Welcome to Emergence Magazine's podcast. I'm Emanuel Vaughn Lee, host of this show,

an executive editor of Emergence Magazine, located on the unseated ancestral lands of the

Coast Miwok people in present-day Marin County. Each week, we feature interviews, stories,

poetry, and author-narrated essays, exploring the

threads connecting ecology, culture, and spirituality.

Human consciousness has an enormous capacity to explore reality.

It can reach for the meaning of existence, or the edges of the universe.

But so often we close ourselves to the life around us with insular patterns of perception

that keep us locked within our own mental chatter.

What becomes possible, especially in the face of crisis,

when we open and orient our consciousness

towards a more expansive space, one that urges us to confront uncertainty, emptiness, and

a sense of relationship with the world beyond the self.

This week, I'm joining conversation by Australian writer and Zen Roshi, Susan Murphy,

who immerses us in the tradition of the Zen Koan and its ability to shift our consciousness

amid crisis.

Delving into the power of the not-knowing mind, which she explores in her latest book, A Fire Runs Through All Things.

Susan presents Cohen as Medicine, a gateway to truly connecting with the world around us.

Along the way, she gifts us with several co-ends from Zen masters, and speaks to how we must respond to our moment of suffering from a place of spiritual

depth and openness if we are to remember our seamlessly with all of creation.

Susan, it's wonderful to be in conversation with you today.

Thanks so much for being on the show.

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