Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

Recorded May 2, 2026.Twenty-two years ago on March 6th , (it has gone by in the blink of an eye) 2004 my old Zen teacher, Roshi Philip Kapleau ,passed from this life to the next. I had just flown back home to Rochester from where I'd been speaking at a literary conference in Reno, Nevada and was picked up at the airport by an old Dharma friend who told me that Roshi had just died. We drove to where he was still seated in his wheelchair beneath a tree in the backyard of the Zen Center, surrounded by old Zen friends, where we all said our goodbyes. We had so much to be grateful to him for.At Endless Path Zendo we hold a memorial half-day zazenkai each year in Roshi Kapleau's honor. This teisho includes remembrances of Roshi Kapleau by both Rose and myself, plus a reading of the memorial piece on his life that “Buddhadharma” asked me to write shortly after his passing. Additionally, I shared an unusual anecdote from one of the times that when Rose and I were his guests in Florida once he’d retired from active teaching. If you want to know his story give a listen. It’s an interesting tale — Roshi Philip Kapleau had been the chief court reporter for both the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes trials — which eventually led him directly to Zen and to a central -- and essential — role in the transmission of actual Zen practice to the West. - Roshi Rafe MartinPhoto of Roshi Kapleau by Casey FrankBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded April 25, 2026.In this first series of teishos from his book, “A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas,” Roshi Martin explores the nature of Bodhisattvas — the “wisdom beings” so central to the wise and compassionate vision of Mahayana Buddhism, which includes Zen. He also makes it clear that, in Zen tradition, to know who or what bodhisattvas are, we need to know who or what we ourselves truly are. Then again, are bodhisattvas — beings like Manjsuri and Avalokitesvara, Maitreya and Samantbhadra with the transformative power to truly help all suffering beings — really real? Towards the end of this teisho he relates two mysterious true incidents from his own life that led him to believe that such beings really do exist.Books —“A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas” by Rafe Martin“Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism - Lama Govinda“Complete Poison Blossoms From a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Zenji” - Norman Waddell“Eight Beliefs in Buddhism” — Hakuun Yasutani“Further Zen Conversations” - Rick McDanielPhoto of Hotei at Endless Path Zendo, by Rafe MartinRead 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 MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded April 18, 2026.Today’s teisho is on "Gateless Barrier" Case 38 — “A Buffalo Passes Through the Window.”Wu-tsu said, “It is like a buffalo that passes through a window. Its head, horns, and four legs all pass through. Why can’t its tail pass through as well?”Hakuin comments:"Hard for even the most clear-sighted Zen monks to crack,A Buffalo Passing Through theWindow trips them all up. "In this life we'll all face situations, places, events, times that seem . . . beyond us, even impossible. What shall we make of Wu-tsu’s impossible buffalo? The scenario is ridiculous! Impossible. And yet we’re called upon by the koan to personally reveal and present its deep, living meaning.Is logic the be-all and end-all? Can even the most technically precise and clear scientific description of, let’s say, vision, give us our vividly personal experience of red flowers, blue skies, green grass, the joy we find upon seeing a child’s smile? Can a description give us the actual taste of a cup of first flush Darjeeling tea? By what wisdom do I know it personally, intimately? Let’s see if we can find out. Give a listen to this lively — and rather humorous — teisho!Referenced:"The Gateless Barrier: Th Wu-men Kuan (Mumonkan)" Robert AitkenPainting by Zen Master Hakuin -- Buffalo looking at a window.Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded April 11, 2026Hooray! Spring has come. Ice cracks and melts and rivers once again run free. Green grass and buds on trees magically appear. Blue Cliff Record case 36 presents it like this:One day Ch’ang-sha went for a walk in the hills. When he returned to the gate of the monastery the head monk said, “Master, where have you been?”Ch’ang-sha said, “I have come from strolling about in the hills.”The head monk said, “Where did you go?”“First I went pursuing the fragrant grasses, then I returned following the falling flowers.”The head monk said, “You are full of the spring, aren’t you?” Ch’ang-sha said, “It is even better than the autumn dew falling on the lotus flowers.”Hsueh-tou comments, “I’m grateful for that answer.”Aitken Roshi writes —“Let us all be grateful ... because Ch’ang-sha is our teacher of Zen in this age of grave danger to the earth and its music, art, animals, and everything else.”Now, with a smile on our lips we, too, will head out and see what there is for heads, hands, and hearts to do. Zen practice brings us into the fullness of life. It’s not about sitting forever facing a wall.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.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded April 4, 2026.What does the birth of a Buddha really mean? What bearing does it have on our own lives? Is it just ancient history? Is it simply literal — or what? Plus, what are we to make of the rather astonishing legend that, at birth, the newborn baby Buddha raised one hand toward the heavens and pointed the other down to the earth and proclaimed “Above the Heavens, below the heavens, I Alone the Honored One”? What is this getting at? Is myth just a form of untruth? Or is it something more? How does this stunning statement relate to our own life, yours and mine, and to our own practice of Zen? Why not give a listen to this vivid teisho bringing alive The Birth of the Buddha and see how it might all connect!Books cited:"A Zen Life of Buddha" by Rafe Martin"Centuries, Poems, and Thanksgivings, Vol. 1: Introductions and Centuries." Thomas TraherneRead 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.Photo of Baby Buddha, Endless Path ZendoBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded 3/28/2026.The greatest journeys find completion in ordinary things. The teacup, the comfortable old slippers, the wool jacket on the hook by the door. To quote Dorothy, there’s no place like home, where we’re so at ease, a glance at a morning star, a late-night chat with a friend, or a walk in the snow can open ... the Timeless. So — Blue Cliff Record case 42, “Layman P’ang’s Beautiful Snowflakes,” in which Layman P’ang takes a walk in the snow and says, “Beautiful snowflakes. They fall nowhere.” Let’s see what then happens!But first — a note: “emptiness” that Buddhist bugaboo, simply means empty of our own unconscious, habitual, self-centeredness. Self-forgotten, the world of 10,000 uniquely distinct things, living and non-living, steps in and realizes itself as the Self. Less self-conscious, less self-driven practice follows. A Zen saying says, “The way up the mountain is not all that hard, but the way down is endless.” P’ang who is “nothing himself, beholds/ Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.” (Wallace Stevens, “The Snow Man”) And so, as to all those lovely snowflakes falling — how will you present them?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.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded March 21, 2026.Zen master Wu-tsu used a popular ghost tale, like a popular movie or novel of his time, to explore the intimate question of Identity: “Who am I?” We move through our days like leaves blown about by an un-known wind. But who is it happening to? Who is doing it? Who is the victim? Who’s in the driver’s seat? Shouldn’t we know? What could be more essential—or practical—than being able to say who we are? Who hears sounds with the ears, sees colors with the eyes, eats and sleeps, grieves and worries, suffers aging and its manifold indignities? Maybe peace—at least a greater degree of it—lies in looking into this. Who or what are we talking about when we say or think, “I” or “me”? And how is it that we don’t know? Isn’t that rather astonishing that we don’t know who we are? How can that possibly be? Really where and what is this “I” I’m so concerned about, anyway?Let’s see how this one goes!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.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded March 7, 2026.This teisho opens with a brief recounting of the legend of the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion and issues of failure, despair, and compassion in our own times. Then Roshi Martin moves on to the essence of Zen — realizing peace of mind. In the koan of “Bodhidharma and Peace of Mind,” (Gateless Barrier #41) Hui-k’o, climbs up to Bodhidharma’s cave on the mountain seeking peace of mind. Bodhidharma doesn’t make it easy, but insists on making it real. “Bring forth your troubled mind and I’ll pacify it for you,” he says. Simple, right? But there’s a hitch. And how does that hitch itself resolve the problem? But what IS peace of mind anyway?Like John Lewis in our own time, these two old-worthies together made “good trouble,” revealing the Buddha Way to be intimate and open to all, rather than philosophical, far off, or reserved for a special few. At some point we all wake to life’s difficulties. It is our start. To then find peace of mind all we need do, as Bodhidharma insisted, is bring forth our troubled mind so it can be set to rest. Which shouldn’t be too hard to do, should it? Ha! This dramatic teisho shows how it goes. Why not give a listen and see?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.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded February 28, 2026Wisdom, which helps us make reasonably good life choices, enabling us to live reasonably good lives, can’t be secret or esoteric. It must reside in what is common and ordinary; otherwise, what hope would any of us have of living well? It would be beyond us— special, hidden away, reserved for the few. No. The last word can’t be far off. And, indeed, Zen teachers in ancient China used folk songs, stories, and colloquial language, taking up whatever was handy, to open the Way and reveal our common inheritance, our true birthright of enlightenment.Chao-chou (J. Joshu; 778–897), asked for the highest teaching of the Buddhadharma, answered, "The oak tree in the front garden.” What did he mean? What was he getting at?Let’s take a look!Referenced:Haiku Master Buson by Yuki Sawa (1985-09-27) The Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson translated by W.S. Merwin & Takako LentoFinding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About.  Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded February 21, 2026     When you realize the first word     You understand the last word;     The first word or the last word—     “It” is not a word.If it’s not a word, what is it? If it is a word, how might you say it?Sequenced in their proper chronological order, the three Te-shan koans give us a nutshell view of Zen as a journey from brash immaturity to subtle maturity. But what is maturity? And what is this wise last word that changes everything and makes even someone as gifted as that person of genius, Yen t’ou, get up and laugh and clap his hands for joy? What is it really all about?Referenced:Selected Poems of Su Tung-p'o -- Translated from the Chinese by Burton WatsonFinding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home to What Zen Is Really All About, by Rafe Martin.  Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo -- Buddha at Lung-Men Cave Grottoes, China by Rafe MartinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

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 MartinA Zen Life of Buddha, by Rafe MartinPhoto -- Parinirvana Altar, Endless Path Zendo, 2/14/2026Read 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 MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded February 7, 2025.Te-shan, a noted scholar of the Diamond Sutra, set out to wipe out those nasty “Zen devils” in the South. But, falling into Master Lung-t’an’s Dragon Pond, he found his Face before his parents were born and out at last beyond the pages of his beloved notes and commentaries on the diamonds Sutra, he awoke to the real diamond. Filled with joy, he burned his precious writings and set off, confident as ever, into a bright and shining new world. But is it really so simple?This dramatic opening of Te-shan’s Zen, presents an archetype. Clearly, whatever we may fantasize about “enlightenment,” even a deep experience is not the endpoint. Rather, it’s a new beginning. Te-shan was on the road home, but not yet there. The road goes on, and on. As his story shows. Let’s see how it actually goes.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Read 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 MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded January 24, 2026.In this teisho, we move on from the Buddha himself, to see how Zen tradition views the ordinary person’s journey from ignorance to maturity. To show this, Roshi Martin arranges three koans, each drawn from the life of the Chinese Zen master, Te-shan (J. Tokusan, 780–865), in their chronological order—which is not how we find them in our actual koan curriculum. In actual practice we face these koans totally out of sequence. His purpose with this chronological reorganization is to show the underlying story these koans actually reveal.To start us off — he begins with a note about koans in general by quoting Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, environmentalist, Zen elder, and cultural icon, Gary Snyder, who in 2008, in an interview with the Poetry Foundation, Gary Snyder, spoke about koans. Let’s see what he had to say.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Read 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 MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded January 17, 2026.In this teisho Roshi Martin reads and comments on Chapter 2 of his latest book, “Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home (To What Zen is Really All About).”The legendary-mythic jataka tales, reveal the Buddha’s past life efforts, challenges, triumphs, and mistakes. Let’s look at him now as the fully “Awakened One,” the finished product of that many lifetime effort, and see how he taught others to realize the Ancient Way of fulfillment he himself had fully found.To do this we'll take a look at koan case 92 of the "Blue Cliff Record" in which the Buddha’s cosmic Realization, born of the rarified air of India, is transformed by the Zen Eye of China into ­something direct and down-to-earth. In this koan, the Buddha is the consummate storyteller, who with the aid of Manjusri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom, opens the Way with the storyteller's most trusted device -- "show, don't tell!"Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Read 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 MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Teisho by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin Endless Path Zendo, 01/10/2026This teisho opens with a brief talk on the terrible dangers of our present time and the challenging, profoundly helpful path that Zen offers — not of philosophizing, but of tending an ox. Roshi Martin then resumes reading and commenting from his latest book —“Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home (To What Zen is Really All About).” In this next chapter, we look at the Buddha, not as the smiling, perfectly realized finished product, poised and at ease in full-lotus posture, but the Buddha as he appears in a very odd, indeed, almost science fiction-y, jataka or past life story. In that story he is a god-like king who seeks only personal satisfaction. But eventually discovers a deeper, truer path when that self-centered quest comes to its painful end.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Read 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 MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded January 3, 2026.Roshi Martin reads the Opening, Thanks, and Introduction of his new book -- "Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home (to What Zen is Really All About)."From the Intro: There are lots of ways to be happy, some selfish, some naive, some fleeting, some more lasting. The kind I have in mind is of the more lasting sort, the kind that can only come after troubles, after experiencing and suffering the fundamental difficulties of an ordinary human life. . . . What, leads to real happiness? According to legend the historic Buddha, 2,500 years ago, ran into this fundamental problem at the age of twenty-nine. His great enlightenment (of which there are endless degrees and which koans help us start opening) was transformative. The previously traumatized ex-prince, Siddhartha Gautama, through deepest realization, found the essence of happiness. And his face blossomed—into a smile.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Read 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 MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded 12/20/2025.Roshi Martin reads Chapter 10 of Aitken Roshi's "Taking the Path of Zen" -- "The Ten Grave Precepts" and comments in preparation for Jukai. Jukai is a way of taking our practice seriously, of saying — of vowing that “It’s not simply what I do in the zendo or dokusan room that matters – it’s what I do in and how I live my actual daily life.” We take Jukai many times. Each time we find greater understanding and a deepening life path. With each Jukai we take another step forward.Roshi Kapleau used to say that Zen is not above morality, morality not below Zen. Anyone who thinks that Zen’s “Emptiness” means “anything goes” and throws decent ethical behavior out the window is making a grave mistake. Emptiness means love. Love means attention to our behavior. This is where we become responsible to ourselves, to others, and to the practice. As Dogen says, “The teisho of the actual body is the harbor and the weir. This is the most important thing in the world. Its virtue finds its home in the ocean of essential nature. It is beyond explanation. We just accept it with respect and gratitude.”Book cited -- Robert Aitken "Taking the Path of Zen."Photo: Manjusri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom, with students - at Endless Path ZendoBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded December 6, 2025.December 8th is the traditional date on the Mahayana (Zen Buddhist) calendar of the Buddha's profound Enlightenment. Sitting beneath the Bodhi Tree after a long night of zazen that capped 6 years of ferocious effort, the previously sheltered ex-prince, Siddhartha Gautama, so deeply troubled by his head-on collision with impermanence, the sheer injustice of it -- finally got to the bottom of it all. After touching the Earth, he glanced up at the Morning Star and fully, completely Awoke. A Morning Star now sat beneath the Bodhi Tree. "Wonder of wonders," he exclaimed, stunned by his realization. "All living beings are Buddhas, fully endowed with wisdom and virtue. Only their ancient, unconscious habit of self-centered thinking prevents their realization of this!" The Path had been re-opened. Homage to Shakyamuni!In today's teisho at Endless Path Zendo, Roshi Martin tells the story of the Buddha’s great enlightenment, and comments on it from a very natural perspective, as well as looking into what it means for us today. Awake! Rejoice!Photo: Buddha's Enlightenment Altar, Endless Path Zendo, Rohatsu 2025.Referenced:A Zen Life of Buddha by Rafe Martin (Sumeru Books, 2023)__________________JUST RELEASED: Finding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home (To What Zen Is Really All About) by Rafe Martin (Sumeru Books, 2025)Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded October 25, 2025.Thoughts, actions, understandings, perceptions, realizations that had once seemed good enough, may in time, no longer be sufficient. We outgrow them. Then ghostlike, they can return and haunt us. But maybe they return, not to block our way, but to give us another chance. If so, their appearance may not be reason for disappointment, but our opportunity to mature further. So let’s look again at “Master Pai-Chang and the Fox," koan case 2 of The Gatelesss Barrier. Seen in a our current upcoming Halloween light, it becomes a shape-shifting encounter of there and back again. But — the journey has a point. Wu-men’s commentary on the case concludes — “If you have the single eye of realization, you will appreciate how the former head of the monastery enjoyed 500 lives of grace as a fox.” What is it to enjoy a life of grace? What is a life of grace? And how can daily Zen practice help us find this out for ourselves?Calligraphy -- Fox and Lives of Grace by Rafe Jnan MartinBooks mentioned:The Gateless Barrier by Robert AitkenThe Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment by Roshi Philip Kapleau"The Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra" (various editions)Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded October 18, 2025Roshi Martin opens with comments on No Kings and its relationship to our vows.  Then, in this 9th and final teisho on the life of Ming Dynasty Zen Teacher Hanshan, Roshi Martin resumes reading and commenting on Hanshan's autobiography which takes us to Hanshan's death in 1623.Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated by Upasaka Richard CheungBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded October 14, 2025.This teisho was given by Roshi Martin on the fourth day of the 15th annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center.______________________________The Monkey King jataka is also explored in Endless Path: Awakening Within the Buddhist Imagination: Jataka Tales, Zen Practice, and DailyLife by Rafe MartinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded October 13, 2025.This teisho was given by Roshi Martin on the third day of the 15th annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center._______The Tigress jataka is also explored in Endless Path: Awakening Within the Buddhist Imagination: Jataka Tales, Zen Practice, and DailyLife by Rafe Martin.  Additionally, it appears in The Hungry Tigress: Buddhist Myths, Legends and Jataka Tales (Completely Revised and Expanded Edition) by Rafe Martin.Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded October 12, 2025.This teisho was given by Roshi Martin on the second day of the 15th annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center.__________________________The jataka, Give It All You've Got, is also explored in Endless Path: Awakening Within the Buddhist Imagination: Jataka Tales, Zen Practice, and DailyLife by Rafe Martin.Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded October 11, 2025This teisho was given by Roshi Martin on the first day of the 15th annual Jataka Sesshin held at the Vermont Zen Center._______The Black Hound jataka is also explored in Endless Path: Awakening Within the Buddhist Imagination: Jataka Tales, Zen Practice, and DailyLife by Rafe MartinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded October 4, 2025.In honor of Bodhidharma, the founder of what we now call Zen Buddhism, Roshi Martin comments on the koan of the "Oak Tree in the Front Garden" and talks about a conversation with Robert Aitken Roshi and the relationship of Zen practice to actual happiness.More on this koan will be found in Roshi Martin's upcoming book " Finding your Buddha Smile: Coming h\Home to What Zen is Really About."Referenced:Zen Master Dogen -- Shobogenzo: Treasury of the True Dharma Eye - Translated by Kazuaki TanahashiWilliam Blake -- Songs of Experience and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.John Daido Loori -- The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred KoansBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded September 27, 2025.In this 8th teisho on the life of Ming Dynasty Zen Teacher Hanshan, Roshi Martin opens with a brief talk on the essence of Zen practice and the mystery at the core of our own lives. He then takes up reading and commenting on Hanshan's autobiography as it unfolds into his 70th year.Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated by Upasaka Richard CheungThe Woman at Otwoi Crossing by Frank WatersBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded Saturday, September 6, 2025.Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (lively, funny and moving) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, ( Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), the noted Ming Dynasty Zen teacher (not to be confused with Han-shan — Cold Mountain — noted Zen poet/eccentric of the T’ang era.) Known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty, Hanshan has remained an influential figure in Chinese Chan Buddhism down to the twentieth century, his teachings promoted by the great teacher Hsu Yun (Empty Cloud 1840?-1959), and his disciple Charles Luk (1898–1978).Hanshan saw Chan (Zen) as a way to Awaken to realization of One Mind in this very life.Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated by Upasaka Richard CheungComplete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Zen, translated by Norman WaddellBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded Sunday July 26, 2025Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (lively, funny and moving) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, ( Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), the noted Ming Dynasty Zen teacher (not to be confused with Han-shan — Cold Mountain — noted Zen poet/eccentric of the T’ang era.) Known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty, Hanshan has remained an influential figure in Chinese Chan Buddhism down to the twentieth century, his teachings promoted by the great teacher Hsu Yun (Empty Cloud 1840?-1959), and his disciple Charles Luk (1898–1978).Hanshan saw Chan (Zen) as a way to Awaken to realization of One Mind in this very life.Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated byUpasaka Richard CheungBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded June 28, 2025.Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (lively, funny and moving) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, ( Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), the noted Ming Dynasty Zen teacher (not to be confused with Han-shan — Cold Mountain — noted Zen poet/eccentric of the T’ang era.) Known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty, Hanshan has remained an influential figure in Chinese Chan Buddhism down to the twentieth century, his teachings promoted by the great teacher Hsu Yun (Empty Cloud 1840?-1959), and his disciple Charles Luk (1898–1978).Hanshan saw Chan (Zen) as a way to Awaken to realization of One Mind in this very life.Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated byUpasaka Richard CheungBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded June 15, 2025. Roshi Martin continues to read and comment on the extraordinary (and quite lively and funny and also truly moving!!) autobiography of Han-shan Te-Ching, a great Ming Dynasty teacher (not to be confused with Hanshan (Cold Mountain) poet of the T’ang era. Hanshan, an important Ming Dynasty Zen teacher, writes in such a lively, straightforward manner that is moving, funny, profound and deeply human. Hearing from him about the details of his extraordinary life, we get a real sense of what Zen -- and Zen culture -- is truly about. Enjoy.Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated byUpasaka Richard CheungBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded June 14, 2025.Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (and quite lively and funny and also truly moving!!) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, a great Ming Dynasty teacher (not to be confused with Hanshan (Cold Mountain) poet of the T’ang era. Some snippet’s from Wikipedia on Hanshan:Hanshan Deqing (Hanshan Te-Ch’ing, "Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), was a leading Buddhist monk and poet of the late Ming dynasty China. (Posthumously named Hongjue Chanshi.) He is known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty. Hanshan has remained an influential figure in Chinese Chan Buddhism down to the twentieth century. His works are widely printed and published in various editions. His teachings were most recently promoted by modern figures like Hsu Yun (1840?-1959) and his disciple Charles Luk (1898–1978).Hanshan saw the truth of Chan as not being different from the teachings on Mind found in the Mahayana scriptures. Hanshan saw the fundamental method of Chan as "only to understand and realize your own Mind." Hanshan describes the enlightenment experience as follows: "suddenly you will find that the Lotus-mind beams with a bright light, illuminating the ten directions of the universe.” Hanshan saw the Chan method as a way to awaken to the one pure Mind in this very life.Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated byUpasaka Richard CheungBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded June 13, 2025.Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (and quite lively and funny and also truly moving!!) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, a great Ming Dynasty teacher (not to be confused with Hanshan (Cold Mountain) poet of the T’ang era. Some snippet’s from Wikipedia on Hanshan:Hanshan Deqing (Hanshan Te-Ch’ing, "Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), was a leading Buddhist monk and poet of the late Ming dynasty China. (Posthumously named Hongjue Chanshi.) He is known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty. Hanshan has remained an influential figure in Chinese Chan Buddhism down to the twentieth century. His works are widely printed and published in various editions. His teachings were most recently promoted by modern figures like Hsu Yun (1840?-1959) and his disciple Charles Luk (1898–1978).Hanshan saw the truth of Chan as not being different from the teachings on Mind found in the Mahayana scriptures. Hanshan saw the fundamental method of Chan as "only to understand and realize your own Mind." Hanshan describes the enlightenment experience as follows: "suddenly you will find that the Lotus-mind beams with a bright light, illuminating the ten directions of the universe.” Hanshan saw the Chan method as a way to awaken to the one pure Mind in this very life.Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated byUpasaka Richard CheungBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded June 12, 2025Roshi Martin reads and comments on the extraordinary (and quite lively and funny and also truly moving!!) autobiography of Hanshan Te-Ching, a great Ming Dynasty teacher (not to be confused with Hanshan (Cold Mountain) poet of the T’ang era. Some snippet’s from Wikipedia on Hanshan:Hanshan Deqing (Hanshan Te-Ch’ing, "Crazy Mountain, Virtuous Clarity", c. 1546–1623), was a leading Buddhist monk and poet of the late Ming dynasty China. (Posthumously named Hongjue Chanshi.) He is known as one of the four great masters of the Wanli Era Ming Dynasty. Hanshan has remained an influential figure in Chinese Chan Buddhism down to the twentieth century. His works are widely printed and published in various editions. His teachings were most recently promoted by modern figures like Hsu Yun (1840?-1959) and his disciple Charles Luk (1898–1978).Hanshan saw the truth of Chan as not being different from the teachings on Mind found in the Mahayana scriptures. Hanshan saw the fundamental method of Chan as "only to understand and realize your own Mind." Hanshan describes the enlightenment experience as follows: "suddenly you will find that the Lotus-mind beams with a bright light, illuminating the ten directions of the universe.” Hanshan saw the Chan method as a way to awaken to the one pure Mind in this very life.Referenced: The Autobiography and Maxims of Master Han Shan, translated byUpasaka Richard CheungBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded June 7, 2025.There are no monks, nuns, Zen teachers, students, Buddhas, or Bodhisattvas in the case, no sign of Buddhism at all. Instead, a father insists that his daughter marry the man he chooses and, naturally enough, she rebels in order to follow the promptings of her own heart. But this all-too-sadly familiar mess, which tears the young woman in two, quickly opens into something even more fundamental.Zen master Wu-tsu, using a popular ghost tale of his time, (like a popular movie or novel today), guides us to something truly intimate, getting us to really ask, “Which is the true me?” He is turning us toward the fundamental question of Identity: who or what am I? And how is it even possible that we don’t know?!Here Roshi Martin looks again at Case 35 of the "Gateless Barrier" “Which is the True Ch’ien?” deepening and enriching his own earlier teisho on the case. Fairy tales, poetry, and the quest for Identity re-align!Photo -- The Priest Baozhi (J., Hoshi), Saio-ji Temple, KyotoBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded May 31, 2025Roshi Martin reads and comment on the chapter “Responsibility and Social Action” in the book Awakening to Zen by Roshi Philip Kapleau, a book he edited. The chapter opens with: “In Zen Buddhism, responsibility means responsiveness. To respond fully to every situation that comes your way, from a call for help of one kind or another to just talking with someone, and to give all of yourself to it — this is responsibility.”Roshi Martin adds:“We must speak up and act for what is good. I resolve to do good. I resolve to avoid evil. I resolve to save the many beings. These three so-called Three General Resolutions are the core of Zen Buddhist life. Our life is practice. Practice is not an escape from or evasion of all that’s on our plate as and in this very life. I practice as a human being, and as a citizen. Which means I cannot ignore what’s happening in my country, or my world, on my planet. Practice means responding not hiding out. We aim to be genuine human beings, fully human beings, whole human beings.”Photo: Philip Kapleau and Rafe Martin, when Roshi Kapleau was living in semi-retirement in Hollywood, Florida, circa 1991.Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

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 PoemsPhoto credit: Bodhidharma at Endless Path Zendo by Rafe MartinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded on May 10, 2025.Rick McDaniel, who has written a fine series of books on the transmission of Zen Buddhism to the West, as well as books of interviews with contemporary Zen teachers (full disclosure: I wrote the Foreword for his "Further Conversations: On the scope, practice, and future of North American Zen," a book in which I also appear), and is now working on a book about the pioneering men and women who brought Zen to the West. Here is his “take” on Roshi Philip Kapleau, former Chief Court Reporter of both the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals. Roshi Kapleau remains an important, controversial, pioneering figure in the transmission of Zen to the West. I appear in this piece as well, talking about my close personal relationship with Kapleau Roshi, and some of the complexities of the 70s — and later. Details abound! Is it gossip — or history? Give a listen!Photo: Philip Kapleau's ordination as a Zen priest by Yasutani RoshiBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded April 26, 2025In this teisho, Roshi Martin looks at an oddly sci-fi (with UFO!) past life tale of the Buddha, our own life, a Grimm’s “fairy tale,” and the Way of the Bodhisattva. “Everything – beings, worlds, galaxies, universes — Buddhist teachings tell us — come and go, with neither beginning nor end. Aryasura, author of the influential 5th century CE Jatakamala, however, states that something does persist. He writes: ‘Earth with its forests, noble mountains and seas may perish a hundred times by fire, water, and wind, as each eon comes to an end, but the great compassion of a Bodhisattva, never.’ (From the “Great Ape Jataka” in, Once The Buddha Was a Monkey; trans. Peter Khoroche.) “According to Buddhist tradition, the aspiration to awaken and live so as to benefit all beings is woven into the nature of reality, is the nature of Original, un-self-centered Mind. Given this, the effort we put into trying to satisfy a small, self-centered, fundamentally illusory habitual narrative of isolated selfness with which we identify as “myself,” must meet with defeat. With this little jataka, the Buddha reveals that he himself had trod that selfish trail to its necessary end. And, having gone the route, at trail’s end he's put up a marker for all to see: ‘Warning! You can never satisfy desire.’” Or, as the Rolling Stones classically complained about satisfaction, “I can’t get no.”“Once we really get this, we are freed to begin looking for genuine happiness. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” (William Blake, “Proverbs of Hell,” The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.) _________Roshi Martin adds this correction to a Zen verse that he quotes near the start of the teisho. Recalling it on the spur of the moment he regrets he didn't quote it correctly. It should go like this:      Last year’s poverty was not true poverty.      This year’s poverty is absolute.       In last year’s poverty there was room for the point of a gimlet.      In this year’s poverty even the gimlet is gone.                                                       -  Master Hsiang-yen; China, d. 898Unknown object: Photo courtesy US NavyBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded 4/19/2025Setting out on literal pilgrimage can help us establish faith in the Buddha Way, which began 2,500 years ago when the Awakened Buddha Shakyamuni stood up from his Great Awakening beneath the Bodhi Tree, and set off along the duty roads of his native land to teach. Pilgrimage to the sites of the historic Buddha’s life has been a traditional practice ever since. But while Zen teachers enthusiastically encourage it, they also remind us that our real pilgrimage is the journey to realization of our Original Mind. And while this Mind is never at all distant, waking to its reality will require effort. If we mean to realize Original Buddha Nature we’ll have to sit down, steady our jumpy minds, and search into the nature of this very self. The Buddha Shakyamuni’s own complete Awakening was the foundation of his teaching. That same realization, which to one degree or another is accessible to each of us because it already is who we are, remains the core of the Buddha Way for Zen practitioners today.Photo of Buddha at Lung-Men Cave Grottos, China -- by Rafe MartinBooks -- "New and Selected Poems" Mary OliverBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded 04/12/2025."The legend of the Buddha’s birth, uses the language of myth to point beyond the literal. The birth of any child is totally ordinary and, at the same time, a total miracle. How do two cells become a living person? How do gastrula and blastula become a being with talents, interests, features and personality? Where does a child come from? The birth of any one child is a mystery that affects us all, whether we consciously know it or not. Myth gives imaginative space to the uncanny ordinary reality we are actually living.How does a Buddha get born? Zen practice says by attending to this breath and counting from one to ten, by becoming fully aware of the breath, by sitting completely absorbed in the koan, or in the inquiry, or in “thinking not-thinking.” In short, it is by practicing that the self-centered is forgotten. And as that habitual obsessive focus fades, the world of 10,000 unique, individual, and specific things steps in and realizes itself. It is as if we are born anew. We find that we are home. This is how a Buddha is born.Yet the Buddha’s historic/legendary birth is a mystery, and presenting it as miraculous offers its own legitimate truth. Where does a person who is the first to do what’s never been done, someone whose efforts ultimately influence millions of lives for the good, come from?"Excerpt from "A Zen Life of Buddha" by Rafe Martin, Sumeru BooksPhoto of Baby Buddha at Endless Path Zendo by Rafe MartinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded March 8, 2025This teisho is on Case 35, The Gateless Barrier -- "Wu-tsu: Which is the True Ch'ien?""Wu-tsu asked a monk, 'The woman Ch’ien and her spirit separated. Which is the true Ch’ien?' ”Zen master Wu-tsu uses a popular ghost tale of his time to explore something truly intimate. He is facing directly into the question of Identity: Who am I? Isn’t this at the root of all that drives and bugs and puzzles and torments us? Beneath all such questions as “Why did I do that?” or “Why must I suffer this?” lies the most direct and challenging query of all: “Who am I?”Peace, genuine peace — or at least a greater degree of it — Zen teaching says -- lies in digging down into this fundamental question and finding out just who it is we’re referring to and talking about when we say — or think — “I”. Wu-men’s commentary on the case as follows:"If you realize the true one, then you’ll know that emerging from one husk and entering another is like a traveler putting up at an inn. If this is not clear, don’t rush about wildly. When you suddenly separate into earth, water, fire and air, you’ll be like a crab dropped into boiling water, struggling with your seven arms and eight legs. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!"Image: Crab on its back, Vincent Van GoghBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

We’re happy to add this excellent interview with Roshi Rafe Martin to our podcast series. The interview was conducted by Berry Crawford of “Simplicity Zen” on January 27, 2023. While informal and enjoyable it is also informative, focusing on the essence of Roshi Martin’s teaching as well as his background as a lay Zen practitioner, and his emphasis, as a teacher, on the importance of lay practice. If you’re interested in getting a sense of what Rafe is about, this interview ill give you a good sense of his approach to teaching, practice, and realization, as well as his dual inheritance in both Kapleau and Diamond Sangha (Robert Aitken Roshi) lineages. (Note: This interview is also available as a video on the Home Page [“About Us”] of the Endless Path Zendo Website.)With thanks to Berry Crawford! - Learn more at SimplicityZen.com.Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded March 1, 2025If wisdom is real, it should be popping up all over — in life, in folklore, in songs and movies emerging from popular culture. Real wisdom should be common knowledge, not hidden, or secret, or esoteric. “You’ll find your happiness lies right under your eyes/Back in your own backyard” sounds such a chord. And to quote Dorothy, “There’s no place like home.” Still, why do such fundamental insights keep having to pop up? Why don’t we just “get it”? The great, Chao-chou (J. Joshu; 778–897), perhaps the most mature of all Chinese Zen masters, was once asked, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?” Or what is the highest teaching of the Buddhadharma. He answered, “The oak tree in the front yard.” What did he mean? Aitken Roshi once told me that the whole point of Zen was happiness. Actually what he said was “Many people in this world are happy. Absorbed in their work, or family, or hobbies, no longer caught up in themselves, 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.”Is it happiness, then, that resides at the core of Zen? Did gruff old Bodhidharma have a soft heart and make that risky journey because he wanted us to be happy? But, then, what about that oak tree? Let’s find out?!Photo: Tree by Rafe MartinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded February 22, 2025This third and final Te-shan koan completes our overview of Zen practice as the hero/heroine’s journey/pilgrimage from unconscious self-centeredness to selfless wisdom and compassion. Maturing means more than aging. Becoming not just “olders” but “elders,” takes conscious effort and perseverance. Yamada Roshi counseled his Zen students to take care of their health so as to live as long as possible, continue working on their practice, and become as mature as possible. Let’s see how Te-shan does. As commentary on the koan itself is rather brief ( 20 mins), for the teisho’s first 15 minutes Roshi Martin offers a respite from our troubled times by reading and commenting on short (including haiku) Chinese and Japanese Zen-related poems, to help us touch base with our essential humanity of wisdom and compassion, “in such hard times.” Books referenced:The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan) — Robert Aitken, translatorA Future of Ice: Kenji Miyazawa: Poems and Stories of a Japanese Buddhist -- Hiroaki SatoHaiku — 4 vols. R.H. Blyth Vol 1: History | Vol 2: Spring | Vol 3 Summer/Autumn | Vol 4 Autumn/WinterHaiku Master Buson — Yuri Sawa and Edith ShiffertIn Such Hard Times: The Poetry of Wei Ying-wu — Red PineBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded February 15, 2025.“Let’s be honest: Death is our greatest difficulty. Accepting it and, for lack of a better word, doing it, are our most severe challenges, fraught with deepest anxiety and trauma. All challenges and difficulties in life seem to stem from or circle around this primal one of awesome finality. To face head-on what, as Shakespeare wrote, “... ends this strange eventful history ... Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything,” (As You Like It), can be terribly hard. It is beyond everything and anything we can imagine. A lifetime of practicing, of learning to be fully present with what IS, seeing through habitual, unconscious identifications with the isolated, interior, small-minded sense of ourselves crouched down and terrified, is our best preparation.“Roshi Kapleau liked Woody Allen’s joke: “I don’t mind dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” He used to say, “You know, he almost had it there.” What was missing? I think of the old saying – “To gain a certain thing, you must become a certain person, but once you become that person, you may no longer need to gain that thing.” In short, Woody could joke about it but what about “living” it?“Death is at the core of Zen because it is at the core of life. Hakuin wrote about the terrific virtue of what he called, “The great death,” his version of Dogen’s “Dropping body and mind; mind and body dropped.” It is liberation itself he is referencing. . . The Buddha’s teaching is traditionally known as a poison drum. Anyone who hears it is killed dead. Isn’t that great news?!“It’s not just an Eastern thing. In 1826 in London, William Blake signed a guest book with a beautiful drawing of a human figure stretched out as if reclining or flying. Surrounding this elegant form were the words – “William Blake who is very much delighted in being in good company. Born November 28, 1757 in London and has died several times since.” I wonder what the other guests at that gathering made of that. ”          -Excerpt from “A Zen Life of Buddha” by Rafe Martin, Sumeru Press 2022Books cited — “The Hungry Tigress: Buddhist Myths, Legends, and Jataka Tales: Completely Revised and Expanded Edition,” Rafe Martin, Yellow Moon Press, 1999“A Zen Life of Buddha,” Rafe Martin, Sumeru Press, 2022“Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo,” ed. Kazuaki Tanahashi, Shambhala, 2010Photo: Buddha’s Parinirvana Altar at Endless Path ZendoBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded Saturday, February 8, 2025.In our previous koan teisho, (case 28, "Gateless Barrier"), Te-shan, that noted scholar of the Diamond Sutra, had set off with the clear intention of wiping out the “Zen devils” in the South. Fortunately for him --  and for us --  he fell into Master Lung-t’an’s Dragon Pond where he found his Original Face from before his parents were even born.Even so, he was still the same old hot head. Now, sure that all his learning was wrong and only realization "right," he sets off to check himself against against “the best minds of his generation,” (Allen Ginsberg, Howl).  In this second koan on Te-shan ( case 4, "Blue Cliff Record") we find out that when he arrives at Master Keui-shan’s monastery he breaks with monastic convention, just storms in, peers around, announces, “Nothing, Nothing,” and then leaves, all while still carrying his unopened monk’s bundle. Is he now right or is he still wrong? If right, how right? If wrong, how wrong? What’s he now got, and what’s still missing before he’ll actually be mature? Let's see! Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded Saturday, February 8, 2025.Image: Painting of Vimalakirti by Zen Master HakuinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded February 1, 2025.The traditional commentary on Case 28 in the Gateless Barrier says:  Before Te-shan left home, his mind was indignant and his tongue sharp. Full of arrogance, he went south to exterminate the doctrine of the special transmission outside the sutras. When he reached the road to Li-cho he sought to buy refreshments from an old woman at a roadside tea stand. The old woman said, “Venerable monk, what are all those books you are carrying on your back?”Te-shan said, “They are my notes and commentaries on the Diamond Sutra.”The old woman said, “I hear the Diamond Sutra says, ‘Past mind cannot be grasped, present mind cannot be grasped, future mind cannot be grasped.’ Which mind does Your Reverence intend to refresh?”Te-shan was dumbfounded . . . Unable to die the Great Death under the old woman’s words, he asked, “Is there a Zen master nearby?”Now, here’s Gary Snyder (and I hope you know who he is!) speaking about koans in an Interview with Poetry Foundation, 2008:‘The intention of a koan is to make people who are bright in an ordinary way, or ordinary people who are bright in an odd way, work harder and go further into themselves. . . So in a way we’re not talking about “language,” we’re talking about the theater of life. For this to actually work, it needs the relation of student and mentor . . . Going into the teacher’s room and trying out your view of the koan on him or her is the only way to move through it. Without the mentor, you only dig yourself deeper into the hole, or you make up your own answer, which is invariably wrong. This remarkable practice, developed and handed down for 1,000 years and more, is very refined and does not fit any exact paradigm of philosophy, rational analysis, or aesthetic strategy. Yet it throws light on them all. I have no doubt that the Buddhist teachings are grounded in the remarkable, almost unique, exquisitely relevant insights of Gautama Shakyamuni, who is well-named “the Buddha,” the realized one. The koans—also known as the kungan, public cases, or teaching phrases—of Chan/Zen Buddhist practice go back to his mind and his insight.’Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

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 FrankBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org

Recorded January 18, 2025.Fundamentally, Zen is not about becoming some better you. You are it, just as you are. Even a baby knows it. Maybe only a baby knows it. Perhaps the clearest take on this, koan-wise, is Blue Cliff Record 80 — “Chao Chou’s(Joshu’s) A Newborn Baby.” “A monk asked Chao Chou (Joshu), ‘Does a newborn baby possess the 6th sense or not?’ Chao Chou (Joshu) said, 'It is like a ball bouncing on swift-flowing water.’The monk later asked T’ou Tzu (Tosu), ‘What is the meaning of a ball bouncing on swift-flowing water?’Tosu said, ‘Moment by moment it flows on without stopping.’”In his teisho on this, master Yuan-wu says that of the 16 forms of meditation practice, the baby’s practice is best. Voidness is not biblical in the sense of all was Void on the waters of Creation. Moment by moment, it flows on without stopping — as T’ou Tzu says. No sticking. This is it; right now is IT.  “Form is emptiness, emptiness form” — the fundamental realization of non-dual prajna wisdom. We don’t have to go out and get to it, as if it were elsewhere in either space or time.  An analogy might be living on planet Earth; we are just as far out in space as any planet in the universe. We don’t have to go anywhere to be out in space. Emptiness, too, is not something we have to get to. The fresh eyes of baby practice restores us, and all things. Jesus said you must become as a child again, to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Yuan wu says this, too — right in the Blue Cliff Record: “A person who studies the Path must become again like an infant.” Why? Do you see the point?Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org