Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

Recorded Saturday, February 8, 2025. Image: Painting of Vimalakirti by Zen Master Hakuin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More 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 s...

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 restauran...

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 lik...

Recorded January 4, 2025 For the first teisho of 2025 — and its challenges — Roshi Rafe Martin offers a vision of Buddhist insight/outlook and behavior, by looking at the Buddhist jataka tales (past life stories of the Buddha) and their deep import for us today. In these stories equal attention is given to the needs and aspirations of all living things, not just human beings.  The tales, taken as...

Recorded December 14, 2024. To end the year - a teisho on the Buddha’s teaching — and a flower! It should come as no surprise that Zen tradition sees the Buddha as the original Zen Master, someone who teaches by demonstrating and presenting, rather than simply by lecturing, or talking “about.” The Buddha offers living truth, not philosophy. Like the monk in the final Zen Oxherding picture, he ente...

Recorded December 8, 2024 In this teisho Roshi Rafe Martin tells the dramatic story of the Buddha’s great enlightenment then comments on it (using his recent book A Zen Life of Buddha as his source), from the ground of ongoing Zen practice:  “Zen Buddhism reveres the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment because it so dramatically reveals our own potential, even as it reveals the determined, dedicat...

Record December 7, 2024 This teisho, the opening teisho of our two-day rohatsu sesshin, itself the culminating event of five previous days of heightened daily practice, is on the Buddha’s leaving home and its relation to our own maturing Zen practice.     According to legend, when at the age of twenty-nine, the long-sheltered prince, Siddhartha Gautama, left his comfortable palace to explore life...

Recorded November 23, 2024 In this teisho, using Dharma Transmission case 30 in the “Transmission of Light,” Bodhidharma’s heir, Huike, to Seng t’san, (the author of “Affirming Faith in Mind”) as a case in point, Roshi Martin explores gratitude and thanksgiving — from a Zen perspective. Seng t’san, suffering from a serious illness, realized the empty ground of his disease, the foundation of what t...

Recorded November 16, 2024. With this teisho Roshi Martin looks into the nature of painful failure: “Is it wonderful indeed” as the koan of “Manjusri and the Young Woman” (“Gateless Barrier” 35) proclaims? If so, how? Roshi Martin begins with the opening lines of "The Odyssey” pointing out how they reveal that it is Odysseus’s failure that sets the epic of a man overcoming difficulties and te...

Recorded November 9, 2024. In this first post-Nov. 5th election teisho, Roshi Martin opens with two poems of W.B. Yeats, speaking from the Irish “Troubles,” then moves on to read from and comment on Chapter Seven —“The Resource of Shame” — in Nelson Foster Roshi’s new book: Storehouse of Treasures: Recovering the riches of Chan and Zen. Some bits to savor: The great T’ang era Zen master Chao-chou...

Recorded October 26, 2024. Roshi Rafe Martin examines the important koan of Pai-chang and the Fox (case 2 of the Gateless Barrier), in light of both Halloween and the ghostly anxieties of our pre-election week.  Referenced: The Gateless Barrier : The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan), Translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken  Photo : Hungry Ghost Altar, Endless Path Zendo 10/2024, by Rose Martin Boo...

Teisho by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin, 10/15/2024 Vermont Zen Center Recorded October 15, 2024.   In this teisho, the final teisho of the October 2024 Jataka Sesshin at the Vermont Zen Center, Roshi Martin tells an ancient jataka (past life tale of the Buddha) that's very much like a sci-fi story! He then examines it from the perspective of Zen practice. In the story, which the Buddha told near th...

Recorded on October 12, 2024 This teisho was presented by Roshi Martin on the first day of the recent, Oct. 11-16th 2024, 16th Annual Jataka sesshin at the Vermont Zen Center. In it, Roshi Martin first puts on his hat as an award-winning author and storyteller, giving a dramatic reading of his book, The Banyan Deer: A Parable of Wisdom and Courage (Wisdom Publications, 2010). Then, putting his Zen...

Recorded 10/05/2024. Roshi Martin comments on  case 41 in The Gateless Barrier — “Bodhidharma and Peace of Mind,” the core of which is as follows: Bodhidharma sat facing the wall. Huike, the Second Ancestor . . . said, “Your disciple’s mind has no peace as yet. I beg you, master, to please put it to rest.” Bodhidharma said, “Bring me your mind, and I will put it to rest.”  The Second Ancestor said...

Recorded September 21, 2024. Roshi Martin reads from (and comments on) " A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki Remembered " focusing on the important, indeed, seminal role Dr. D.T. Suzuki (NOT Shunryu Suzuki) played in the transmission of Zen to the West. In his reading aloud from the book he focuses on the chapters written by his own teachers -- Philip Kapleau and Robert Aitken -- as well as the chap...

Recorded September 7, 2024 Roshi Rafe Martin speaks about the deep meaning of the 11-headed, many-armed Bodhisattva of Great Compassion and his/her relevance to our own lives and times right now. Referenced: " The Record of Lin-chi " Ruth Fuller Sasaki (translation and commentary) "A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas" by Rafe Jnan Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More...

Recorded July 27, 2024. In this teisho, Roshi Martin concludes his reading from " Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha " and offers his comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi.  Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly...

Recorded July 20, 2024. In this teisho, Roshi Martin continues reading from " Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha " and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi.  Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to...

Recorded July 13, 2024. In this teisho, Roshi Martin continues reading from " Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha " and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi.  Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to...

Recorded June 29, 2024. In this sixth teisho, Roshi Martin continues reading from " Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha " and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi.  Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ti...

Recorded June 22, 2024. In this fifth teisho, Roshi Martin continues reading from " Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha " and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi.  Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ti...

Recorded June 16, 2024. In this fourth teisho recorded at the June 4-day sesshin (June 12-16, 2024) at Endless Path Zendo, Roshi Martin reads from " Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha " and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi.  Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human be...

Recorded June 15, 2024. In this third teisho recorded at the June 4-day sesshin (June 12-16, 2024) at Endless Path Zendo, Roshi Martin reads from " Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha " and comments on the stirring autobiography and inspiring teachings of Tangen Roshi of Bukkoji. Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary...

Recorded June 14 2024. In this second of the four teishos recorded at Endless Path Zendo's June 2024 four-day sesshin  (June 12-16th), Roshi Martin continues to read from and comment on “ Throw Yourself into the House of Buddha " the stirring autobiography and profoundly inspiring teachings of Tangen Harada Roshi of Bukkoji.  Tangen Harada Roshi, (the monk, Tangen-san, in "The Three...