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).
Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin
The Buddha’s Parinirvana: Teisho by Roshi Rafe Martin
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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 rising sun.” Hakuin’s heir, Torei, commented, “These are lines whose point is grasped after you have died two or three times.”
Actually we are dying all the time. To quote The Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday” —“ Dying all the time. Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind. Ain’t life unkind.” Ha! We call this ongoing daily minute-by-minute entrustment to reality, our life. For the Buddha death was the activity of his complete entrance into nirvana or parinirvana, a total entrustment. In “Dharma Nature,” section #23 of his Shobogenzo, Eye of the Treasury of the True Dharma Zen master Dogen writes:
Grass, trees, and forests are impermanent; they are buddha nature. Humans, things, body, and mind are impermanent; they are buddha nature. Land, mountains, and rivers are impermanent, as they are buddha nature. Unsurpassable, complete enlightenment is impermanent, as it is buddha nature. Great parinirvana is buddha nature, as it is impermanence.”
How does the Buddha’s Parinirvana inform our own life and practice? Let’s take a look.
Referenced:
- The Hungry Tigress: Buddhist Myths, Legends and Jataka Tales, Fully Revised and Expanded Edition, by Rafe Martin
- A Zen Life of Buddha, by Rafe Martin
Photo -- Parinirvana Altar, Endless Path Zendo, 2/14/2026
Read Roshi Rafe Martin's latest book: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About. Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.
- Books by Roshi Rafe Martin
- Talks on YouTube
- More information at endlesspathzen.org