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), The Brave Little Parrot (Wisdom Publications, 2023) and A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas (Sumeru, 2023).

All Episodes

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

The Buddha Ascends the Rostrum

February 24, 2024

Recorded 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 and the Young Woman in Samādhi
From The Blue Cliff Record | Hekiganroku
- CASE 67: Fu Daishi Expounds the Sutra
- CASE 82: Dairyû and the “ Dharma-Body”
The Golden Age of Zen by John Wu

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"The teisho of the actual body is the harbor and the weir. This is the most important thing in the world. Its virtue finds its home in the ocean of essential nature. It is beyond explanation."
- from Dogen's Shobogenzo

Photography: Buddha in the EPZ Shrine Room, by Rafe Martin