Shows
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinFinding Your Buddha Smile - Part 4Recorded 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 begin...
2026-01-2445 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinFinding Your Buddha Smile - Part 3Recorded 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...
2026-01-1732 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinFinding Your Buddha Smile - Part 2Teisho by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin Endless Path Zendo, 01/10/2026This 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...
2026-01-1051 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinFinding Your Buddha Smile - Part 1Recorded 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...
2026-01-0351 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinOn the Precepts (in preparation for New Year's Eve Jukai)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...
2025-12-2052 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha's Great EnlightenmentRecorded 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...
2025-12-0647 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinOld Ghosts and Living a Life of Grace -- teisho on the Fox KoanRecorded 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...
2025-10-2539 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinNo Kings, Vows -- Zen and the U.S.A. -- and the conclusion to Hanshan's AutobiographyRecorded October 18, 2025Roshi 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
2025-10-1844 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin2025 Jataka Sesshin: The Monkey KingRecorded 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
2025-10-1533 minEndless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin2025 Jataka Sesshin: The TigressRecorded 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
2025-10-1433 minEndless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin2025 Jataka Sesshin: Give It All You've GotRecorded 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
2025-10-1251 minEndless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin2025 Jataka Sesshin: The Black Hound JatakaRecorded October 11, 2025This 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
2025-10-1155 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinBodhidharma Day and The Oak Tree in the Front GardenRecorded 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...
2025-10-0438 minEndless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 8 - The Autobiography of Zen Master Hanshan - Starting with his 70th Year!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
2025-09-2750 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 7 - The Autobiography of Zen Master HanshanRecorded 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...
2025-09-0644 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 6 - The Autobiography of Zen Master HanshanRecorded Sunday July 26, 2025Roshi 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...
2025-07-2647 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 5 - The Autobiography of Zen Master HanshanRecorded June 28, 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 (Z...
2025-06-2852 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 4 - The Autobiography of Zen Master HanshanRecorded June 15, 2025. Roshi Martin continues to read and comment on the extraordinary (and quite lively and funny and also truly moving!!) autobiography of Han-shan Te-Ching, a great Ming Dynasty teacher (not to be confused with Hanshan (Cold Mountain) poet of the T’ang era. Hanshan, an important Ming Dynasty Zen teacher, writes in such a lively, straightforward manner that is moving, funny, profound and deeply human. Hearing from him about the details of his extraordinary life, we get a real sense of what Zen -- and Zen culture -- is truly about. Enjoy.Refe...
2025-06-1547 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 3 - The Autobiography of Zen Master HanshanRecorded June 14, 2025.Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (and quite lively and funny and also truly moving!!) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, a great Ming Dynasty teacher (not to be confused with Hanshan (Cold Mountain) poet of the T’ang era. Some snippet’s from Wikipedia on Hanshan:Hanshan Deqing (Hanshan Te-Ch’ing, "Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), was a leading Buddhist monk and poet of the late Ming dynasty China. (Posthumously named Hongjue Chanshi.) He is known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty. Hanshan has remained an influ...
2025-06-1446 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 2 - The Autobiography of Zen Master HanshanRecorded June 13, 2025.Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (and quite lively and funny and also truly moving!!) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, a great Ming Dynasty teacher (not to be confused with Hanshan (Cold Mountain) poet of the T’ang era. Some snippet’s from Wikipedia on Hanshan:Hanshan Deqing (Hanshan Te-Ch’ing, "Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), was a leading Buddhist monk and poet of the late Ming dynasty China. (Posthumously named Hongjue Chanshi.) He is known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty. Hanshan has remained an influ...
2025-06-1346 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 1 - The Autobiography of Zen Master HanshanRecorded June 12, 2025Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (and quite lively and funny and also truly moving!!) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, a great Ming Dynasty teacher (not to be confused with Hanshan (Cold Mountain) poet of the T’ang era. Some snippet’s from Wikipedia on Hanshan:Hanshan Deqing (Hanshan Te-Ch’ing, "Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), was a leading Buddhist monk and poet of the late Ming dynasty China. (Posthumously named Hongjue Chanshi.) He is known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty. Hanshan has remained an influ...
2025-06-1246 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinWho am I?Recorded June 7, 2025.There are no monks, nuns, Zen teachers, students, Buddhas, or Bodhisattvas in the case, no sign of Buddhism at all. Instead, a father insists that his daughter marry the man he chooses and, naturally enough, she rebels in order to follow the promptings of her own heart. But this all-too-sadly familiar mess, which tears the young woman in two, quickly opens into something even more fundamental.Zen master Wu-tsu, using a popular ghost tale of his time, (like a popular movie or novel today), guides us to something truly intimate, getting us to...
2025-06-0740 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinZen and Social ResponsibilityRecorded May 31, 2025Roshi Martin reads and comment on the chapter “Responsibility and Social Action” in the book Awakening to Zen by Roshi Philip Kapleau, a book he edited. The chapter opens with: “In Zen Buddhism, responsibility means responsiveness. To respond fully to every situation that comes your way, from a call for help of one kind or another to just talking with someone, and to give all of yourself to it — this is responsibility.”Roshi Martin adds:“We must speak up and act for what is good. I resolve to do good. I resolve to a...
2025-05-3139 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPeace of Mind?May 17, 2025.Trouble in mind is a rather standard blues trope, but peace of mind — what is that? We know that the big bad wolf comes to every door — and blows the house down. Well, almost every house. What is the secret of that last little pig’s house, the one made of brick? What is about that house that offers security, solidity, true peace of mind? Does it lie in the literal heft of brick, or is that a shibboleth? Yet if peace of mind is what we aim for, there’s a step beyond even that, more fun...
2025-05-1748 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPhilip Kapleau and The History of Zen in the WestRecorded on May 10, 2025.Rick McDaniel, who has written a fine series of books on the transmission of Zen Buddhism to the West, as well as books of interviews with contemporary Zen teachers (full disclosure: I wrote the Foreword for his "Further Conversations: On the scope, practice, and future of North American Zen," a book in which I also appear), and is now working on a book about the pioneering men and women who brought Zen to the West. Here is his “take” on Roshi Philip Kapleau, former Chief Court Reporter of both the Nuremberg and Tokyo...
2025-05-101h 09
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha Is Caught by Desire! Mistakes are Us!Recorded April 26, 2025In this teisho, Roshi Martin looks at an oddly sci-fi (with UFO!) past life tale of the Buddha, our own life, a Grimm’s “fairy tale,” and the Way of the Bodhisattva. “Everything – beings, worlds, galaxies, universes — Buddhist teachings tell us — come and go, with neither beginning nor end. Aryasura, author of the influential 5th century CE Jatakamala, however, states that something does persist. He writes: ‘Earth with its forests, noble mountains and seas may perish a hundred times by fire, water, and wind, as each eon comes to an end, but the great compassion...
2025-04-2640 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinWhat is the Dharma King's Dharma?Recorded 4/19/2025Setting out on literal pilgrimage can help us establish faith in the Buddha Way, which began 2,500 years ago when the Awakened Buddha Shakyamuni stood up from his Great Awakening beneath the Bodhi Tree, and set off along the duty roads of his native land to teach. Pilgrimage to the sites of the historic Buddha’s life has been a traditional practice ever since. But while Zen teachers enthusiastically encourage it, they also remind us that our real pilgrimage is the journey to realization of our Original Mind. And while this Mind is never at all distant, wa...
2025-04-1939 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Birth of the Buddha -- Or -- How Does A Buddha Get Born?Recorded 04/12/2025."The legend of the Buddha’s birth, uses the language of myth to point beyond the literal. The birth of any child is totally ordinary and, at the same time, a total miracle. How do two cells become a living person? How do gastrula and blastula become a being with talents, interests, features and personality? Where does a child come from? The birth of any one child is a mystery that affects us all, whether we consciously know it or not. Myth gives imaginative space to the uncanny ordinary reality we are actually living.Ho...
2025-04-1238 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinWhich is the True You?Recorded March 8, 2025This teisho is on Case 35, The Gateless Barrier -- "Wu-tsu: Which is the True Ch'ien?""Wu-tsu asked a monk, 'The woman Ch’ien and her spirit separated. Which is the true Ch’ien?' ”Zen master Wu-tsu uses a popular ghost tale of his time to explore something truly intimate. He is facing directly into the question of Identity: Who am I? Isn’t this at the root of all that drives and bugs and puzzles and torments us? Beneath all such questions as “Why did I do that?” or “Why must I suffer...
2025-03-0835 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinInterview with Rafe Martin, courtesy of Simplicity ZenWe’re happy to add this excellent interview with Roshi Rafe Martin to our podcast series. The interview was conducted by Berry Crawford of “Simplicity Zen” on January 27, 2023. While informal and enjoyable it is also informative, focusing on the essence of Roshi Martin’s teaching as well as his background as a lay Zen practitioner, and his emphasis, as a teacher, on the importance of lay practice. If you’re interested in getting a sense of what Rafe is about, this interview ill give you a good sense of his approach to teaching, practice, and realization, as well as his dual i...
2025-03-041h 24
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinOak Tree in the Front GardenRecorded March 1, 2025If wisdom is real, it should be popping up all over — in life, in folklore, in songs and movies emerging from popular culture. Real wisdom should be common knowledge, not hidden, or secret, or esoteric. “You’ll find your happiness lies right under your eyes/Back in your own backyard” sounds such a chord. And to quote Dorothy, “There’s no place like home.” Still, why do such fundamental insights keep having to pop up? Why don’t we just “get it”? The great, Chao-chou (J. Joshu; 778–897), perhaps the most mature of all Chinese Zen masters, was once...
2025-03-0128 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinTe-shan Carries his Lunch BowlsRecorded February 22, 2025This third and final Te-shan koan completes our overview of Zen practice as the hero/heroine’s journey/pilgrimage from unconscious self-centeredness to selfless wisdom and compassion. Maturing means more than aging. Becoming not just “olders” but “elders,” takes conscious effort and perseverance. Yamada Roshi counseled his Zen students to take care of their health so as to live as long as possible, continue working on their practice, and become as mature as possible. Let’s see how Te-shan does. As commentary on the koan itself is rather brief ( 20 mins), for the teisho’s first 15 minu...
2025-02-2236 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha's Parinirvana -- and Us!Recorded February 15, 2025.“Let’s be honest: Death is our greatest difficulty. Accepting it and, for lack of a better word, doing it, are our most severe challenges, fraught with deepest anxiety and trauma. All challenges and difficulties in life seem to stem from or circle around this primal one of awesome finality. To face head-on what, as Shakespeare wrote, “... ends this strange eventful history ... Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything,” (As You Like It), can be terribly hard. It is beyond everything and anything we can imagine. A lifetime of practicing, of learning to be fully pr...
2025-02-1646 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinTe-shan Carries His Bundle. Is he right -- or wrong?Recorded Saturday, February 8, 2025.In our previous koan teisho, (case 28, "Gateless Barrier"), Te-shan, that noted scholar of the Diamond Sutra, had set off with the clear intention of wiping out the “Zen devils” in the South. Fortunately for him -- and for us -- he fell into Master Lung-t’an’s Dragon Pond where he found his Original Face from before his parents were even born.Even so, he was still the same old hot head. Now, sure that all his learning was wrong and only realization "right," he sets off to check himself against against “the best min...
2025-02-0822 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinA brief pre-teisho encouragement for practicing -- and living -- in our troubling times.Recorded Saturday, February 8, 2025.Image: Painting of Vimalakirti by Zen Master Hakuin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2025-02-0804 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinTe-shan Sets Down His Backpack - Case 28, Gateless Barrier.Recorded February 1, 2025.The traditional commentary on Case 28 in the Gateless Barrier says: Before Te-shan left home, his mind was indignant and his tongue sharp. Full of arrogance, he went south to exterminate the doctrine of the special transmission outside the sutras. When he reached the road to Li-cho he sought to buy refreshments from an old woman at a roadside tea stand. The old woman said, “Venerable monk, what are all those books you are carrying on your back?”Te-shan said, “They are my notes and commentaries on the Diamond Sutra.”The old woman...
2025-02-0139 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinWhat's Zen Really All About?Recorded January 25, 2025.This teisho is the first of a series from a new book by Roshi Rafe Martin, titled, "A Zen Life As Pilgrimage: Coming Home (To What Zen Is Really All About)."What is the relevance of Zen to the difficulties of our time, right now? What is Zen really all about? A personal anecdote from Roshi Martin — I was having lunch with Aitken Roshi in an Italian restaurant in Honolulu when I asked,“Roshi. What is this Zen thing, anyway? Why do we do it?” He answered quickly, saying “Happiness...
2025-01-2545 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Baby's Practice!Recorded January 18, 2025.Fundamentally, Zen is not about becoming some better you. You are it, just as you are. Even a baby knows it. Maybe only a baby knows it. Perhaps the clearest take on this, koan-wise, is Blue Cliff Record 80 — “Chao Chou’s(Joshu’s) A Newborn Baby.” “A monk asked Chao Chou (Joshu), ‘Does a newborn baby possess the 6th sense or not?’ Chao Chou (Joshu) said, 'It is like a ball bouncing on swift-flowing water.’The monk later asked T’ou Tzu (Tosu), ‘What is the meaning of a ball bouncing on swift-flowing water...
2025-01-1847 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinLiking Jataka Tales: A Teisho for Entering 2025Recorded January 4, 2025For the first teisho of 2025 — and its challenges — Roshi Rafe Martin offers a vision of Buddhist insight/outlook and behavior, by looking at the Buddhist jataka tales (past life stories of the Buddha) and their deep import for us today. In these stories equal attention is given to the needs and aspirations of all living things, not just human beings. The tales, taken as a whole, offer a doorway into a primary realm of the imagination, which connects all life. The source of this teisho is an article Roshi Martin originally wrote as the fi...
2025-01-0446 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha Holds Up a FlowerRecorded December 14, 2024.To end the year - a teisho on the Buddha’s teaching — and a flower!It should come as no surprise that Zen tradition sees the Buddha as the original Zen Master, someone who teaches by demonstrating and presenting, rather than simply by lecturing, or talking “about.” The Buddha offers living truth, not philosophy. Like the monk in the final Zen Oxherding picture, he enters the marketplace of human life with helping hands. Which sounds pretty good. Who doesn't need help? But what does such help look like? What kind of help does the enli...
2024-12-1445 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha's Enlightenment and Our Own Zen PracticeRecorded December 8, 2024In this teisho Roshi Rafe Martin tells the dramatic story of the Buddha’s great enlightenment then comments on it (using his recent book A Zen Life of Buddha as his source), from the ground of ongoing Zen practice: “Zen Buddhism reveres the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment because it so dramatically reveals our own potential, even as it reveals the determined, dedicated work that “even as it reveals the determined, dedicated work that underlies all milestone experiences. ”“Buddhist tradition says that we all have the nature of Buddha, have exactly the s...
2024-12-0859 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha Leaves Home, (and how this relates to our own Zen practice!)Record December 7, 2024This teisho, the opening teisho of our two-day rohatsu sesshin, itself the culminating event of five previous days of heightened daily practice, is on the Buddha’s leaving home and its relation to our own maturing Zen practice. According to legend, when at the age of twenty-nine, the long-sheltered prince, Siddhartha Gautama, left his comfortable palace to explore life in his home city, he suddenly saw an aged person, a sick person, a dead person, and a homeless truth-seeker and his life was irrevocably changed. Traumatized by this collision with reality, he didn’t turn...
2024-12-0747 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinRealization, Gratitude, Thanksgiving and HealingRecorded November 23, 2024In this teisho, using Dharma Transmission case 30 in the “Transmission of Light,” Bodhidharma’s heir, Huike, to Seng t’san, (the author of “Affirming Faith in Mind”) as a case in point, Roshi Martin explores gratitude and thanksgiving — from a Zen perspective. Seng t’san, suffering from a serious illness, realized the empty ground of his disease, the foundation of what the koan calls his “sins,” and awoke to wholeness and gratitude. The Buddha upon his great Awakening, didn’t exclaim that one day all beings will be Buddha. Instead, legend insist...
2024-11-2333 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinManjusri Fails to Awaken the Young Woman. Is failure "wonderful indeed"?Recorded November 16, 2024.With this teisho Roshi Martin looks into the nature of painful failure: “Is it wonderful indeed” as the koan of “Manjusri and the Young Woman” (“Gateless Barrier” 35) proclaims? If so, how? Roshi Martin begins with the opening lines of "The Odyssey” pointing out how they reveal that it is Odysseus’s failure that sets the epic of a man overcoming difficulties and temptations to return to his true home, in motion. Then he reads and comments on Chapter 5 of his recent book “A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas,” which explores the koan of how the great Bodhisattva of Wisdo...
2024-11-1644 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinShame!Recorded November 9, 2024.In this first post-Nov. 5th election teisho, Roshi Martin opens with two poems of W.B. Yeats, speaking from the Irish “Troubles,” then moves on to read from and comment on Chapter Seven —“The Resource of Shame” — in Nelson Foster Roshi’s new book: Storehouse of Treasures: Recovering the riches of Chan and Zen. Some bits to savor:The great T’ang era Zen master Chao-chou (Joshu) was once asked — “What place to you accord an individual entirely without shame?” “Not among us,” the master answered. The questioner persisted, How about if one suddenly appeared...
2024-11-091h 02
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinHalloween 2024 -- The Fox Koan and Putting Old Ghosts to RestRecorded October 26, 2024.Roshi Rafe Martin examines the important koan of Pai-chang and the Fox (case 2 of the Gateless Barrier), in light of both Halloween and the ghostly anxieties of our pre-election week. Referenced:The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan), Translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken Photo : Hungry Ghost Altar, Endless Path Zendo 10/2024, by Rose Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2024-10-2636 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinTrying to Satisfy Desire. The Mandhata Jataka.Teisho by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin, 10/15/2024 Vermont Zen CenterRecorded October 15, 2024. In this teisho, the final teisho of the October 2024 Jataka Sesshin at the Vermont Zen Center, Roshi Martin tells an ancient jataka (past life tale of the Buddha) that's very much like a sci-fi story! He then examines it from the perspective of Zen practice. In the story, which the Buddha told near the time of his approaching parinirvana (death), shows him attempting to satisfy desire. And how that necessary failure changed him. Referenced: Before Buddha Was Buddha by Rafe M...
2024-10-1535 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Banyan Deer -- a teisho on non-duality and justiceRecorded on October 12, 2024This teisho was presented by Roshi Martin on the first day of the recent, Oct. 11-16th 2024, 16th Annual Jataka sesshin at the Vermont Zen Center. In it, Roshi Martin first puts on his hat as an award-winning author and storyteller, giving a dramatic reading of his book, The Banyan Deer: A Parable of Wisdom and Courage (Wisdom Publications, 2010). Then, putting his Zen teacher hat back on, he comments on this ancient Buddhist jataka tale from the perspective of actual ongoing Zen practice-realization! Enjoy! Image: Cover art for Rafe Martin's "T...
2024-10-1250 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinBodhidharma and Peace of MindRecorded 10/05/2024.Roshi Martin comments on case 41 in The Gateless Barrier — “Bodhidharma and Peace of Mind,” the core of which is as follows:Bodhidharma sat facing the wall. Huike, the Second Ancestor . . . said, “Your disciple’s mind has no peace as yet. I beg you, master, to please put it to rest.”Bodhidharma said, “Bring me your mind, and I will put it to rest.” The Second Ancestor said, “I have searched for my mind, but I cannot find it.” Bodhidharma said, “Then I have completely put it to rest for you.”Buddhist p...
2024-10-0544 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinZen History -- D.T. Suzuki and the Transmission of Zen to the WestRecorded September 21, 2024.Roshi Martin reads from (and comments on) "A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki Remembered" focusing on the important, indeed, seminal role Dr. D.T. Suzuki (NOT Shunryu Suzuki) played in the transmission of Zen to the West. In his reading aloud from the book he focuses on the chapters written by his own teachers -- Philip Kapleau and Robert Aitken -- as well as the chapter by Gary Snyder, all of whom reveal that Suzuki was absolutely central to their own personal turn to the actual practice of Zen. It made for an inspiring morning...
2024-09-2153 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinGreat CompassionRecorded September 7, 2024Roshi Rafe Martin speaks about the deep meaning of the 11-headed, many-armed Bodhisattva of Great Compassion and his/her relevance to our own lives and times right now.Referenced:"The Record of Lin-chi" Ruth Fuller Sasaki (translation and commentary)"A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas" by Rafe Jnan Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2024-09-0744 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 9 - Tangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"Recorded July 27, 2024.In this teisho, Roshi Martin concludes his reading from "Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha" and offers his comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi. Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: “He didn’t travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he ju...
2024-07-2748 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 8 - Tangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"Recorded July 20, 2024.In this teisho, Roshi Martin continues reading from "Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha" and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi. Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: “He didn’t travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in hi...
2024-07-2049 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 7 - Tangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"Recorded July 13, 2024.In this teisho, Roshi Martin continues reading from "Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha" and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi. Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: “He didn’t travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in hi...
2024-07-1348 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 6 - Tangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"Recorded June 29, 2024.In this sixth teisho, Roshi Martin continues reading from "Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha" and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi. Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: “He didn’t travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat i...
2024-06-291h 00
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 5 - Tangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"Recorded June 22, 2024.In this fifth teisho, Roshi Martin continues reading from "Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha" and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi. Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: “He didn’t travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat i...
2024-06-2248 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 4 - Tangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"Recorded June 16, 2024.In this fourth teisho recorded at the June 4-day sesshin (June 12-16, 2024) at Endless Path Zendo, Roshi Martin reads from "Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha" and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi. Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: “He did...
2024-06-1646 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 3 - Tangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"Recorded June 15, 2024.In this third teisho recorded at the June 4-day sesshin (June 12-16, 2024) at Endless Path Zendo, Roshi Martin reads from "Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha" and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi of Bukkoji.Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"...
2024-06-1554 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPart 2 - Tangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"Recorded June 14 2024. In this second of the four teishos recorded at Endless Path Zendo's June 2024 four-day sesshin (June 12-16th), Roshi Martin continues to read from and comment on “Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha" the stirring autobiography and profoundly inspiring teachings of Tangen Harada Roshi of Bukkoji. Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Your...
2024-06-1445 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinTangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha"Recorded June 13, 2024.Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to our Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: “He didn’t travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the worl...
2024-06-1350 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Challenge of Lay Zen Practice and the Essence of Renunciation or "Letting Go."Recorded June 8, 2024.The first 18 minutes of this recording are the “teisho proper,” focusing on the essential worth — and challenge — of ongoing lay Zen practice. If you stop there you’ll have a short and direct teisho. But the rest of the recording adds resonance. Roshi Martin then reads Kipling’s, “The Miracle of Purun Bhagat,” a tale that presents the essence of renunciation, the ancient traditional path of maturing beyond self-centeredness. We modern lay Zen practitioners must do the same, too BUT — and here lies our challenge —we must leave home without literally leaving home. For us, family, work, n...
2024-06-0854 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinOak Tree in the Front Garden!Recorded May 18, 2024If we mean to fulfill our life journey, our personal pilgrimage to maturity — which is the point of Zen practice — what we seek can’t be somewhere far off, but must be in our own back — or front — yard. Gateless Barrier, (Wu-men Kuan, Mumonkan), Case 37: “Chao-chou: The Oak Tree in the Front Garden” goes like this:The CaseA monk asked Chao-chou, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?”Chao-chou said, “The oak tree in the front yard.”“Why did Bodhidharma come from the Wes...
2024-05-1843 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinAnniversary Teisho - Roshi KapleauRecorded May 4, 2024.May 6, 2024 is the 20th Anniversary of the passing of Roshi Philip Kapleau. Rose and Rafe Martin were his personal disciples. They traveled with him, shared meals with him, watched movies with him, were his attendants for various formal functions, stayed with him by his invitation in Mexico, New Mexico, and Florida. Roshi Kapleau also chose Rafe to be his editor for his two final books.On May 4th 2024 at our annual 1/2 day zazenkai/memorial for Roshi Kapleau at Endless Path Zendo, a recorded teisho originally presented by Roshi Kapleau’s at a 7-day se...
2024-05-0444 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinWhich is the True Chi'enRecorded on April 27, 2024This talk, given by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin, explores case 35 of the Gateless Barrier: “Which is the True Ch’ien?” This wonderfully creative koan uses a T’ang era ghost tale of a young woman divided from herself, to help us uncover our own real Self today. It’s the old old story of Identity — the essential quest of myth and folklore worldwide — recast as a koan with the power to help us live more fully. [This case is sometimes also known as “Sei and Her Soul Are Separated.”}Books cited:The Gateless Barri...
2024-04-2733 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinA Buffalo Passes Through the WindowRecorded on April 20, 2024.This talk, given by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin, explores case 38 from the Gateless Barrier - "Wu-tsu's Buffalo Passes Through the Window." A most interesting koan! In the case, a buffalo's massive head, horns, shoulders, legs and hooves all pass easily through the latticed window. So, why can't the tiny tail pass through? Impossible! Crazy! -- and yet -- it's a wonderful koan in which the Buddha's most profound wisdom meets the lively wisdom of fairy tales. Zen Master Hakuin called this a nanto koan, meaning that he felt that it was one of th...
2024-04-2037 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha's Birth -- What does it mean for us today?Recorded April 13, 2024.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin explores the meaning of the Buddha's birth, which took place roughly 2600 years ago. A birth that is so remarkable prompts us to ask: Where did someone come from who was able to so quickly give up all wealth and privilege, and by devoting himself fully to the great anguish of our common human condition, realize a way of helping all beings? What does his effort and insight mean for us today?Roshi Martin reads from his recently published book -- "A Zen Life of Buddha" (Sumeru Books, 2023).Re...
2024-04-1845 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinA Teisho for Spring: Ch'ang Sha's StrollRecorded March 30, 2024.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin shares Case 36 from The Blue Cliff Record "Ch'ang Sha Wandering in the Mountains."With Ch’ang Sha’s spring time stroll in the hills we discover (and clarify) that ongoing Zen practice means a full life, not isolation. The Buddha got up from under the Bodhi Tree. The point of Zen — if we can speak in such terms — is not to stay forever seated in zazen facing a wall, but to live fully, maturing with family, careers, relationships, interests, ups and downs, sickness and health, activism, citizenship, music and art all...
2024-03-3044 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinTe-Shan Carries His BowlsRecorded March 23, 2024.Roshi Rafe Martin completes his exploration of the Zen pilgrimage of Te-shan and the things he carried as he matures from youthful firebrand into refined and mature teacher. In this teisho, Te-shan is carrying his bowls to the noon-day meal. Is he early? Is the meal late? What is "the last word"? Does he have it or doesn't he? Does anyone? And how about us -- what is the last word? Can we say? Selected references:The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan), Translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken - Cas...
2024-03-2339 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinTe-shan Carries His BundleRecorded on March 17, 2024.In this second teisho on the trilogy of Te-shan koans, Roshi Martin looks at Case 4 of the Blue Cliff Record: “Te-shan Carries His Bundle.” In the previous teisho Te-shan set down the backpack of brilliant commentaries on the Diamond Sutra he’d been lugging around. Here he carries his bundle of monk’s gear and, post-satori, seems hardly to know what to do with it.Selected references:The Blue Cliff Record, Translated by Thomas Cleary and J.C. Cleary - Case 4 "Te-shan Carries His Bundle"The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and...
2024-03-1752 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinTe-shan Sets Down his BackpackRecorded March 16, 2024At the start of this two-day sesshin, Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin delivers the first in a trilogy of teishos on the koans of Te-shan — and the things he carried. Setting down his backpack of brilliant commentaries on the Diamond Sutra, Te-shan personally discovers that even the greatest knowledge is like a drop of water tossed into a vast ravine, compared to realization of his own Mind. Roshi Martin starts with a short review of the koan practice in our combined Diamond Sangha /Kapleau Roshi lineage.Selected references:The Gateless Barrier: The...
2024-03-1639 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinPilgrimage to Buddhist India: Dharma Talk by Rose MartinRecorded on March 9, 2024.Rose Martin is a lay ordained, senior student of Sunyana Graef Roshi, who is the founder and Abbot of the Vermont Zen Center and a Dharma Heir of Philip Kapleau Roshi (author of The Three Pillars of Zen). Along with her husband, Roshi Rafe Martin, Rose is a personal disciple of Philip Kapleau Roshi, and is presently head of zendo at Endless Path Zendo.In the Footsteps of the Buddha: A Buddhist Pilgrimage (February 10-23, 2024) was led by tour leaders Buddha Path. Rose writes of the experience: On the pilgrimage we visited s...
2024-03-0951 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Diamond Sutra and Being ReviledRecorded 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 ot...
2024-03-0244 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha Ascends the RostrumRecorded February 24, 2024.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin explores Case 92 from the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku). In this exploration, Roshi Martin points to "where the vast ocean meets the shallows of our actual life." The case: One day, the World-Honored One ascended to the rostrum. Manjusri struck the table with the gavel and said, “Contemplate clearly the Dharma of the Dharma-King! The Dharma of the Dharma-King is like this!” Thereupon, the World-Honored One descended from the rostrum.Selected references:From The Gateless Barrier | The Wu-Men Kuan CASE 6: The World-Honored One Twirls a Flower CASE 42: Mañjuśrī a...
2024-02-2443 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha's Parinirvana (death) and UsRecorded on Saturday, February 17, 2024.The traditionally recognized date of the Buddha's Parinirvana is February 16, which is the date of his complete entrance into nirvana, his death that is understood as a great fulfillment and completion of his life and his vow.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin details and explores the meaning of this event to the historical Buddha as well as to our own lives, underscoring the opportunity inherent in committing to the Bodhisattva Vow and the practice of zazen. I saw in Yoshino's billows of blossoms that long ago time of great passing ...
2024-02-1754 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinA Non-Buddhist Questions the BuddhaRecorded on February 10, 2024.Roshi Rafe Martin explores Case 32 from The Gateless Barrier - A Non-Buddhist Questions the Buddha (also known as The Buddha Responds to an Outsider).An outsider asked the World-Honored One, “I do not ask for the spoken; I do not ask for the unspoken.” The World-Honored One just sat still. | The outsider praised him, saying, “The World-Honored One with his great compassion and mercy has opened the clouds of my delusion and enabled me to enter the Way.” He then made bows and took his leave. | Ānanda asked, “What did that outsider realize to make...
2024-02-1144 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinOur Great VowRecorded on February 3, 2024.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin discusses vows - the vow of the Bodhisattva, our own vows, Zen practice vows, and how vows play out in our lives. In raising the question - where do vows come from - Roshi Martin brings us to the Jataka tales (past lives of the Buddha), explaining how all the Pali tradition Jataka follow from a single mythic vow that arose when Sumeda (a past life of Gotama Buddha) encountered Dipankara (a Buddha of the more distant past).Photography: Wooden Standing Buddha by Rafe Martin Books b...
2024-02-0349 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinLayman Pang's Snowflakes / A Mind of WinterRecorded on January 27, 2024.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin explores Layman Pang's Beautiful Snowflakes (Case 42 in the Blue Cliff Record).Photography: Snow at Endless Path by Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2024-01-2753 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinManifesting Suchness - Dogen's GenjokoanRecorded on January 20, 2024.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin continued to read and comment on selections from The Heart of Shobogenzo. Roshi Martin leads into the talk by sharing writings of Blake and Emily Dickinson illustrating how - paraphrasing Hakuin - Zen is something that has always been right here, wherever human beings are. Referenced:The Heart of Shobogenzo, translated by Norman Waddel and Mateo AbeEmily Dickinson's Complete Poems edited by Thomas H. Johnson Photography by Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2024-01-2053 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinLay Practice, Continuous PracticeRecorded on January 13, 2024.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin offers the first teisho of the new year. He addresses the subject of why we practice and, as lay practitioners, the forms that dedicated practice could take.Referenced is Case 17 of the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku): A monk asked Kyorin, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the west?” “Sitting long and getting tired.” Photography: Persisting Buddha, by Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2024-01-1349 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinWinter Haiku | The Zen PreceptsRecorded on December 16, 2023.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin offers a teisho in preparation for Jukai (taking precepts) that will be done by EPZ community members on New Year's Eve. The talk begins with a selection of winter haiku.Referenced:Haiku Volume 4 - Autumn Winter by R.H. BlythTaking the Path of Zen by Robert AitkenZen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China by Red PineRoad to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Bill Porter (Red Pine)Photography: Manjushri and the Buddha on the Endless Path altar, Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe M...
2023-12-1958 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha's Great Enlightenment, Rohatsu Day 3Recorded on December 9, 2023 during the final day of the EPZ Rohatsu sesshin.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin shares the story of the Buddha's great enlightenment - the moment when "after life times of effort, [and after] six very intense years of practice, he glanced up at the morning star and realized the falling away of all self centeredness; the universe itself entered and awoke." Referenced:A Zen Life of Buddha, Rafe MartinPhotography: Endless Path Zendo Rohatsu altar, Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2023-12-1756 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha's Teaching, Rohatsu Day 2Recorded on December 3, 2023 during the second full day of the EPZ Rohatsu sesshin.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin starts with a discussion of how to engage with teisho. He then moves to an exploration of the deep realization that emerged from the Buddha's leaving home and koans as an expression of that teaching.Books and magazine articles referenced:A Zen Life of BodhisattvasThe Gateless Barrier (Wumen guan | Mumonkan)"Koan Ranger", Gary Snyder interviewed by Alan Williamson in Poetry Magazine (May 2008)The two plum treesI love their bloomingOne early, one l...
2023-12-1655 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinThe Buddha Leaves Home - Rohatsu Day 1Recorded on December 2, 2023 during the first full day of the EPZ Rohatsu sesshin.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin on why we sit ...and why the Buddha left home..."going to place he knew not, by a road he knew not of."Books and articles mentioned:The Practice of Chinese Buddhism 1900-1950 by Holmes WelchThe Wheel of Life: The Autobiography of a Western Buddhist, by John Blofeld"It! It! It!" by Peter Coyote, Lion's Roar - December 2016A Zen Life of Buddha, Rafe MartinPhotography: Endless Path Zendo Rohatsu altar, Rafe Martin Books by R...
2023-12-1451 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinDogen's "One Bright Pearl"Recorded Saturday, November 18, 2023.Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin reads and comments on Zen Master Dogen's extraordinary "One Bright Pearl" (Ikka Myōju) from The Heart of Shobogenzo, translated by Norman Waddell and Masao Abe.Note: A few of the Chinese names in this talk may sound a bit similar; to see the text, use the link above and go to page 31! - Hsüeh-feng I-ts'un was the teacher of Hsüan-sha Shih-pei (whose given name was Hsieh). Hsüan-sha's teaching was "All the universe is one bright pearl." Books by Ro...
2023-12-1359 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinBecoming Fully Human in our Tragic TimeRecorded on Saturday, October 28, 2023.Roshi Martin looks at the nature of ghosts in Buddhist tradition and how this relates to our own practice of being a genuine human being (and not a ghost). Includes three brief retellings of Jataka tales, illustrating the way of the Bodhisattva - a being choosing to go beyond unconscious, habitual clinging to concepts of self centeredness.Tales included are: The Brave Little Parrot, The Banyan Deer, and King Sibi [Sivi]. Altar image from the Endless Path Zendo, photography by Rafe Martin Books by Roshi R...
2023-10-2827 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinBodhidharma and Peace of MindRecorded on Monday, October 23, 2023. Case 41 from the Gateless Barrier, Bodhidharma and Peace of Mind The case:Bodhidharma faced the wall. The Second Ancestor stood in the snow, cut off his arm, and said, “Your disciple’s mind has no peace as yet. I beg you, Master, please put it to rest.”Bodhidharma said, “Bring me your mind, and I will put it to rest.”The Second Ancestor said, “I have searched for my mind, but I cannot find it.”Bodhidharma said, “I have completely put it to rest for you.”Image: Bo...
2023-10-2350 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin2023 Jataka Sesshin - Day 4: The Gardener SageRecorded on October 17, 2023, the 4th and final teisho of the annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center.Roshi Rafe Martin explores the Kuddala Jataka (#70 in the Pali Jataka), the Spade Sage.Jatakas are stories told by the Buddha 2500 years ago of his past lives. They were one of his central ways of teaching. Through these tales he resolved complex issues in his Sangha by revealing root causes and demonstrating the working of cause and effect.Image: Buddhist mythology and legends depicted at a Vipassana Meditation Center, Ms Sarah Welch, CC0, vi...
2023-10-1735 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin2023 Jataka Sesshin - Day 3: The Buddha as a Child of an OgreRecorded on October 16, 2023; the 3rd day of the annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center.Roshi Rafe Martin explores the Padakusalamanava Jataka (#432 from the Pali Jataka) in which the Buddha is born as the child of an ogre.Jatakas are stories told by the Buddha 2500 years ago of his past lives. They were one of his central ways of teaching. Through these tales he resolved complex issues in his Sangha by revealing root causes and demonstrating the working of cause and effect.Image: Buddhist mythology and legends depicted at a Vi...
2023-10-1631 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin2023 Jataka Sesshin - Day 2: The Buddha as a TreeRecorded on October 15, 2023; the 2nd day of the annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center.Roshi Rafe Martin explores the central role of trees in many Jataka tales. Tales shared:Bhadda-Kunala Jataka (#465), the Rajovada Jataka (#334), and the Ganatindu Jataka number (#520) in the Pali Jataka in the of 547 such past-life talesJatakas are stories told by the Buddha 2500 years ago of his past lives. They were one of his central ways of teaching. Through these tales he resolved complex issues in his Sangha by revealing root causes and demonstrating the working of caus...
2023-10-151h 07
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin2023 Jataka Sesshin - Day 1: Why Be Human?Recorded on October 14, 2023; the 1st day of the annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center.Roshi Rafe Martin explores the Campeyya Jataka (#506 in the Pali collection).Jatakas are stories told by the Buddha 2500 years ago of his past lives. They were one of his central ways of teaching. Through these tales he resolved complex issues in his Sangha by revealing root causes and demonstrating the working of cause and effect.Image: Buddhist mythology and legends depicted at a Vipassana Meditation Center, Ms Sarah Welch, CC0, via Wikimedia Commonsfrom Wikimedia
2023-10-1451 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinZen Failure, Zen CreativityRecorded on September 16, 2023.Roshi Martin share the last chapter of his forthcoming book - A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas - on the subject of the zen of failure - a necessary part of the Bodhisattva path...and of growing up! Each failure offering new opportunities to improve, mature, and understand.Image: Teeny Tiny Tower, photo is by Ariya Aladjem Wolf (Ariya Martin) Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2023-09-1645 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinDogen's "Fukanzazengi", Koans, and the Lord of the RingsRecorded on Saturday, July 9, 2023.This talk marks the first zazenkai of the fall. Roshi Martin starts with perspectives on koan practice from Merry and Pippin - "You can't live long on the heights, but what a difference it makes." Then moved to reading and comments on Dogen's Shobogenzo (from The Heart of Dogen's Shobogenzo, translated by Norman Waddell and Masao Abe)). Background on Shobogenzo is followed by reading and discussion of the opening fascicle - Fukanzazengi.Altar image from the Endless Path Zendo, photography by Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTu...
2023-09-0956 minEndless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinKilling a Cat — A Troubling CaseRecorded Saturday, July 29, 2023. (Last teisho before August break.)Case 14 from the Gateless Barrier (The Wu-Men Kuan | Mumonkan) - Nan-ch’üan Kills the CatThe case: The priest Nan-ch’üan found monks of the eastern and western halls arguing about a cat. He held up the cat and said, “Everyone! If you can say something, I will spare this cat. If you can’t say anything, I will cut off its head.” No one could say a word, so Nan-ch’üan cut the cat into two. That evening, Chao-chou returned from outside and Nan-c...
2023-07-2934 minEndless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinZen Bodhisattvas: Maitreya - The Dream Within a DreamRecorded on June 24, 2023. Roshi Martin shares a chapter from the forthcoming book - The Zen Life of Bodhisattvas - on Case 25 of the Gateless Barrier, Yang-shan’s Sermon from the Third Seat.The case:Yang-shan dreamed he went to Maitreya’s realm and was led to the third seat. A senior monk struck the stand with a gavel and announced, “Today, the one in the third seat will preach.” Yang-shan arose, struck the stand with the gavel, and said, “The truth of the Mahayana is beyond the Four Propositions and transcends the Hundred Negati...
2023-06-2446 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinZen Bodhisattvas: Kannon, Bodhisattva of CompassionRecorded on June 17, 2023.Roshi Martin shares a chapter from the forthcoming book - The Zen Life of Bodhisattvas - on Kannon, Bodhisattva of Great Compassion.Image: Kannon, photography by Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2023-06-1739 minEndless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinZen Bodhisattvas: Manjusri, Bodhisattva of WisdomRecorded on June 10, 2023. Roshi Martin shares a chapter from the forthcoming book - The Zen Life of Bodhisattvas - on Manjushri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom and patron of the Zendo.Image: Kannon, photography by Rafe Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
2023-06-1034 minEndless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinZen Bodhisattvas: Bodhisattva of Wisdom and the Young WomanRecorded on March 19, 2023.This talk features a chapter from the recently published book by Roshi Martin - The Zen Life of Bodhisattvas on the Bodhisattva Manjushri. The talk explores Case # 42 in the Gateless Barrier.The CaseOnce Mañjuśrī went to a place where many Buddhas had assembled with the World-Honored One. When he arrived, all the Buddhas had returned to their original dwelling place. Only a young woman remained, seated in samādhi, near the Buddha’s seat. Mañjuśrī addressed the Buddha and asked, “How can the young woman g...
2023-03-1942 minEndless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinLayman Pang's Beautiful SnowflakesRecorded on Saturday, March 18, 2023.Roshi Rafe Martin delves into Layman Pang's Beautiful Snowflakes, case 42 from the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku).The case:Layman Pang was leaving Yaoshan. Yaoshan ordered ten of his Zen students to see Pang off at the temple gate. Pang pointed to the falling snow in the air and said, "Beautiful snow-flakes! -- they don't fall on any other place." At that time there was a student named Zen, who said, "Where then do they fall?" Pang gave him a slap. Zen said, "Layman Pang, don't be so rou...
2023-03-1845 min
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe MartinZen Bodhisattvas: Manjusri - 3x3 front, 3x3 backRecorded by February 25, 2023.Roshi Martin explores Case 35 from Blue Cliff Record - The Dialogue of Manjusri and WuChoManjusri asked Wu Cho, "Where have you just come from?" Wu Cho said, "The South."Manjusri said, "How is the Buddhist Teaching being carried on in the South?"Wu Cho said, "Monks of the Last Age have little regard for the rules of discipline."Manjusri said, "How numerous are the congregations?"5Wu Cho said, "Some three hundred, some five hundred." Wu Cho asked Manjusri, "How is it being carried on here-abouts?"Manjusri said, "...
2023-02-2541 min
Buddhist Temple of Toledo PodcastThe Paramita of Compassion with Rafe Martin (part 2 of 2).mp3Recorded at the Toledo Zen Center on September 12, 2010. This special Dharma Talks was given by author and story teller Rafe Martin. Along side Rev. Jay Rinsen Weik and Rev. Karen Do-on Weik, Rafe discusses the paramita of compassion. This podcast is part 2 of a 2 part series.
To hear another talk by Rafe Martin, given in June of 2010, visit Villagezendo.org
To learn more about the Toledo Zen Center, or to make a contribution in support of this podcast, please visit toledozen.org
2010-11-1248 min