What if grief, uncertainty, longing, and doubt are not obstacles to Zen practice, but the very places where practice begins? In this episode, Sensei Michael Brunner explores Case 81 of the Shōyōroku, “Gensha Comes to the Province,” and the teaching, “Enter Zen from there.” Through the story of Gensha, the sound of a bubbling brook, and the raising of a robe, this talk examines how the past and future are encountered in the present moment. Sensei Michael reflects on the ways we cling to pleasure, resist pain, and divide our lives into what we want and what we would rather avoid. Zen practice invites us to meet all of it directly. When we stop standing apart from our experience, grief, anxiety, memory, and uncertainty can become entrances into intimacy, compassion, and awakening. Wherever your life is unfolding, enter Zen from there.
What if grief, uncertainty, longing, and doubt are not obstacles to Zen practice, but the very places where practice begins?
In this episode, Sensei Michael Brunner explores Case 81 of the Shōyōroku, “Gensha Comes to the Province,” and the teaching, “Enter Zen from there.”
We often imagine that spiritual practice begins when our circumstances improve, our minds become quieter, or we finally understand what we are supposed to be doing. Zen offers a different invitation. Practice begins with the life that is already here.
Through the story of Gensha, the sound of a bubbling brook, and the simple gesture of raising the corner of a robe, Sensei Michael examines how the past and future are encountered within the present moment. He reflects on the ways we cling to what is pleasurable, resist what is painful, and divide our lives into what we want to preserve and what we would rather cast away.
When we stop standing apart from our experience, grief, anxiety, memory, joy, and uncertainty can all become entrances into intimacy, compassion, and awakening.
Wherever your life is unfolding, enter Zen from there.
Master Gensha arrived at Hōden Province and was received with many kinds of entertainment. The next day he asked Venerable Shōtō, “Where did all of yesterday’s festivities go?”
At this, Shōtō lifted a corner of his robe.
Gensha remarked, “There’s no relation between them at all.”
Sensei Michael Brunner is a Buddhist priest and the Abbot of One River Zen, a Zen Buddhist community based in Ottawa, Illinois, offering both in-person and online opportunities for practice.
He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with High Honors. He was later invited to Emory University’s Candler School of Theology as a Divinity Scholar, where he continued his theological and interreligious education.
Sensei Michael’s teaching brings Zen out of the realm of abstract philosophy and into the immediacy of ordinary life. Through meditation, koan practice, retreats, classes, and Dharma talks, he invites students to meet grief, relationships, creativity, work, uncertainty, and suffering as expressions of the Way itself.
His teaching is guided by the Three Transformative Touchstones of the Eternal Spring Order:
Maintain wonder. Include everything. Transform suffering.
Zen is not something we merely read about or understand intellectually. It is a living practice that unfolds through meditation, relationship, inquiry, and the circumstances of everyday life.
Sensei Michael welcomes both beginning and experienced practitioners to study with One River Zen through weekly meditation, Dharma talks, koan study, classes, retreats, and individual practice guidance. No previous experience with Zen or meditation is required.
Whether you are seeking a steadier meditation practice, a deeper understanding of Zen, or a way to meet suffering and uncertainty with greater clarity and compassion, you are invited to begin exactly where you are.
Enter Zen from there.
Learn more about One River Zen:
https://oneriverzen.org
Explore opportunities to practice and study with Sensei Michael:
https://oneriverzen.org/zen-buddhist