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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).

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Check latest episodes from Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin podcast

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 4

2026/01/24

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 taken by Rafe Martin Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon and Sumeru Books. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 3

2026/01/17

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 taken by Rafe Martin Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon and Sumeru Books. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 2

2026/01/10

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

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 1

2026/01/03

Recorded January 3, 2026. Roshi Martin reads the Opening, Thanks, and Introduction of his new book -- "Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home (to What Zen is Really All About)." From the Intro: There are lots of ways to be happy, some selfish, some naive, some fleeting, some more lasting. The kind I have in mind is of the more lasting sort, the kind that can only come after troubles, after experiencing and suffering the fundamental difficulties of an ordinary human life. . . . What, leads to real happiness? According to legend the historic Buddha, 2,500 years ago, ran into this fundamental problem at the age of twenty-nine. His great enlightenment (of which there are endless degrees and which koans help us start opening) was transformative. The previously traumatized ex-prince, Siddhartha Gautama, through deepest realization, found the essence of happiness. And his face blossomed—into a smile. Photo of smiling Buddha, Lung-Men Caves, China taken by Rafe Martin Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon and Sumeru Books. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

On the Precepts (in preparation for New Year's Eve Jukai)

2025/12/20

Recorded 12/20/2025. Roshi Martin reads Chapter 10 of Aitken Roshi's "Taking the Path of Zen" -- "The Ten Grave Precepts" and comments in preparation for Jukai. Jukai is a way of taking our practice seriously, of saying — of vowing that “It’s not simply what I do in the zendo or dokusan room that matters – it’s what I do in and how I live my actual daily life.” We take Jukai many times. Each time we find greater understanding and a deepening life path. With each Jukai we take another step forward. Roshi Kapleau used to say that Zen is not above morality, morality not below Zen. Anyone who thinks that Zen’s “Emptiness” means “anything goes” and throws decent ethical behavior out the window is making a grave mistake. Emptiness means love. Love means attention to our behavior. This is where we become responsible to ourselves, to others, and to the practice. As Dogen says, “The teisho of the actual body is the harbor and the weir. This is the most important thing in the world. Its virtue finds its home in the ocean of essential nature. It is beyond explanation. We just accept it with respect and gratitude.” Book cited -- Robert Aitken "Taking the Path of Zen." Photo: Manjusri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom, with students - at Endless Path Zendo Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

The Buddha's Great Enlightenment

2025/12/06

Recorded December 6, 2025. December 8th is the traditional date on the Mahayana (Zen Buddhist) calendar of the Buddha's profound Enlightenment. Sitting beneath the Bodhi Tree after a long night of zazen that capped 6 years of ferocious effort, the previously sheltered ex-prince, Siddhartha Gautama, so deeply troubled by his head-on collision with impermanence, the sheer injustice of it -- finally got to the bottom of it all. After touching the Earth, he glanced up at the Morning Star and fully, completely Awoke. A Morning Star now sat beneath the Bodhi Tree. "Wonder of wonders," he exclaimed, stunned by his realization. "All living beings are Buddhas, fully endowed with wisdom and virtue. Only their ancient, unconscious habit of self-centered thinking prevents their realization of this!" The Path had been re-opened. Homage to Shakyamuni! In today's teisho at Endless Path Zendo, Roshi Martin tells the story of the Buddha’s great enlightenment, and comments on it from a very natural perspective, as well as looking into what it means for us today. Awake! Rejoice! Photo: Buddha's Enlightenment Altar, Endless Path Zendo, Rohatsu 2025. Referenced: A Zen Life of Buddha by Rafe Martin (Sumeru Books, 2023)__________________ JUST RELEASED: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home (To What Zen Is Really All About) by Rafe Martin (Sumeru Books, 2025) Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

Old Ghosts and Living a Life of Grace -- teisho on the Fox Koan

2025/10/25

Recorded October 25, 2025. Thoughts, actions, understandings, perceptions, realizations that had once seemed good enough, may in time, no longer be sufficient. We outgrow them. Then ghostlike, they can return and haunt us. But maybe they return, not to block our way, but to give us another chance. If so, their appearance may not be reason for disappointment, but our opportunity to mature further. So let’s look again at “Master Pai-Chang and the Fox," koan case 2 of The Gatelesss Barrier. Seen in a our current upcoming Halloween light, it becomes a shape-shifting encounter of there and back again. But — the journey has a point. Wu-men’s commentary on the case concludes — “If you have the single eye of realization, you will appreciate how the former head of the monastery enjoyed 500 lives of grace as a fox.” What is it to enjoy a life of grace? What is a life of grace? And how can daily Zen practice help us find this out for ourselves? Calligraphy -- Fox and Lives of Grace by Rafe Jnan Martin Books mentioned: The Gateless Barrier by Robert AitkenThe Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment by Roshi Philip Kapleau"The Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra" (various editions) Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

No Kings, Vows -- Zen and the U.S.A. -- and the conclusion to Hanshan's Autobiography

2025/10/18

Recorded October 18, 2025 Roshi Martin opens with comments on No Kings and its relationship to our vows. Then, in this 9th and final teisho on the life of Ming Dynasty Zen Teacher Hanshan, Roshi Martin resumes reading and commenting on Hanshan's autobiography which takes us to Hanshan's death in 1623. Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated by Upasaka Richard Cheung Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

2025 Jataka Sesshin: The Monkey King

2025/10/15

Recorded October 14, 2025. This teisho was given by Roshi Martin on the fourth day of the 15th annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center. ______________________________ The Monkey King jataka is also explored in Endless Path: Awakening Within the Buddhist Imagination: Jataka Tales, Zen Practice, and DailyLife by Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

2025 Jataka Sesshin: The Tigress

2025/10/14

Recorded October 13, 2025. This teisho was given by Roshi Martin on the third day of the 15th annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center. _______ The Tigress jataka is also explored in Endless Path: Awakening Within the Buddhist Imagination: Jataka Tales, Zen Practice, and DailyLife by Rafe Martin. Additionally, it appears in The Hungry Tigress: Buddhist Myths, Legends and Jataka Tales (Completely Revised and Expanded Edition) by Rafe Martin. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

2025 Jataka Sesshin: Give It All You've Got

2025/10/12

Recorded October 12, 2025. This teisho was given by Roshi Martin on the second day of the 15th annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center. __________________________ The jataka, Give It All You've Got, is also explored in Endless Path: Awakening Within the Buddhist Imagination: Jataka Tales, Zen Practice, and DailyLife by Rafe Martin. Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

2025 Jataka Sesshin: The Black Hound Jataka

2025/10/11

Recorded October 11, 2025 This teisho was given by Roshi Martin on the first day of the 15th annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center. _______ The Black Hound jataka is also explored in Endless Path: Awakening Within the Buddhist Imagination: Jataka Tales, Zen Practice, and DailyLife by Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

Bodhidharma Day and The Oak Tree in the Front Garden

2025/10/04

Recorded October 4, 2025. In honor of Bodhidharma, the founder of what we now call Zen Buddhism, Roshi Martin comments on the koan of the "Oak Tree in the Front Garden" and talks about a conversation with Robert Aitken Roshi and the relationship of Zen practice to actual happiness. More on this koan will be found in Roshi Martin's upcoming book " Finding your Buddha Smile: Coming h\Home to What Zen is Really About." Referenced: Zen Master Dogen -- Shobogenzo: Treasury of the True Dharma Eye - Translated by Kazuaki TanahashiWilliam Blake -- Songs of Experience and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.John Daido Loori -- The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred Koans Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

Part 8 - The Autobiography of Zen Master Hanshan - Starting with his 70th Year!

2025/09/27

Recorded September 27, 2025. In this 8th teisho on the life of Ming Dynasty Zen Teacher Hanshan, Roshi Martin opens with a brief talk on the essence of Zen practice and the mystery at the core of our own lives. He then takes up reading and commenting on Hanshan's autobiography as it unfolds into his 70th year. Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated by Upasaka Richard CheungThe Woman at Otwoi Crossing by Frank Waters Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org

Part 7 - The Autobiography of Zen Master Hanshan

2025/09/06

Recorded Saturday, September 6, 2025. Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (lively, funny and moving) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, ( Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), the noted Ming Dynasty Zen teacher (not to be confused with Han-shan — Cold Mountain — noted Zen poet/eccentric of the T’ang era.) Known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty, Hanshan has remained an influential figure in Chinese Chan Buddhism down to the twentieth century, his teachings promoted by the great teacher Hsu Yun (Empty Cloud 1840?-1959), and his disciple Charles Luk (1898–1978). Hanshan saw Chan (Zen) as a way to Awaken to realization of One Mind in this very life. Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated by Upasaka Richard CheungComplete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Zen, translated by Norman Waddell Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org