{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fawakening-streams-the-one-river-zen-podcast.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fis-that-so-gAM2f5Y3","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Is that (really) so? | Book of Equanimity Case #36, Master Ma is Unwell","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/4da961e6-efa0-4707-805b-b8a30bc97a5c/b5f0b317-5c7f-46ce-93b3-5dd4dde95037/episode-3.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"In this episode of Awakening Streams, Sensei Michael Brunner explores Case 36 of the Book of Equanimity and Case 3 of the Blue Cliff Record, “Master Ma Is Unwell.” When the great Zen teacher Master Ma is asked about his failing health, he replies simply: “Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha.”\n\nWhat does it mean to remain awake when life brings both vitality and decline, ease and suffering, gain and loss?\n\nSensei Michael reflects on Master Ma’s response as a teaching on equanimity, direct experience, and staying open to the whole of life. The talk moves through the practice of not knowing, learning to meet ourselves honestly, and making room for both the saintly and difficult parts of who we are without turning away.\n\nThe teaching culminates in the story of Hakuin’s “Is that so?”, showing what it can look like to release the narrative, let go of defensiveness, and respond from compassion instead. Sun-faced Buddha and moon-faced Buddha both arise within the same life. The invitation is to meet both fully, train deeply, and ask again and again: Who am I? How am I spending this life?"}