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

Peace of Mind?

May 17, 2025

May 17, 2025.

Trouble in mind is a rather standard blues trope, but peace of mind — what is that? We know that the big bad wolf comes to every door — and blows the house down. Well, almost every house. What is the secret of that last little pig’s house, the one made of brick? What is about that house that offers security, solidity, true peace of mind? Does it lie in the literal heft of brick, or is that a shibboleth? Yet if peace of mind is what we aim for, there’s a step beyond even that, more fundamental, less karmic.

Ironically, a quest for peace begins with the personally honest recognition of un-peace. In which case it might be time to explore the story of Bodhidharma's meeting with Hui k’o, a man with a deeply troubled mind to whom he eventually transmitted his Dharma. This is Case 41 of The Gateless Barrier — “Bodhidharma and Peace of Mind.”

Referenced: Mary Oliver: New and Selected Poems

Photo credit: Bodhidharma at Endless Path Zendo by Rafe Martin