Recorded on March 2, 2024.

Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin explores Case 97 from the Blue Cliff Record - "The Diamond Sutra and Being Reviled." In commenting on the koan he uses the 2500 year-old story of the robber, Angulimala, (Grisly-Garland"), to bring alive a Buddhist vision of paying back karmic debts and facing head-on the causes of our own suffering.

The koan itself is as follows: "The Diamond Sutra says, “One who is reviled by others has done wicked acts in former lifetimes which doom him to fall into evil worlds, but because of the scorn and vilification by others in the present life, the transgressions in the former life are wiped out.”

Selected references:

• The Pasture, by Robert Frost
• Unpublished commentary on the Diamond Sutra, Yamada Roshi
• Three Zen Sutras - The Heart Sutra, The Diamond Sutra, and the Platform Sutra, translated by Red Pine
• Torei Enji’s vow
• "Angulimala the Robber"  from The Hungry Tigress: Buddhist Myths, Legends and Jataka Tales: Fully Revised and Expanded Edition  by Rafe Martin

                           So should you see all of the fleeting world:
                          A star at dawn, a bubble in the stream;
                         A flash of lightning in a summer cloud;
                        A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
                                                       –The Diamond Sutra

Photography: Monju and the Students, by Rafe Martin

• Books by Roshi Rafe Martin
• Talks on YouTube
• More information at endlesspathzen.org