What happens after everything falls apart? In this episode, Sensei Michael Brunner offers a powerful reflection on Case 41 of the Blue Cliff Record, where Joshu asks what follows the “great death”—the collapse of the self we’ve clung to. Drawing from Zen koans, Dōgen’s teachings, and the raw honesty of lived experience, this talk explores how awakening does not lie in bypassing pain or rebuilding old identities, but in stepping forward—with nothing left to hide—into the clear light of presence. With warmth, clarity, and compassion, Sensei invites us to stop patching the past and instead meet our lives fully, in the daylight. A talk for anyone who has known loss, change, or the quiet courage it takes to begin again.
In this talk, Sensei Michael Brunner works with Case 41 from the Blue Cliff Record, where Joshu asks: “When one who has experienced the great death comes back to life, then what?” The reply—“It is not permitted to go at night”—opens the gate to a teaching on vulnerability, presence, and the courage to meet life without pretense.
This episode explores:
The “great death” as the dropping away of the constructed self
Why patching the old narrative keeps us bound
Dōgen’s teaching: “When you encounter hardships, think of them as the body of the Buddha”
The silence that follows suffering—not as absence, but as vast, integrated presence
The difference between surviving and being reborn
Through koan, story, and lived truth, this talk invites us to reenter the world not edited, not hidden—but awake and unafraid in the daylight.