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PODCAST

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

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

religion & spirituality buddhism

All Episodes

46:18

The Buddha's Parinirvana -- and Us!

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2025/02/16

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 ha...

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22:39

Te-shan Carries His Bundle. Is he right -- or wrong?

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2025/02/08

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 reali...

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4:37

A brief pre-teisho encouragement for practicing --...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2025/02/08

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

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39:27

Te-shan Sets Down His Backpack - Case 28, Gateless...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2025/02/01

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...

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45:50

What's Zen Really All About?

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2025/01/25

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 answere...

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47:00

The Baby's Practice!

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2025/01/18

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 meanin...

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46:10

Liking Jataka Tales: A Teisho for Entering 2025

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2025/01/04

Recorded 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.&nb...

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45:55

The Buddha Holds Up a Flower

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/12/14

Recorded 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 hel...

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59:04

The Buddha's Enlightenment and Our Own Zen Practice

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/12/08

Recorded 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 e...

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47:37

The Buddha Leaves Home, (and how this relates to our...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/12/07

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...

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33:17

Realization, Gratitude, Thanksgiving and Healing

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/11/23

Recorded 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 Awakenin...

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44:57

Manjusri Fails to Awaken the Young Woman. Is failure...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/11/16

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 ...

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62:20

Shame!

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/11/09

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 amon...

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36:17

Halloween 2024 -- The Fox Koan and Putting Old...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/10/26

Recorded 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

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35:10

Trying to Satisfy Desire. The Mandhata Jataka.

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/10/15

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 ...

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50:19

The Banyan Deer -- a teisho on non-duality and justice

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/10/12

Recorded 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 act...

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44:02

Bodhidharma and Peace of Mind

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/10/05

Recorded 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 ...

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44:23

Zen History -- D.T. Suzuki and the Transmission of...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/09/21

Recorded 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 ac...

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44:23

Great Compassion

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/09/07

Recorded 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

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48:23

Part 9 - Tangen Roshi and "Throw Yourself Into the...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2024/07/27

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 teachi...

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