What if your brain begins to move before “you” decide? In this episode, Sensei Michael Brunner, guiding teacher of One River Zen in Ottawa, Illinois, explores a striking discovery from neuroscience alongside a classical Zen kōan from the Blue Cliff Record. Through the story of Chinyu and the Rice Pail (Case 74) and the groundbreaking experiments of Benjamin Libet, he reveals a hidden space inside every moment — a brief gap where karmic momentum can be interrupted and true freedom can appear. This is not abstract theory. It is the heart of Zen practice: how awakening shows up in restraint, service, and the simple power to not react. Rooted in Soto Zen lineage and contemporary philosophy, this teaching offers a clear, grounded way to understand free will, habit, and how real transformation happens in everyday life. Learn more about Sensei Michael Brunner and practice with One River Zen at oneriverzen.org
The 200-Millisecond Gap: Free Will, Karma, and Zen
with Sensei Michael Brunner (One River Zen)
In this episode, Sensei Michael Brunner explores how ancient Zen practice and modern neuroscience converge on the same insight: we often begin to act before we consciously decide.
Drawing on Benjamin Libet’s famous readiness-potential experiments, Sartre’s account of prereflective consciousness, and the Zen kōan Chinyu and the Rice Pail–碧巌録 HEKIGANROKU (BLUE CLIFF RECORD) Case 74, this teaching reveals how karmic momentum moves through the body before thought arises — and how Zen practice opens a brief but powerful space of freedom.
This is the heart of awakening in everyday life: not controlling experience, but learning how to interrupt habitual reactions and allow wiser action to emerge.
Free will and the brain
Benjamin Libet and “free won’t”
Karma and karmic momentum
Sartre’s prereflective self
Blue Cliff Record, Case 74
Chinyu and embodied action
Zen practice in daily life
Sensei Michael Brunner is a transmitted Sōtō Zen priest and the founder and guiding teacher of One River Zen, a Zen Buddhist community in Ottawa, Illinois offering daily meditation, retreats, and Dharma study grounded in classical Zen and contemporary life.
Learn more at oneriverzen.org