Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

About Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

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) (https://sumeru-books.com/products/a-zen-life-of-buddha), The Brave Little Parrot (Wisdom Publications, 2023) (https://wisdomexperience.org/product/the-brave-little-parrot/#:~:text=This%20book%20draws%20on%20modern,find%20they%20sleep%20better,%20too!) and A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas (Sumeru, 2023) (https://sumeru-books.com/products/a-zen-life-of-bodhisattvas).

Publisher

Roshi Rafe Martin

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Feb 2023

Latest episode

26 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

120 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Sept 2026

   Zen Failure and Creativity

   Recorded 9/26/2026. In this lively, enjoyable teisho, Roshi Martin edits on the fly from the final two short chapters of his book, A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas — “Zen Failure” and “Painting of a Rice Cake: Creative Imagination and the Way of the Bodhisattva.” From “Zen Failure:” “Quantum theory suggests that each moment arises out of a field of endless possibility and has, in turn, endless lines of possibility extending from it. All such possible lines collapse into the one line we call “reali...

2. 

   12 Sept 2026

   Are Trees Bodhisattvas?

   Recorded September 12, 2026. In this latest teisho (Zen talk) Roshi Martin, reads, comments on, and edits on the fly Chapter 11 —“The Bodhisattva Saves the Realm as the Consciousness of a Tree” from his book, “A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas” (Sumeru, 2023). “You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes.”...

3. 

   8 Aug 2026

   Fugen, Tree Bodhisattvas, Creativity and Zen

   Recorded on August 8, 2026. This teisho is a potpourri made up of 3 shorter sections from "A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas" — namely a folktale of Fugen Bosatsu, a jataka tale of the Buddha in a past life when he was the consciousness of a tree, and a short piece on Zen, Creativity, and imagination all read aloud and commented on by their author, Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin. Tree painting by Rafe Martin Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To...

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Spotify

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