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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

54:01

The Birth of The Buddha -- What's it all about?

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2026/04/04

Recorded April 4, 2026. What does the birth of a Buddha really mean? What bearing does it have on our own lives? Is it just ancient history? Is it simply literal — or what? Plus, what are we to make of the rather astonishing legend that, at birth, the newborn baby Buddha raised one hand toward the heavens and pointed the other down to the earth and proclaimed “Above the Heavens, below the heavens, I Alone the Honored One”? What is this getting at? Is myth just a form of untruth? Or is it some...

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40:29

Finding Your Buddha Smile- Part 10: Beautiful...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2026/03/28

Recorded 3/28/2026. The greatest journeys find completion in ordinary things. The teacup, the comfortable old slippers, the wool jacket on the hook by the door. To quote Dorothy, there’s no place like home, where we’re so at ease, a glance at a morning star, a late-night chat with a friend, or a walk in the snow can open ... the Timeless. So — Blue Cliff Record case 42, “Layman P’ang’s Beautiful Snowflakes,” in which Layman P’ang takes a walk in the snow and says, “Beautiful snowflakes. They...

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32:58

Finding Your Buddha Smile Part 9 - What is the True Me?

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2026/03/21

Recorded March 21, 2026. Zen master Wu-tsu used a popular ghost tale, like a popular movie or novel of his time, to explore the intimate question of Identity: “Who am I?” We move through our days like leaves blown about by an un-known wind. But who is it happening to? Who is doing it? Who is the victim? Who’s in the driver’s seat? Shouldn’t we know? What could be more essential—or practical—than being able to say who we are? Who hears sounds with the ears, sees colors with the eyes, eats and ...

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51:42

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 8: How Do I Find...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2026/03/07

Recorded March 7, 2026. This teisho opens with a brief recounting of the legend of the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion and issues of failure, despair, and compassion in our own times. Then Roshi Martin moves on to the essence of Zen — realizing peace of mind. In the koan of “Bodhidharma and Peace of Mind,” (Gateless Barrier #41) Hui-k’o, climbs up to Bodhidharma’s cave on the mountain seeking peace of mind. Bodhidharma doesn’t make it easy, but insists on making it real. “Bring forth your tr...

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40:47

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 7: The Highest...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2026/02/28

Recorded February 28, 2026 Wisdom, which helps us make reasonably good life choices, enabling us to live reasonably good lives, can’t be secret or esoteric. It must reside in what is common and ordinary; otherwise, what hope would any of us have of living well? It would be beyond us— special, hidden away, reserved for the few. No. The last word can’t be far off. And, indeed, Zen teachers in ancient China used folk songs, stories, and colloquial language, taking up whatever was handy, to open...

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34:47

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 6, Te-shan Carries...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2026/02/21

Recorded February 21, 2026 When you realize the first word You understand the last word; The first word or the last word— “It” is not a word. If it’s not a word, what is it? If it is a word, how might you say it? Sequenced in their proper chronological order, the three Te-shan koans give us a nutshell view of Zen as a journey from brash immaturity to subtle maturity. But what is maturity? And what is this wise...

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56:47

The Buddha’s Parinirvana: Teisho by Roshi Rafe Martin

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2026/02/14

Recorded February 14, 2026. William Blake once signed a guest book with a drawing of a human figure stretched reclining — or flying. Surrounding it were the words, “William Blake who is very much delighted in being in good company. Born 28 Nov. 1757 in London and has died several times since.” Zen Master Hakuin, in Japan in 1749, wrote as a way honoring a student who had recently died: “Turning my head a soaring Mount Fuji capped with snow,/ Its lower half flushed in the crimson glow of the r...

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37:31

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 5

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2026/02/07

Recorded February 7, 2025. Te-shan, a noted scholar of the Diamond Sutra, set out to wipe out those nasty “Zen devils” in the South. But, falling into Master Lung-t’an’s Dragon Pond, he found his Face before his parents were born and out at last beyond the pages of his beloved notes and commentaries on the diamonds Sutra, he awoke to the real diamond. Filled with joy, he burned his precious writings and set off, confident as ever, into a bright and shining new world. But is it really so simpl...

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45:12

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 4

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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 reorgan...

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32:46

Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 3

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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. T...

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51:23

Finding Your Buddha Smile Part 2

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

2026/01/10

Recorded January 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...

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27:56

Finding Your Buddha Smile Part 1

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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...

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52:12

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

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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 for...

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47:25

The Buddha's Great Enlightenment

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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 full...

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39:54

Old Ghosts and Living a Life of Grace -- teisho on...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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...

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44:46

No Kings, Vows -- Zen and the U.S.A. -- and the...

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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 ...

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33:30

2025 Jataka Sesshin: The Monkey King

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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

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33:11

2025 Jataka Sesshin: The Tigress

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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 Talk...

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51:41

2025 Jataka Sesshin: Give It All You've Got

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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

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55:54

2025 Jataka Sesshin: The Black Hound Jataka

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin ·

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

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106 results

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