Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

Roshi Rafe Martin
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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). 

  1. Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 8: How Do I Find Peace of Mind?

    4D AGO

    Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 8: How Do I Find Peace of Mind?

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

    52 min
  2. Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 7: The Highest Teaching is the Oak Tree in my Front Garden?

    FEB 28

    Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 7: The Highest Teaching is the Oak Tree in my Front Garden?

    Recorded February 28, 2026 Wisdom, 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. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

    41 min
  3. Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 6: Te-shan Carries His Lunch Bowls: The Last Word

    FEB 21

    Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 6: Te-shan Carries His Lunch Bowls: The Last Word

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

    35 min
  4. The Buddha’s Parinirvana: Teisho by Roshi Rafe Martin

    FEB 14

    The Buddha’s Parinirvana: Teisho by Roshi Rafe Martin

    Recorded 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, 2/14/2026 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. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

    57 min
  5. Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 5: Te-shan Carries His Bundle

    FEB 7

    Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 5: Te-shan Carries His Bundle

    Recorded 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 2006 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. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

    38 min
  6. Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 4: Te-shan Carries His Backpack

    JAN 24

    Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 4: Te-shan Carries His Backpack

    Recorded January 24, 2026. In this teisho, we move on from the Buddha himself, to see how Zen tradition views the ordinary person’s journey from ignorance to maturity. To show this, Roshi Martin arranges three koans, each drawn from the life of the Chinese Zen master, Te-shan (J. Tokusan, 780–865), in their chronological order—which is not how we find them in our actual koan curriculum. In actual practice we face these koans totally out of sequence. His purpose with this chronological reorganization is to show the underlying story these koans actually reveal. To start us off — he begins with a note about koans in general by quoting Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, environmentalist, Zen elder, and cultural icon, Gary Snyder, who in 2008, in an interview with the Poetry Foundation, Gary Snyder, spoke about koans. Let’s see what he had to say. Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006 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. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

    45 min
  7. Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 3: The World Honored One Ascends the Teaching Seat

    JAN 17

    Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 3: The World Honored One Ascends the Teaching Seat

    Recorded January 17, 2026. In this teisho Roshi Martin reads and comments on Chapter 2 of his latest book, “Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home (To What Zen is Really All About).” The legendary-mythic jataka tales, reveal the Buddha’s past life efforts, challenges, triumphs, and mistakes. Let’s look at him now as the fully “Awakened One,” the finished product of that many lifetime effort, and see how he taught others to realize the Ancient Way of fulfillment he himself had fully found. To do this we'll take a look at koan case 92 of the "Blue Cliff Record" in which the Buddha’s cosmic Realization, born of the rarified air of India, is transformed by the Zen Eye of China into ­something direct and down-to-earth. In this koan, the Buddha is the consummate storyteller, who with the aid of Manjusri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom, opens the Way with the storyteller's most trusted device -- "show, don't tell!" Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006 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. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

    33 min
  8. Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 2: The Buddha Shows the Path

    JAN 10

    Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 2: The Buddha Shows the Path

    Teisho by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin Endless Path Zendo, 01/10/2026 This teisho opens with a brief talk on the terrible dangers of our present time and the challenging, profoundly helpful path that Zen offers — not of philosophizing, but of tending an ox. Roshi Martin then resumes reading and commenting from his latest book —“Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home (To What Zen is Really All About).” In this next chapter, we look at the Buddha, not as the smiling, perfectly realized finished product, poised and at ease in full-lotus posture, but the Buddha as he appears in a very odd, indeed, almost science fiction-y, jataka or past life story. In that story he is a god-like king who seeks only personal satisfaction. But eventually discovers a deeper, truer path when that self-centered quest comes to its painful end. Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006 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. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

    51 min
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About

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). 

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