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
Manjusri Fails!
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Recorded 5/30/2026.
Wu-men’s commentary to Case 42 of The Gateless Barrier, “Manjusri and the Young Woman in Samadhi” says
“The comedy Old Shakya puts on the stage here is a great hodgepodge. Just tell me now; Manjusri is the teacher of the Seven Buddhas – why couldn’t he get the young woman out of her samadhi, when the Bodhisattva of Delusive Wisdom, a beginner, could? If you can firmly grasp this point, then for you this busy life of ignorance and discrimination will be the life of the Dragon Samadhi.”
His verse to the case:
One can awaken her, the other cannot;
Both of them are free.
A god mask, a devil mask
The failure is wonderful indeed.
Hmm. One can, one can’t. Isn’t that unfair? Shakespeare was an immediate success, but Melville never received a single positive review on his masterwork, Moby Dick. Picasso never failed to receive worshipful accolades, yet Van Gogh never sold a painting and William Blake died in poverty. One can awaken her, the other cannot. Astoundingly, Wu-men asserts that both are free. If so, how is Manjusri free, and how is the Bodhisattva of Delusive Wisdom also free? How is Einstein free and how Walt Disney? And what about us? How are we free, Dragon
Samadhi or no?
Let’s take a look!
Photo of Manjusri on Lion at Endless Path by Rafe Martin
Books referenced:
- Books by Roshi Rafe Martin
- Talks on YouTube
- More information at endlesspathzen.org