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
Meeting Manjusri Bodhisattva of Wisdom Face-to Face
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Recorded May 16, 2026.
Roshi Rafe Martin reads and comments on Chapter 3 of "A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas."
“Manjushri’s Threes by Threes” — Case # 35 of the Blue Cliff Record —
Manjusri asked Wu Cho, “Where have you just come from?”
Wu Cho replied, “The south.”
Manjusri said, “ How is southern Buddhism faring?”
Wu Cho answered, “The monks of the latter days of the Law have little regard for the precepts.”
Manjusri said, “Are there many or few?”
Wu Cho said, “Here about 300, there around 500.”
Wu Cho then asked Manjusri, “How does Buddhism fare in this part of the world?”
Manjusri said, “The worldly and the holy dwell together; dragons and snakes intermingle.”
Wu Cho asked, “Are there few or many?”
Manjusri said, “In front, three by three; in back, three by three.”
What’s going on? Does Manjusri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom, deliver — or obfuscate? What kind of wisdom is this? Wise folks may speak in riddles but can hide behind gibberish. Con-men have played that field. Have we been taken in? What is Manjusri’s profound wisdom and how will it help us live lives of actual meaning here and now? Let’s take a look!
Books
- A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas — Rafe Martin
- Haiku, Vol. 1: Eastern Culture — R.H. Blyth
- Moby Dick — Herman Melville
- The Adolescent — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Photo of Manjusri and Buddha at Endless Path Zendo by Rafe Martin
- Books by Roshi Rafe Martin
- Talks on YouTube
- More information at endlesspathzen.org