Episode: Hōren’s Hair’s-Breadth — Shōyōroku Case 17 In this episode, Sensei Michael Brunner of One River Zen unpacks Case 17 of the Book of Equanimity, where Hōgen and Shuzan circle 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 discussing doctrine, Sensei shows how this tiny “hair” plays out in ordinary life — the moment we prefer or resist, the moment we lean away from what is, the moment subject and object harden and the world splits. Through the exchange between Hōgen and Shuzan, we see how repetition becomes transmission, how “I am just this” expresses the whole of the Way, and how even a fly landing on the scale exposes our measuring mind. The talk returns again and again to the living question: where is the hair’s-breadth in your own practice — and what happens when it is seen through? A rich meditation on non-preference, intimacy, and entrusting the mind before division arises.