Matthew Kozan Palevsky: Winter Practice Period 2024: Dharma Talk With Matthew Kozan Palevsky

Sensei Kozan’s talk explores Case 3 of the Blue Cliff Record, involving Great Master Ma’s response to a question about his health. Kozan begins by contextualizing the story with a brief history of Master Ma, highlighting his significance in the lineage of Chinese Zen ancestors and his enduring legacy despite the tumultuous times he lived through. The core of the talk revolves around Master Ma’s reply to the question about his health, “Sunface Buddha, moon-face Buddha.” Kozan interprets this response as a teaching on the nature of existence and the Buddha-nature inherent in all conditions of life, whether in strength or illness. Master Ma’s teachings emphasized that the very mind is Buddha, and apart from the mind, there is no Buddha which points a non-dualistic way of being. The talk concludes by suggesting that our practice involves continually returning to a direct relationship with life before conceptualizing or dividing it, using phrases like “Is that so?” as a tool to open ourselves to the present moment without attachment to our judgments or beliefs.