Master Sōzan that he is poor and destitute, asking for help. Sōzan replies that Seizei has already drunk three cups of the finest wine and still claims his lips have not been moistened. This koan confronts the imagined poverty that prevents us from recognizing the abundance already present in our lives.
Timeless Abundance: The Wine of This Moment — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores the subtle conviction that something is missing from our lives. Through Seizei's encounter with Sōzan, he invites us to abandon the endless pursuit of fulfillment elsewhere and discover the richness of this very moment, recognizing that freedom and abundance are not distant achievements but the living reality already before us.
Mumonkan Case 12 — Zuigan Calls Himself Master (巌喚主人)
Every day, Master Zuigan calls out to himself, "Master!" and answers, "Yes!" He reminds himself to remain fully awake and not to be deceived by others. This unusual exchange invites us to investigate the nature of the self, the meaning of awakening, and the awareness that remains present amid our changing thoughts and identities.
Carl Jung Meets Master Zuigan: The Dialogue Within — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen brings Zuigan's koan into conversation with Carl Jung's psychology of the shadow and individuation. Exploring the fragmented identities, emotional patterns, and karmic conditioning that shape our experience, he reveals how Zen practice invites us to recognize and integrate these dimensions of ourselves. Rather than escaping our conditioned lives, we discover the Master within through the compassionate embrace of everything we are.
Mumonkan Case 19 — Ordinary Mind Is the Way (平常是道)
Jōshū asks his teacher Nansen, "What is the Way?" Nansen replies, "Ordinary mind is the Way." When Jōshū asks whether he should direct himself toward it, Nansen warns that attempting to grasp the Way takes us further from it. This celebrated koan challenges the distinction between spiritual practice and ordinary experience, inviting us to recognize awakening within the immediacy of everyday life.
David Hume's Zen: Escaping the "Faint Copies" of Reality — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen brings Nansen's declaration into conversation with David Hume's distinction between impressions and ideas. He explores how the discursive mind reduces the vivid immediacy of life to conceptual representations, leaving us trapped in memories, expectations, and judgments. Through the koan, he invites us to abandon these faint copies and rediscover the wonder of direct experience, where the Way is not something to attain but the very life we are already living.
Mumonkan Case 26 — Two Monks Roll Up the Blinds (二僧巻簾)
Master Hōgen points to the bamboo blinds, and two monks rise together to roll them up. Although their actions appear identical, Hōgen declares that one has gained and the other has lost. This koan confronts our attachment to distinctions, judgments, and the search for hidden meaning, asking us to look directly at the activity of life itself.
Hōgen Points to the Blind — Shōyōroku Case 27 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how the mind becomes entangled in determining which monk succeeded and which failed. Rather than resolving the apparent contradiction through intellectual analysis, he invites us to abandon our conceptual judgments and engage directly with the circumstances before us. Awakening is not found in constructing a more sophisticated understanding of reality, but in the simple, intimate activity of living—washing the dishes, making the bed, responding to suffering, and meeting each moment with compassion.
Also appears as Shōyōroku Case 27.
Mumonkan Case 29 — Not the Wind, Not the Flag (非風非幡)
Two monks argue over a temple flag moving in the wind. One insists that the flag is moving, while the other maintains that it is the wind. The Sixth Ancestor, Daikan Enō, tells them that neither the wind nor the flag is moving—it is their minds that move. The koan challenges the assumptions through which we interpret experience and invites us beyond the divisions created by conceptual thought.
Beyond Ideas — Not the Wind, Not the Flag — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this Dharma talk from the 2023 Ango Sesshin, Sensei Sōen examines how our judgments, expectations, and preconceived ideas prevent us from encountering life directly. Through the exchange between the two monks and Daikan Enō, he encourages us to release our attachment to how things are supposed to be and discover the richness of what is actually present.
Podcast recording: Awakening Streams, December 6, 2023.
Mumonkan Case 31 — Jōshū Sees Through an Old Woman (趙州勘婆)
A monk asks an old woman for directions to Mount Taizan. She tells him to go straight ahead, then remarks upon his departure that he has gone the same way as all the others. Hearing of the encounter, Jōshū visits the woman himself and later announces that he has seen through her. This koan challenges our assumptions about understanding, discernment, and the ways our expectations obscure what is immediately before us.
Go Straight On: Seeing Through Illusion — Mumonkan Case 31 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores the practice of equanimity as the capacity to see clearly without becoming entangled in judgments, projections, and expectations. Through Jōshū's encounter with the old woman, he reveals how the search for confirmation and understanding can blind us to the reality already present. Rather than attempting to solve the koan intellectually, we are invited to remain with not-knowing, release our fixed ideas, and discover the freedom of simply going straight on.
Also appears as Shōyōroku Case 10.
Mumonkan Case 36 — Meeting One Who Has Attained the Way (路逢達道)
Master Goso asks how we should greet someone who has realized the Way when neither speech nor silence will suffice. This koan challenges the assumption that awakening can be expressed through prescribed behavior, inviting us to discover a response that arises directly from the circumstances of our encounter.
Seeing Through the Eyes of the Universe: The Three Pure Precepts in Practice — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores the relationship between awakening and compassionate action through the Three Pure Precepts. Drawing upon Goso's question, he reveals how genuine practice begins with not-knowing, allowing us to meet each encounter without the burden of preconceived judgments and respond with wisdom and compassion.
Mumonkan Case 37 — Jōshū's Oak Tree (庭前柏樹)
A monk asks Jōshū, "What is the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West?" Jōshū responds, "The oak tree in the garden." Rather than offering a philosophical explanation of the Dharma, Jōshū directs the monk toward the immediate reality of what stands before him.
Why Am I Here? — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores our persistent desire to understand why things happen and why we find ourselves facing particular circumstances. Through Jōshū's response, he encourages us to relinquish the search for explanations and immerse ourselves fully in the life unfolding before us. Rather than escaping difficulty or attempting to reason our way beyond suffering, Zen practice invites us to transform our circumstances through direct, compassionate engagement.
Mumonkan Case 38 — A Buffalo Passes Through a Window (牛過窓櫺)
Master Goso presents the image of a buffalo passing through a window. Its massive body, head, horns, and legs all pass through, yet its tiny tail remains caught outside. This curious image challenges our ordinary understanding of liberation, inviting us to investigate the subtle attachments that remain even when we imagine ourselves to be free.
Let Go and Live! — Mumonkan Case 38 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this recorded discussion with his students during the 2023 Ango practice period, Sensei Sōen takes up the buffalo koan and the invitation to let go and live fully.
Podcast recording — December 1, 2023.
Mumonkan Case 46 — Stepping from the Top of a Hundred-Foot Pole (竿頭進歩)
Master Sekisō asks how one can advance another step from the top of a hundred-foot pole. Even after reaching the summit of spiritual understanding, something more is required. This koan challenges us to move beyond attachment to realization itself and manifest awakening through the whole of our lives.
Daring Greatly — Mumonkan Case 46: Stepping from the Top of a Pole — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this recorded Dharma talk, Sensei Sōen takes up the challenge of stepping beyond the security of our achievements and understanding. The koan invites us to relinquish even our attachment to spiritual attainment and enter wholeheartedly into the ever-unfolding activity of life.
The Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku)
Chinese: 碧巖錄 — Bìyán Lù
Japanese: 碧巌録 — Hekiganroku
Also known as: The Blue Cliff Collection (Bìyán Jí)
Compiled in its classical form around 1125 by the Zen master Engo Kokugon (1063–1135), The Blue Cliff Record consists of one hundred koans originally selected and set to verse by Setchō Jūken (980–1052). Engo subsequently added introductions, extensive commentaries, and interlinear remarks, creating one of the most elaborate and influential works of classical Zen literature.
Hekiganroku Case 3 — Baso's Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha (馬大師不安)
When the great Zen master Baso becomes seriously ill, a temple priest asks about his health. Baso replies, "Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha." Referring to two Buddhas whose lifespans are radically different, this koan challenges our attachment to permanence, vitality, and the identities we construct around our changing circumstances.
Blue Cliff Record Case 3: Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores equanimity as the capacity to embrace the whole of life without grasping or rejection. Through Baso's response and the famous story of Hakuin's "Is that so?", he examines how awakening manifests equally in health and illness, joy and suffering, vitality and decline. Rather than distancing ourselves from life's difficulties, genuine equanimity opens the heart to compassion and allows us to respond freely to whatever arises.
Also appears as Shōyōroku Case 36.
Hekiganroku Case 6 — Unmon's Every Day Is a Good Day (雲門十五日)
Master Unmon addresses his assembly, asking them to say something about the days following the fifteenth of the month. When no answer is forthcoming, he responds himself: "Every day is a good day." This celebrated koan invites us beyond our judgments of favorable and unfavorable circumstances to encounter each moment in its completeness.
Every Day Is a Good Day! — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how our attachment to extraordinary experiences and spiritual accomplishments can obscure the wonder of ordinary life. Unmon's declaration is not a denial of suffering or difficulty, but an invitation to meet each day without the burden of expectation. By embracing impermanence and releasing our attachment to past achievements and future possibilities, we discover the richness and freedom available in the immediacy of this very moment.
Hekiganroku Case 20 — Ryūge Asks Suibi and Rinzai (龍牙西來意)
Ryūge asks two great Zen masters about the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West. Both respond by requesting ordinary objects—a chin rest and a sitting cushion—and then striking him. Ryūge insists that there is no meaning in the Patriarch's coming from the West. This koan challenges our search for ultimate explanations and asks whether even the rejection of meaning can become another form of attachment.
Seeking Meaning and the Empty Search — Blue Cliff Record Case 20 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores our persistent desire to construct narratives that explain our suffering and give our lives meaning. Through Ryūge's encounters, he examines how spiritual ideas themselves can become barriers to awakening. Drawing upon the Buddha's teaching of the two arrows, he invites us to abandon the explanations we impose upon experience and meet the circumstances of our lives directly, discovering freedom not in conceptual understanding but in wholehearted engagement.
Stop Trying to Understand, and See — Shōyōroku Case 80 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this related teaching, Sensei Sōen examines the difference between intellectually understanding a teaching and actually realizing it. Ryūge's repeated encounters reveal how easily we exchange one conceptual attachment for another, mistaking our conclusions about reality for the living experience itself. Genuine freedom requires more than arriving at the right answer; it demands that we relinquish our attachment to answers altogether.
Also appears as Shōyōroku Case 80.
Hekiganroku Case 23 — Hofuku's Summit of Mystic Peak (保福妙峰頂)
While walking together in the mountains, Hofuku points to the landscape and declares, "Right here is the summit of Mystic Peak." Chōkei responds, "Indeed it is. What a pity." This subtle exchange challenges our tendency to transform awakening into something we can identify, possess, or explain. Even the recognition that this very place is the summit can become another obstacle when we turn living reality into an idea.
Right Here—Now What? Hekiganroku Case 23 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores the essential movement from realization to actualization. Through Hofuku and Chōkei's encounter, he challenges the tendency to romanticize awakening while remaining disconnected from the demands of ordinary life. Genuine practice requires more than recognizing the summit of Mystic Peak; it calls us to cultivate clear intention, embody our understanding, and show up wholeheartedly for the life we are actually living.
Hekiganroku Case 36 — Chōsha Wandering in the Mountains (長沙遊山)
After wandering in the mountains, Master Chōsha tells his head monk that he followed the fragrant grasses and returned among the falling flowers. When the monk compares this to the feeling of springtime, Chōsha responds that it surpasses even the autumn dew upon the lotuses. This poetic encounter invites us to examine the relationship between direct experience and the meanings we impose upon our lives.
Wandering in the Mountains — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores the freedom of participating wholeheartedly in life without becoming attached to the narratives through which we interpret it. Chōsha's wandering becomes an invitation to release our demand that experience lead somewhere or accomplish something, and instead become intimate with the unfolding activity of life itself.
Additional Teaching — Hekiganroku Case 36
Chōsha Roams the Mountains and Comes Home to Life — Blue Cliff Record Case 36 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this second teaching on Chōsha's wandering, Sensei Sōen explores the difference between describing the beauty of awakening and experiencing life directly. The fragrant grasses and falling flowers point toward the freedom of forgetting the constructed self and becoming fully immersed in the circumstances of each moment. Rather than seeking a distant realization, we discover that every step of our journey is already a homecoming.
Hekiganroku Case 40 — Nansen's This Flower (南泉一株花)
The government official Riku Taifu quotes the teaching that heaven, earth, and all beings share the same fundamental nature. Nansen responds by pointing toward a flower in the garden, observing that people nowadays see such a flower as though dreaming. This koan challenges the distance between conceptual understanding and direct experience, asking whether our knowledge of reality has become an obstacle to truly encountering it.
Nansen's "This Flower" and the Danger of Knowing — Blue Cliff Record Case 40 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen examines how certainty, ideology, and attachment to understanding separate us from the immediacy of our lives. Nansen's flower becomes an invitation to abandon the security of our conceptual frameworks and recover the intimacy of direct experience. Through the cultivation of beginner's mind and the wisdom of prajñā, we discover that awakening is not found in knowing more about reality, but in encountering it without the interference of our fixed ideas.
Hekiganroku Case 41 — Jōshū's Great Death (趙州大死底人)
Jōshū asks what happens when someone who has experienced the great death returns to life. Tōsu replies that one must not travel at night but must arrive in broad daylight. This koan examines the relationship between the dropping away of the constructed self and the necessity of returning fully to ordinary life.
Walking in Daylight — Hekiganroku Case 41 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores the great death as the collapse of the stories and identities through which we define ourselves. Yet awakening does not end with the dissolution of these narratives. Through Jōshū's encounter, he invites us to return to life openly and courageously, meeting suffering, vulnerability, and responsibility without retreating behind the protective structures of the small self.
Also appears as Shōyōroku Case 63.
Hekiganroku Case 49 — Sanshō's Golden Carp (三聖透網金鱗)
Sanshō asks Seppō what a golden carp that has passed through the fishing net should eat. Seppō replies that he will answer when Sanshō has actually escaped the net. Their sharp exchange challenges our assumptions about liberation, revealing how even the conviction that we have transcended attachment can become another form of bondage.
Let the Dust Settle — Shōyōroku Case 33 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how spiritual understanding becomes another expression of ego when we seek recognition, affirmation, or superiority through our practice. Sanshō's confident declaration meets Seppō's refusal to participate in spiritual performance. Genuine freedom emerges not from proclaiming our liberation but from relinquishing the need to prove anything, responding to life with humility, clarity, and compassionate engagement.
Also appears as Shōyōroku Case 33.
Hekiganroku Case 74 — Kingyū's Rice Pail (金牛和尚呵呵笑)
At every mealtime, Master Kingyū carries a great rice pail before the monks' hall, dancing and laughing as he calls, "Bodhisattvas, come eat!" Yet Setchō remarks that Kingyū is not acting out of good-heartedness. This joyful encounter challenges our assumptions about compassion, service, and the nature of awakened activity, inviting us to look beyond moral judgments and discover the spontaneous expression of life itself.
Free Will, Karma, and the 200-Millisecond Gap — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen brings Kingyū's extraordinary dance into conversation with Benjamin Libet's experiments on conscious decision-making, Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophy of prereflective consciousness, and the Christian apostle Paul's reflections on the struggle between intention and action. Exploring the momentum of karmic conditioning, he examines how genuine freedom emerges not through the construction of a virtuous identity, but through the capacity to interrupt habitual reactions and respond directly to the needs of the moment. Kingyū's dance becomes an expression of compassion beyond self-conscious goodness—a life in which awakening is not merely understood, but embodied.
Hekiganroku Case 77 — Unmon's Rice Cake (雲門答餬餅)
A monk asks Unmon, "What is speech that transcends the Buddhas and goes beyond the ancestors?" Unmon replies simply, "Rice cake." This deceptively ordinary response challenges our tendency to seek awakening in something extraordinary, revealing how our distinctions between sacred and profane obscure the fullness of life already before us.
The Taste of the Ordinary: Beyond Buddhas and Ancestors — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how our pursuit of extraordinary spiritual experiences causes us to overlook the profound richness of ordinary life. Through Unmon's humble rice cake, he examines the ways we divide experience into sacred and profane, worthy and unworthy, Buddha and demon. Drawing upon Dōgen's teachings and the Zen meal gatha, he invites us to recognize that nothing in our lives needs to be excluded from awakening. True practice emerges when we receive the whole of our experience without separation, allowing ourselves to be nourished and transformed by the circumstances already at hand.
Also appears as Shōyōroku Case 78.
Hekiganroku Case 89 — Ungan's Hands and Eyes of Great Compassion (雲巖問道吾手眼)
Ungan asks Dōgo how the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion uses her countless hands and eyes. Dōgo replies that it is like someone reaching behind themselves for a pillow in the middle of the night. Their subsequent exchange distinguishes between hands and eyes covering the body and hands and eyes functioning throughout the body. This subtle distinction reveals compassion not as something we consciously apply, but as the spontaneous activity of awakened life.
The Unhesitating Hand of Compassion — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores compassion as the natural functioning of our lives when the boundaries of self and other fall away. Through Ungan and Dōgo's exchange, he reveals how compassionate action arises without calculation, hesitation, or the need to construct a virtuous identity. Like reaching for a pillow in the darkness, genuine compassion responds immediately and intimately to the circumstances at hand. Rather than cultivating compassion as an external virtue, Zen practice invites us to recognize it as the unobstructed expression of our true nature.
Zen, Compassion & Koans: The Two Secrets of True Compassion — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this second teaching, Sensei Sōen explores the inseparability of realization and compassionate action. Drawing upon the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion and the distinction between "all over the body" and "throughout the body," he examines how our attachment to a separate self obstructs the natural expression of wisdom. Through the work of serving others and responding to suffering, he demonstrates that awakening is not an idealized spiritual identity but the living activity of showing up wholeheartedly for our lives.
Also appears as Shōyōroku Case 54.
The Book of Equanimity (Shōyōroku)
Chinese: 從容錄 — Cóngróng Lù
Japanese: 従容録 — Shōyōroku
Also known as: The Book of Serenity, The Book of Composure
Compiled in 1224 by the Zen master Banshō Gyōshū (1166–1246), The Book of Equanimity contains one hundred koans accompanied by verses composed by Wanshi Shōgaku (1091–1157). Banshō added introductions, commentaries, and interpretive remarks to Wanshi's earlier work. A central text in the Sōtō Zen tradition, the collection explores the subtle interplay of awakening, wisdom, and everyday life.
Shōyōroku Case 6 — Baso's White and Black (馬祖白黒)
A monk asks Baso to explain the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West, setting aside all philosophical propositions and negations. Baso sends him to Chizō, who complains of a headache, and then to Kai, who professes ignorance. When the monk returns, Baso declares, "Chizō's head is white; Kai's head is black." This koan challenges our search for answers beyond the immediacy of lived experience.
Baso's White and Black — Shōyōroku Case 6 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how the Dharma is expressed through the ordinary gestures and encounters of life, rather than through philosophical explanation. Drawing upon the principles of Nonviolent Communication, he reveals how even refusal, confusion, and apparent ignorance can become expressions of intimacy and compassion when we meet one another without the burden of conceptual expectations.
Shōyōroku Case 8 — Hyakujō's Fox (百丈野狐)
An old priest, having once denied that an awakened person is subject to cause and effect, is condemned to five hundred lifetimes as a fox. When Hyakujō declares that cause and effect cannot be obscured, the priest is liberated. This celebrated koan challenges our understanding of karma, awakening, and the possibility of freedom within the circumstances of our lives.
Hyakujō's Fox — Ango Opening Ceremony 2025 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how our attachment to personal narratives and expectations keeps us trapped in suffering. Rather than offering an escape from karma, awakening invites us to meet the conditions of our lives directly and creatively. Even the fox's five hundred lifetimes become an expression of grace when we recognize that freedom is found not beyond our circumstances, but within them.
Also appears as Mumonkan Case 2.
Shōyōroku Case 10 — Jōshū Sees Through an Old Woman (趙州勘婆)
A monk asks an old woman for directions to Mount Taizan. She tells him to go straight ahead, then remarks upon his departure that he has gone the same way as all the others. Hearing of the encounter, Jōshū visits the woman himself and later announces that he has seen through her. This koan challenges our assumptions about understanding, discernment, and the ways our expectations obscure what is immediately before us.
Go Straight On: Seeing Through Illusion — Mumonkan Case 31 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores equanimity as the capacity to see clearly without becoming entangled in judgments, projections, and expectations. Through Jōshū's encounter with the old woman, he reveals how the search for confirmation and understanding can blind us to the reality already present. Rather than attempting to solve the koan intellectually, we are invited to remain with not-knowing, release our fixed ideas, and discover the freedom of simply going straight on.
Also appears as Mumonkan Case 31.
Shōyōroku Case 12 — Jizō Plants the Field (地蔵種田)
Master Jizō asks Shuzan about the state of Buddhist teaching in the South. When Shuzan describes the many debates taking place there, Jizō responds that he prefers planting the fields, making rice balls, and eating. This deceptively simple exchange contrasts the pursuit of conceptual understanding with the direct activity of living the Dharma.
Jizo Plants the Field — Shōyōroku Case Twelve — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how our attachment to philosophical explanations and judgments separates us from the life unfolding before us. Through Jizō's ordinary activity, he reveals that the Buddhadharma is not something found in abstract arguments, but something embodied in our relationships, work, and daily responsibilities. Awakening emerges as we abandon the need to make life conform to our ideas and meet each circumstance directly.
Shōyōroku Case 14 — Attendant Kaku Serves Tea (霍侍者煎茶)
Attendant Kaku asks Tokusan where the sages of the past have gone. Tokusan responds with an apparently dismissive question, and Kaku challenges his teacher's response. The following day, while serving tea, Kaku receives another gesture from Tokusan. This encounter challenges the distinction between teacher and student, past and present, and intellectual understanding and genuine realization.
Embracing the Present: Letting Go of Stories and Finding Compassion — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how clinging to our ideas about the past, our identities, and our expectations prevents us from encountering the living Dharma. Through Kaku's exchange with Tokusan, he invites us to relinquish our conceptual stories and discover the wisdom available within each immediate encounter. Genuine practice is not found in preserving the achievements of the ancient masters, but in embodying their awakening through compassionate engagement with the life before us.
Shōyōroku Case 16 — Mayoku Thumps His Staff (麻谷振錫)
Mayoku visits two Zen masters, circling each one's meditation seat three times and striking the ground with his staff. Shōkei approves his action, declaring it right, while Nansen declares the same action wrong. This koan confronts our attachment to fixed judgments and exposes the limitations of approaching Zen practice through abstract standards of correctness.
Mayoku Thumps His Staff — Right and Wrong in Zen — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen examines how our expectations and judgments transform living experience into a series of conceptual representations. Mayoku's encounters reveal that wisdom cannot be reduced to predetermined rules or interpretations. True practice requires the courage to relinquish our fixed ideas, recognize what the circumstances actually demand, and respond with intention, clarity, and compassion.
Shōyōroku Case 17 — Hōgen's Hair's-Breadth (法眼毫釐)
Hōgen asks a monk to explain the teaching that even a hair's-breadth of difference separates heaven and earth. Their exchange turns upon the very distinction between understanding a teaching and directly realizing it. This koan reveals how the smallest movement toward conceptual separation can obscure the boundless intimacy of our experience.
Hōgen's Hair's-Breadth — Shōyōroku Case 17 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen brings Hōgen's exchange into conversation with the Shin Jin Mei, exploring how our attachment to preferences, judgments, and expectations continually divides the world. The gap between the life we imagine and the life presenting itself becomes a source of suffering. Through the practice of releasing our conceptual measurements, we discover the freedom of encountering reality without separation, where even the simple act of bowing expresses the whole of the Dharma.
Shōyōroku Case 19 — Unmon's Mount Sumeru (雲門須彌)
A monk asks Unmon whether any fault remains when not a single thought arises. Unmon responds simply, "Mount Sumeru." Named for the immense cosmic mountain at the center of traditional Buddhist cosmology, this response challenges our assumptions about purity, mental stillness, and the obstacles we imagine separating us from awakening.
Unmon's Mount Sumeru: Meeting the Obstacles of the Mind with Zen Clarity — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how the constructed self continually divides experience into desirable and undesirable circumstances, creating seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Through Unmon's Mount Sumeru, he reveals that awakening is not an escape into perfect stillness or freedom from difficulty, but the capacity to embrace the whole of our experience without separation. The mountain itself becomes an invitation to abandon our resistance and embody the Dharma through wholehearted participation in life.
Shōyōroku Case 21 — Ungan Sweeps the Ground (雲巖掃地)
While Ungan is sweeping the ground, Dōgo remarks that he is working very hard. Ungan replies that there is one who is not working hard, prompting Dōgo to ask whether there are two moons. Ungan raises his broom and asks, "Which moon is this?" This subtle exchange challenges the division between the one who acts and the activity itself, revealing how conceptual distinctions obscure the natural functioning of our lives.
Ungan Sweeps the Ground — Book of Equanimity Case 21 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen examines how the discursive mind transforms the ordinary activity of living into an endless commentary upon ourselves. Through Ungan's sweeping, he explores the subtle division between effort and non-effort, delusion and awakening, and the self who acts and the self who judges that action. Genuine practice emerges when we relinquish the need to evaluate our experience and enter fully into the activity before us, responding to life directly with our hands and hearts rather than through the abstractions of thought.
Shōyōroku Case 27 — Hōgen Points to the Blind (法眼指簾)
Master Hōgen points toward a bamboo blind, and two monks rise together to roll it up. Although their actions appear identical, Hōgen declares that one has gained and the other has lost. This koan challenges our attachment to distinctions, judgments, and the search for hidden meaning, asking us to look directly at the activity of life itself.
Hōgen Points to the Blind — Shōyōroku Case 27 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how quickly the mind becomes entangled in determining which monk succeeded and which failed. Rather than resolving the apparent contradiction through intellectual analysis, he invites us to abandon our conceptual judgments and engage directly with the circumstances before us. Awakening is not found in constructing a more sophisticated understanding of reality, but in the simple, intimate activity of living—washing the dishes, making the bed, responding to suffering, and meeting each moment with compassion.
Shōyōroku Case 33 — Sanshō's Golden Carp (三聖金鱗)
Sanshō asks Seppō what a golden carp that has passed through the fishing net should eat. Seppō replies that he will answer when Sanshō has actually escaped the net. Their sharp exchange challenges our assumptions about liberation, revealing how even the conviction that we have transcended attachment can become another form of bondage.
Let the Dust Settle — Shōyōroku Case 33 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how spiritual understanding becomes another expression of ego when we seek recognition, affirmation, or superiority through our practice. Sanshō's confident declaration meets Seppō's refusal to participate in spiritual performance. Genuine freedom emerges not from proclaiming our liberation but from relinquishing the need to prove anything, responding to life with humility, clarity, and compassionate engagement.
Also appears as Hekiganroku Case 49.
Shōyōroku Case 36 — Baso's Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha (馬師不安)
When the great Zen master Baso becomes seriously ill, a temple priest asks about his health. Baso replies, "Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha." Referring to two Buddhas whose lifespans are radically different, this koan challenges our attachment to permanence, vitality, and the identities we construct around our changing circumstances.
Blue Cliff Record Case 3: Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores equanimity as the capacity to embrace the whole of life without grasping or rejection. Through Baso's response and Hakuin's famous "Is that so?", he examines how awakening manifests equally in health and illness, joy and suffering, vitality and decline. Genuine equanimity opens the heart to compassion and allows us to respond freely to whatever arises.
Also appears as Hekiganroku Case 3.
Shōyōroku Case 38 — Rinzai's True Person of No Rank (臨濟真人)
Rinzai declares that there is a true person of no rank continually entering and leaving through the gates of our faces. When a monk asks who this person is, Rinzai seizes him and demands an answer. The monk hesitates, and Rinzai dismisses him. This encounter challenges our identification with the constructed self and invites us to recognize the freedom that cannot be contained by names, roles, or spiritual accomplishments.
The True Person of No Rank: Breaking Free from the Illusion of Self — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this Dharma talk, Sensei Sōen explores how pain, fear, relationships, and accumulated experience contribute to the identities we mistake for ourselves. Through Rinzai's uncompromising encounter, he examines the illusion of a fixed self and the freedom that becomes available when we no longer need to defend our stories about who we are. Awakening is not a new identity to acquire, but the living practice of releasing our attachment to every identity.
Podcast recording — February 15, 2025.
Shōyōroku Case 43 — Razan's Arising and Vanishing (羅山起滅)
Razan asks Gantō what happens when arising and vanishing are ceaseless. Gantō responds by demanding, "Who is this arising and vanishing?" Rather than explaining the impermanence of phenomena, Gantō turns the inquiry toward the very one who experiences change. This koan invites us to investigate the self that appears to stand apart from life's continual transformation.
Who Is This Arising and Vanishing? — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores our tendency to withdraw from life while waiting for more favorable circumstances. Through Razan's encounter, he examines the distinction between conceptual knowledge and direct experience, revealing how the constructed self is itself an expression of arising and vanishing. Rather than seeking stability beyond change, Zen practice invites us to engage fully with the circumstances already present, discovering freedom and compassion in the midst of impermanence.
Shōyōroku Case 45 — The Sutra of Complete Awakening (覺經四節)
Four passages from the Sutra of Complete Awakening instruct practitioners not to give rise to deluded thoughts, yet also warn against attempting to extinguish delusion when it appears. They caution against adding discriminating knowledge or constructing yet another distinction between delusion and reality. This unusual koan, drawn directly from scripture rather than a dialogue between masters, challenges our impulse to turn awakening into a project of self-improvement.
Stop Trying to Fix Yourself: A Zen Teaching on Not Knowing — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how our desperate need for certainty turns spiritual practice into another expression of grasping. Bringing the Sutra of Complete Awakening into conversation with Great Doubt, the Three Transformative Touchstones, and the practice of maintaining wonder, he challenges us to stop treating our lives as problems requiring repair. Genuine practice does not demand that we eliminate our thoughts or emotions, but that we meet them without adding another layer of judgment, allowing ourselves to be moved by life as it actually unfolds.
Shōyōroku Case 47 — Jōshū's Oak Tree (趙州柏樹)
A monk asks Jōshū, "What is the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West?" Jōshū responds, "The oak tree in the garden." Rather than offering a philosophical explanation of the Dharma, Jōshū directs the monk toward the immediate reality of what stands before him.
Why Am I Here? — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores our persistent desire to understand why things happen and why we find ourselves facing particular circumstances. Through Jōshū's response, he encourages us to relinquish the search for explanations and immerse ourselves fully in the life unfolding before us. Rather than escaping difficulty or attempting to reason our way beyond suffering, Zen practice invites us to transform our circumstances through direct, compassionate engagement.
Also appears as Mumonkan Case 37.
Shōyōroku Case 54 — Ungan's Great Compassionate One (雲巖大悲)
Ungan asks Dōgo how the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion uses her countless hands and eyes. Dōgo replies that it is like someone reaching behind themselves for a pillow in the middle of the night. Their subsequent exchange distinguishes between hands and eyes covering the body and hands and eyes functioning throughout the body. This subtle distinction reveals compassion not as something we consciously apply, but as the spontaneous activity of awakened life.
The Unhesitating Hand of Compassion — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores compassion as the natural functioning of our lives when the boundaries of self and other fall away. Through Ungan and Dōgo's exchange, he reveals how compassionate action arises without calculation, hesitation, or the need to construct a virtuous identity. Like reaching for a pillow in the darkness, genuine compassion responds immediately and intimately to the circumstances at hand.
Zen, Compassion & Koans: The Two Secrets of True Compassion — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this second teaching, Sensei Sōen explores the inseparability of realization and compassionate action. Drawing upon the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion and the distinction between "all over the body" and "throughout the body," he examines how attachment to a separate self obstructs the natural expression of wisdom. Through the work of serving others and responding to suffering, he demonstrates that awakening is not an idealized spiritual identity but the living activity of showing up wholeheartedly for our lives.
Also appears as Hekiganroku Case 89.
Shōyōroku Case 57 — Gen'yō's One Thing (嚴陽一物)
Gen'yō asks Jōshū what remains when there is not a single thing. Jōshū tells him to throw it away. When Gen'yō protests that there is nothing to throw away, Jōshū replies that he should carry it away. This exchange challenges our attachment to emptiness itself, revealing how even the conviction that we possess nothing can become another object of grasping.
Throw It Away — Gen'yō's One Thing — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how our attachment to conceptual distinctions perpetuates the very suffering we hope to escape. Drawing upon the practice of the precepts and the tendency to judge the faults of others, he reveals how our endless attempts to clarify, categorize, and correct experience become another form of grasping. Jōshū's instruction to throw it away invites us to abandon our obsession with understanding and return to the immediate, compassionate work of living.
Shōyōroku Case 59 — Seirin's Deadly Snake (青林死蛇)
A monk asks Seirin about proceeding along the path. Seirin warns that a deadly snake lies across the great road and advises him not to encounter it. Yet when the monk asks how to avoid the snake, Seirin declares that there is nowhere to escape. Their exchange reveals the impossibility of finding liberation by avoiding the very circumstances of our lives.
Surrender — Shōyōroku Case 59: Seirin's Deadly Snake — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
Through Seirin's encounter with the monk, this recorded teaching takes up the challenge of surrendering our attempts to escape, control, or conceptually resolve experience. The deadly snake becomes an invitation to confront the immediacy of our lives and investigate the freedom that cannot be found through avoidance.
Podcast recording — March 11, 2024.
Shōyōroku Case 63 — Jōshū Asks About Death (趙州問死)
Jōshū asks Tōsu what happens when someone who has experienced the great death returns to life. Tōsu replies that one must not travel at night but must arrive in broad daylight. This koan examines the relationship between the dropping away of the constructed self and the necessity of returning fully to ordinary life.
Book of Equanimity Case 63: Jōshū Asks About Death and Returning to Life — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen draws upon his own journey into Zen practice to explore the great death as the collapse of the narratives and identities through which we construct ourselves. Yet the experience of emptiness can become another form of attachment when we withdraw from our relationships and responsibilities. Genuine awakening requires us to return to the world, embracing the consequences of our actions and allowing the insight of selflessness to manifest as compassionate engagement.
Walking in Daylight — Hekiganroku Case 41 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this related teaching, Sensei Sōen examines how awakening must extend beyond the dissolution of the small self. Through Jōshū's question and Tōsu's response, he challenges the tendency to remain sheltered within spiritual understanding. The invitation is to step into the daylight of ordinary life, meeting suffering, vulnerability, and responsibility without retreating behind the protective structures of the constructed self.
Also appears as Hekiganroku Case 41.
Shōyōroku Case 78 — Unmon's Rice Cake (雲門餬餅)
A monk asks Unmon what kind of speech transcends the Buddhas and goes beyond the ancestors. Unmon replies simply, "Rice cake." Rather than offering an exalted spiritual teaching, he points toward one of the most ordinary things imaginable. This deceptively simple response challenges our tendency to divide the world into sacred and profane, revealing how the Dharma is expressed through the everyday activities of our lives.
The Taste of the Ordinary: Beyond Buddhas and Ancestors — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how our pursuit of extraordinary spiritual experiences causes us to overlook the profound richness of ordinary life. Through Unmon's humble rice cake, he examines the ways we divide experience into sacred and profane, worthy and unworthy, Buddha and demon. Drawing upon Dōgen's teachings and the Zen meal gatha, he reveals how even a simple meal contains the labor, care, and interdependence of countless lives. Genuine awakening emerges when nothing is excluded from our experience and we allow the whole of life to nourish and transform us.
Also appears as Hekiganroku Case 77.
Shōyōroku Case 80 — Ryūge Passes the Chin Rest (龍牙過板)
Ryūge asks Suibi and Rinzai about the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West. Both masters respond by requesting ordinary objects—a chin rest and a sitting cushion—and then striking him. Ryūge repeatedly insists that there is no meaning in the Patriarch's coming from the West. This koan challenges our search for ultimate explanations, revealing how even the rejection of meaning can become another form of conceptual attachment.
Stop Trying to Understand, and See — Shōyōroku Case 80 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores the difference between intellectually understanding a teaching and actually realizing it. Ryūge's encounters reveal how easily we exchange one conceptual attachment for another, mistaking our conclusions about reality for the living experience itself. Even the assertion that life has no meaning can become another certainty to defend. Genuine freedom requires more than arriving at the right answer; it demands that we relinquish our attachment to answers altogether and allow the question itself to open us to the immediacy of our lives.
Also appears as Hekiganroku Case 20.
Shōyōroku Case 81 — Gensha Comes to the Province (玄沙到縣)
Master Gensha arrives in Hōden Province and is welcomed with festivities. The following day, he asks Shōtō where all of yesterday's celebrations have gone. Shōtō raises a corner of his robe, but Gensha declares that there is no relationship between them. This koan challenges our conventional understanding of time and experience, inviting us to investigate the relationship between past and present, memory and immediacy, separation and intimacy.
Enter Zen from There — Book of Equanimity Case 81 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen explores how our conceptual divisions of past, present, and future prevent us from encountering the fullness of our lives. Drawing upon Gensha's personal journey through grief and awakening, he examines how our attachment to memories, expectations, and painful experiences can obscure the living reality already before us. Yet the past is not simply something left behind, nor is the future a distant destination. Every circumstance, including our suffering and uncertainty, becomes an invitation to enter Zen directly, discovering the possibility of transformation within the very life we are living.
Shōyōroku Case 91 — Nansen's Peony (南泉牡丹)
The government official Riku Taifu quotes the Buddhist teaching that heaven, earth, and all beings share the same fundamental nature. Nansen responds by pointing toward a peony in the garden, observing that people nowadays see such a flower as though dreaming. This koan challenges the distance between conceptual understanding and direct experience, asking whether our ideas about reality prevent us from truly encountering the world before us.
Nansen's "This Flower" and the Danger of Knowing — Blue Cliff Record Case 40 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen examines how certainty, ideology, and attachment to understanding separate us from the immediacy of our lives. Nansen's flower becomes an invitation to abandon the security of conceptual frameworks and recover the intimacy of direct experience. Through beginner's mind and the wisdom of prajñā, we discover that awakening is not found in knowing more about reality, but in encountering it without the interference of fixed ideas.
Also appears as Hekiganroku Case 40.
Shōyōroku Case 100 — Rōya's Mountains and Rivers (瑯琊山河)
A monk asks Master Rōya why mountains, rivers, and the great earth arise if original nature is fundamentally pure and undefiled. Rather than explaining how an impure world could emerge from purity, Rōya turns the question back upon itself. His response challenges the very distinction between original nature and the world of appearances, revealing the inseparability of emptiness and form.
Mountains, Rivers, and the True Will — Shōyōroku Case 100 — Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner
In this teaching, Sensei Sōen brings Rōya's koan into conversation with two seemingly opposing perspectives: Aleister Crowley's conception of True Will and John the Baptist's declaration that the self must diminish before a greater reality. He explores how both self-assertion and self-negation can become expressions of attachment when we remain trapped in the conceptual boundaries of the constructed self. Rōya's mountains and rivers reveal a freedom beyond both extremes, where original nature is not something separate from the world but is expressed through every aspect of our lived experience. Genuine practice emerges when we relinquish our need to assert or erase ourselves and allow wisdom and compassion to manifest through the circumstances of our lives.