Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

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 Martin Talks on YouTube More 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 Martin Talks on YouTube More 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 Cheung Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More 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 Martin Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More 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 Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org