In this talk Sensei Michael Brunner turns to Case 17 of the Shōyōroku — Hōren’s Hair’s-Breadth. The koan pivots on a single line from the Shin Jin Mei: “If there’s even a hair’s-breadth of difference, heaven and earth are clearly separated.” Rather than analyzing the line, Sensei shows how this “hair” is born in the instant we prefer, resist, explain, or try to understand. The moment we step back from what is happening and make an observer, heaven and earth fly apart.

The exchange between Hōgen and Shuzan becomes a mirror for our own practice: Hōgen questions, Shuzan repeats, Hōgen presses, Shuzan answers “I am just this,” and the line is spoken again — the same words, but now alive. The closing bow seals their intimacy. Sensei points to how this same movement appears in our zazen, relationships, fear, frustration, and aspiration; how even a fly landing on the scale can tilt the whole heart; and how the work is not to fix the tilt but to see the tilting mind clearly, without measuring or interference.

This episode asks the listener to locate the hair’s-breadth in their own life and to entrust the mind before division — allowing heaven and earth to bow together in the very act of seeing.

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