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).

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Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

What's Zen Really All About?

January 25, 2025

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.” And then he stopped, put down his fork, and sat quietly, as if he’d caught himself mouthing a cliche. Then he looked at me and said,“No. Many people are happy. Absorbed in work, family, or hobbies they’re happy. But if impermanence has bitten too deeply, and a yearning for something more, a way to be at peace in the face of impermanence has taken root, then Zen can show you the way to happiness.”

A personal anecdote told to Roshi Martin by Danan Henry Roshi —

“Have you ever seen anything so wonderful?!!” Roshi Philip Kapleau exclaimed, with a radiant smile on his face, upon seeing a rooster strutting down the dirt lane, just outside Tepotzlan, Morelos Province, Mexico. Now, remember, he’d been the Chief Court Reporter at both the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals. The anguish caused by the horrors of the testimony he took down at those trials had moved him to begin Zen practice. That radiant smile was a result of what Zen practice had opened to him.

Photo: Kapleau Roshi by Casey Frank