In this opening talk for the Ango Practice Period, Sensei Sōen Michael Brunner explores Hyakujo’s Fox (Mumonkan Case 2), one of Zen’s most mysterious and instructive koans.

When a monk once answered that “the enlightened person does not fall under cause and effect,” he was reborn as a fox for 500 lifetimes. Through this story, Sensei examines how easily we misunderstand karma—as punishment, fate, or escape—and how true freedom is found by meeting life exactly as it is.

This talk invites listeners to stop seeking freedom elsewhere, to step fully into their circumstances, and to discover that cause and effect are not chains, but the living fabric of awakening itself.

🪶 Themes explored:

Karma and the creative law of cause and effect

The illusion of spiritual escape

Meeting life directly as the field of practice

Freedom within ordinary circumstances

Listen, reflect, and join us in practice at OneRiverZen.org

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