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Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin
Hosted by Roshi Rafe Martin · EN
Endless Path Zendo, is a lay Zen Buddhist community. Intimate and non-institutional in atmosphere, we are dedicated to realizing the Buddha Way in the midst of our own ordinary lives, finding our center of gravity in the creativity of Zen, and the Way of the Bodhisattva.
Zen teacher (roshi) Rafe Jnan Martin began traditional Zen practice in 1970, becoming a personal disciple of Roshi Philip Kapleau, author of The Three Pillars of Zen. After Kapleau Roshi’s retirement, he practiced with Robert Aitken Roshi, founder of the Diamond Sangha, then from 2002-2016 worked intensively with Danan Henry Roshi, founding teacher of the Zen Center of Denver and a Kapleau Roshi Dharma Heir as well as a Diamond Sangha Dharma Master.
Rafe received full lay ordination in 2009, and in 2012 received inka—recognition of his successful completion of the Diamond Sangha/ Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum, along with authorization to begin teaching. In 2016 he received full Dharma Transmission as an independent Zen teacher.
An award-winning author and storyteller whose work has been cited in Time, Newsweek, The NY Times, and USA Today, Rafe has a master’s degree in English literature and literary criticism and is a recipient of both national and state awards, including the Empire State Award for the body of his work. His writing has appeared in Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, Parabola, The Sun, and Inquiring Mind, among other journals of religion and myth. He has given talks at Zen and Dharma Centers around the US and Canada, as well as such venues as the American Museum of Natural History, Zuni Pueblo, and The Joseph Campbell Festival of Myth and Story.
His most recent books are A Zen Life of Buddha (Sumeru 2022), The Brave Little Parrot (Wisdom Publications, 2023) and A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas (Sumeru, 2023).
21episodes
Episodes
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Impossible Situations: A Buffalo Passes Through the Window
Apr 1800:58:13Tap to summarizeRecorded April 18, 2026.Today’s teisho is on "Gateless Barrier" Case 38 — “A Buffalo Passes Through the Window.”Wu-tsu said, “It is like a buffalo that passes through a window. Its head, horns, and four legs all pass through. Why can’t its tail pass through as well?”Hakuin comments:"Hard for even the most clear-sighted Zen monks to crack,A Buffalo Passing Through theWindow trips them all up. "In this life we'll all face situations, places, events, times that seem . . . beyond us, even impossible. What shall we make of Wu-tsu’s impossible buffalo? The scenario is ridiculous! Impossible. And yet we’re called upon by the koan to personally reveal and present its deep, living meaning.Is logic the be-all and end-all? Can even the most technically precise and clear scientific description of, let’s say, vision, give us our vividly personal experience of red flowers, blue skies, green grass, the joy we find upon seeing a child’s smile? Can a description give us the actual taste of a cup of first flush Darjeeling tea? By what wisdom do I know it personally, intimately? Let’s see if we can find out. Give a listen to this lively — and rather humorous — teisho!Referenced:"The Gateless Barrier: Th Wu-men Kuan (Mumonkan)" Robert AitkenPainting by Zen Master Hakuin -- Buffalo looking at a window.Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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Finding Your Buddha Smile (Final Chapter) - Part 11: A Springtime Stroll
Apr 1100:34:24Tap to summarizeRecorded April 11, 2026Hooray! Spring has come. Ice cracks and melts and rivers once again run free. Green grass and buds on trees magically appear. Blue Cliff Record case 36 presents it like this:One day Ch’ang-sha went for a walk in the hills. When he returned to the gate of the monastery the head monk said, “Master, where have you been?”Ch’ang-sha said, “I have come from strolling about in the hills.”The head monk said, “Where did you go?”“First I went pursuing the fragrant grasses, then I returned following the falling flowers.”The head monk said, “You are full of the spring, aren’t you?” Ch’ang-sha said, “It is even better than the autumn dew falling on the lotus flowers.”Hsueh-tou comments, “I’m grateful for that answer.”Aitken Roshi writes —“Let us all be grateful ... because Ch’ang-sha is our teacher of Zen in this age of grave danger to the earth and its music, art, animals, and everything else.”Now, with a smile on our lips we, too, will head out and see what there is for heads, hands, and hearts to do. Zen practice brings us into the fullness of life. It’s not about sitting forever facing a wall.Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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The Birth of The Buddha -- What's it all about?
Apr 400:54:01Tap to summarizeRecorded April 4, 2026.What does the birth of a Buddha really mean? What bearing does it have on our own lives? Is it just ancient history? Is it simply literal — or what? Plus, what are we to make of the rather astonishing legend that, at birth, the newborn baby Buddha raised one hand toward the heavens and pointed the other down to the earth and proclaimed “Above the Heavens, below the heavens, I Alone the Honored One”? What is this getting at? Is myth just a form of untruth? Or is it something more? How does this stunning statement relate to our own life, yours and mine, and to our own practice of Zen? Why not give a listen to this vivid teisho bringing alive The Birth of the Buddha and see how it might all connect!Books cited:"A Zen Life of Buddha" by Rafe Martin"Centuries, Poems, and Thanksgivings, Vol. 1: Introductions and Centuries." Thomas TraherneRead Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo of Baby Buddha, Endless Path ZendoBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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Finding Your Buddha Smile- Part 10: Beautiful Snowflakes!
Mar 2800:40:29Tap to summarizeRecorded 3/28/2026.The greatest journeys find completion in ordinary things. The teacup, the comfortable old slippers, the wool jacket on the hook by the door. To quote Dorothy, there’s no place like home, where we’re so at ease, a glance at a morning star, a late-night chat with a friend, or a walk in the snow can open ... the Timeless. So — Blue Cliff Record case 42, “Layman P’ang’s Beautiful Snowflakes,” in which Layman P’ang takes a walk in the snow and says, “Beautiful snowflakes. They fall nowhere.” Let’s see what then happens!But first — a note: “emptiness” that Buddhist bugaboo, simply means empty of our own unconscious, habitual, self-centeredness. Self-forgotten, the world of 10,000 uniquely distinct things, living and non-living, steps in and realizes itself as the Self. Less self-conscious, less self-driven practice follows. A Zen saying says, “The way up the mountain is not all that hard, but the way down is endless.” P’ang who is “nothing himself, beholds/ Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.” (Wallace Stevens, “The Snow Man”) And so, as to all those lovely snowflakes falling — how will you present them?Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 9: What is the True Me?
Mar 2100:32:58Tap to summarizeRecorded March 21, 2026.Zen master Wu-tsu used a popular ghost tale, like a popular movie or novel of his time, to explore the intimate question of Identity: “Who am I?” We move through our days like leaves blown about by an un-known wind. But who is it happening to? Who is doing it? Who is the victim? Who’s in the driver’s seat? Shouldn’t we know? What could be more essential—or practical—than being able to say who we are? Who hears sounds with the ears, sees colors with the eyes, eats and sleeps, grieves and worries, suffers aging and its manifold indignities? Maybe peace—at least a greater degree of it—lies in looking into this. Who or what are we talking about when we say or think, “I” or “me”? And how is it that we don’t know? Isn’t that rather astonishing that we don’t know who we are? How can that possibly be? Really where and what is this “I” I’m so concerned about, anyway?Let’s see how this one goes!Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 8: How Do I Find Peace of Mind?
Mar 700:51:42Tap to summarizeRecorded March 7, 2026.This teisho opens with a brief recounting of the legend of the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion and issues of failure, despair, and compassion in our own times. Then Roshi Martin moves on to the essence of Zen — realizing peace of mind. In the koan of “Bodhidharma and Peace of Mind,” (Gateless Barrier #41) Hui-k’o, climbs up to Bodhidharma’s cave on the mountain seeking peace of mind. Bodhidharma doesn’t make it easy, but insists on making it real. “Bring forth your troubled mind and I’ll pacify it for you,” he says. Simple, right? But there’s a hitch. And how does that hitch itself resolve the problem? But what IS peace of mind anyway?Like John Lewis in our own time, these two old-worthies together made “good trouble,” revealing the Buddha Way to be intimate and open to all, rather than philosophical, far off, or reserved for a special few. At some point we all wake to life’s difficulties. It is our start. To then find peace of mind all we need do, as Bodhidharma insisted, is bring forth our troubled mind so it can be set to rest. Which shouldn’t be too hard to do, should it? Ha! This dramatic teisho shows how it goes. Why not give a listen and see?Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 7: The Highest Teaching is the Oak Tree in my Front Garden?
Feb 2800:40:47Tap to summarizeRecorded February 28, 2026Wisdom, which helps us make reasonably good life choices, enabling us to live reasonably good lives, can’t be secret or esoteric. It must reside in what is common and ordinary; otherwise, what hope would any of us have of living well? It would be beyond us— special, hidden away, reserved for the few. No. The last word can’t be far off. And, indeed, Zen teachers in ancient China used folk songs, stories, and colloquial language, taking up whatever was handy, to open the Way and reveal our common inheritance, our true birthright of enlightenment.Chao-chou (J. Joshu; 778–897), asked for the highest teaching of the Buddhadharma, answered, "The oak tree in the front garden.” What did he mean? What was he getting at?Let’s take a look!Referenced:Haiku Master Buson by Yuki Sawa (1985-09-27) The Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson translated by W.S. Merwin & Takako LentoFinding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 6: Te-shan Carries His Lunch Bowls: The Last Word
Feb 2100:34:47Tap to summarizeRecorded February 21, 2026 When you realize the first word You understand the last word; The first word or the last word— “It” is not a word.If it’s not a word, what is it? If it is a word, how might you say it?Sequenced in their proper chronological order, the three Te-shan koans give us a nutshell view of Zen as a journey from brash immaturity to subtle maturity. But what is maturity? And what is this wise last word that changes everything and makes even someone as gifted as that person of genius, Yen t’ou, get up and laugh and clap his hands for joy? What is it really all about?Referenced:Selected Poems of Su Tung-p'o -- Translated from the Chinese by Burton WatsonFinding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home to What Zen Is Really All About, by Rafe Martin. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo -- Buddha at Lung-Men Cave Grottoes, China by Rafe MartinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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The Buddha’s Parinirvana: Teisho by Roshi Rafe Martin
Feb 1400:56:47Tap to summarizeRecorded February 14, 2026.William Blake once signed a guest book with a drawing of a human figure stretched reclining — or flying. Surrounding it were the words, “William Blake who is very much delighted in being in good company. Born 28 Nov. 1757 in London and has died several times since.” Zen Master Hakuin, in Japan in 1749, wrote as a way honoring a student who had recently died: “Turning my head a soaring Mount Fuji capped with snow,/ Its lower half flushed in the crimson glow of the rising sun.” Hakuin’s heir, Torei, commented, “These are lines whose point is grasped after you have died two or three times.” Actually we are dying all the time. To quote The Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday” —“ Dying all the time. Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind. Ain’t life unkind.” Ha! We call this ongoing daily minute-by-minute entrustment to reality, our life. For the Buddha death was the activity of his complete entrance into nirvana or parinirvana, a total entrustment. In “Dharma Nature,” section #23 of his Shobogenzo, Eye of the Treasury of the True Dharma Zen master Dogen writes:Grass, trees, and forests are impermanent; they are buddha nature. Humans, things, body, and mind are impermanent; they are buddha nature. Land, mountains, and rivers are impermanent, as they are buddha nature. Unsurpassable, complete enlightenment is impermanent, as it is buddha nature. Great parinirvana is buddha nature, as it is impermanence.” How does the Buddha’s Parinirvana inform our own life and practice? Let’s take a look.Referenced: The Hungry Tigress: Buddhist Myths, Legends and Jataka Tales, Fully Revised and Expanded Edition, by Rafe MartinA Zen Life of Buddha, by Rafe MartinPhoto -- Parinirvana Altar, Endless Path Zendo, 2/14/2026Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 5: Te-shan Carries His Bundle
Feb 700:37:31Tap to summarizeRecorded February 7, 2025.Te-shan, a noted scholar of the Diamond Sutra, set out to wipe out those nasty “Zen devils” in the South. But, falling into Master Lung-t’an’s Dragon Pond, he found his Face before his parents were born and out at last beyond the pages of his beloved notes and commentaries on the diamonds Sutra, he awoke to the real diamond. Filled with joy, he burned his precious writings and set off, confident as ever, into a bright and shining new world. But is it really so simple?This dramatic opening of Te-shan’s Zen, presents an archetype. Clearly, whatever we may fantasize about “enlightenment,” even a deep experience is not the endpoint. Rather, it’s a new beginning. Te-shan was on the road home, but not yet there. The road goes on, and on. As his story shows. Let’s see how it actually goes.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org
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