Episodios
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Recorded September 21, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 chapter by Gary Snyder, all of whom reveal that Suzuki was absolutely central to their own personal turn to the actual practice of Zen. It made for an inspiring morning, putting our own connection with Zen tradition within a larger context. -
Recorded September 7, 2024
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 -
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Recorded July 27, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: âHe didnât travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the world, bringing thousands of people from all continents to practice there.â -
Recorded July 20, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: âHe didnât travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the world, bringing thousands of people from all continents to practice there.â -
Recorded July 13, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: âHe didnât travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the world, bringing thousands of people from all continents to practice there.â -
Recorded June 29, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: âHe didnât travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the world, bringing thousands of people from all continents to practice there.â -
Recorded June 22, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: âHe didnât travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the world, bringing thousands of people from all continents to practice there.â -
Recorded June 16, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: âHe didnât travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the world, bringing thousands of people from all continents to practice there.â -
Recorded June 15, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: âHe didnât travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the world, bringing thousands of people from all continents to practice there.â -
Recorded June 14 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 âThrow 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 Pillars of Zen") was an extraordinary human being and extraordinary Zen teacher, one with particularly close ties to the Endless Path Zendo's Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: âHe didnât travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the world, bringing thousands of people from all continents to practice there.â -
Recorded June 13, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
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 our Kapleau-Roshi lineage. As the preface to the new book of his life and teachings "Throw Yourself Into the House of Buddha" says: âHe didnât travel the world to spread the Dharma.; he just sat in his small temple nestled in the shadow of a little mountain on the outskirts of a fishing town by the Sea of Japan. Yet slowly word of him spread around the world, bringing thousands of people from all continents to practice there.â
In four teishos 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.
This is the first of the four teishos offered. It opens up Tangenâs autobiography from his earliest childhood and his motherâs sacrifice of her own life in bringing him into this world, through the announcement of end of the war just as he was about to get into the cockpit and take off on his first â and last â kamikaze flight. And the subsequent dedication of his life to the welfare of all. -
Recorded June 8, 2024.
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
The first 18 minutes of this recording are the âteisho proper,â focusing on the essential worth â and challenge â of ongoing lay Zen practice.
If you stop there youâll have a short and direct teisho. But the rest of the recording adds resonance. Roshi Martin then reads Kiplingâs, âThe Miracle of Purun Bhagat,â a tale that presents the essence of renunciation, the ancient traditional path of maturing beyond self-centeredness. We modern lay Zen practitioners must do the same, too BUT â and here lies our challenge âwe must leave home without literally leaving home. For us, family, work, national and planetary citizenship are central to our path of maturing as whole human beings. Yet the fundamental awareness of what lies at the core are the same. The tale gives us a sense of that core.
In response to this teisho a senior Zen student wrote: â. . it is nice to leave the world of sesshin-style exhortation and just settle back into a good story whose connections with the first part are not explicit. The first part of the teisho is so forceful. The second part is like falling under a subtle mesmerizing spell.â -
Recorded May 18, 2024
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org
If we mean to fulfill our life journey, our personal pilgrimage to maturity â which is the point of Zen practice â what we seek canât be somewhere far off, but must be in our own back â or front â yard.
Gateless Barrier, (Wu-men Kuan, Mumonkan), Case 37: âChao-chou: The Oak Tree in the Front Gardenâ goes like this:
The Case
A monk asked Chao-chou, âWhat is the meaning of Bodhidharmaâs coming from the West?â
Chao-chou said, âThe oak tree in the front yard.â
âWhy did Bodhidharma come from the West?â is a traditional Zen way of saying, âWhat is the highest teaching of the Buddhadharma?â It means, why did Bodhidharma, at an advanced age too, choose to make the difficult crossing from Southern India to China? What was so important that it was worth risking his life to do it? And how does âthe oak tree in the front gardenâ answer this question? Letâs take a look!
Photo credit: "Tree Heart" by Rafe Martin -
Recorded May 4, 2024.
Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan and Hekiganroku. Translated with commentaries by Katsuki Sekida
May 6, 2024 is the 20th Anniversary of the passing of Roshi Philip Kapleau. Rose and Rafe Martin were his personal disciples. They traveled with him, shared meals with him, watched movies with him, were his attendants for various formal functions, stayed with him by his invitation in Mexico, New Mexico, and Florida. Roshi Kapleau also chose Rafe to be his editor for his two final books.
On May 4th 2024 at our annual 1/2 day zazenkai/memorial for Roshi Kapleau at Endless Path Zendo, a recorded teisho originally presented by Roshi Kapleauâs at a 7-day sesshin at Bodhi Mandala in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico in 1986 (which Rafe attended), was played. The teisho is on case 37 of the Blue Cliff Record, PâAN SHANâS (BANZANâS) âTHERE IS NOTHING IN THE TRIPLE WORLD and the case is as follows:
"Pâan Shan (Banzan) said to his disciples, 'There is nothing in the triple world; where then can Mind be found?'"
Roshi Martin adds: âRoshi Philip Kapleau was a unique man. Former Chief Court Reporter for the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal as well as the Tokyo War Crimes Trials, he came to Zen through a recognition of the horrors to which human beings can sink when lost from their True Nature, as well as through a sense that the Zen he first encountered while in Japan for the trials, offered a doorway to something of great value. We are the fortunate heirs of his determination to find out what that unknown "thing" of great value actually was."
Book cited:Photo credit: Roshi Kapleau, by Casey Frank
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org -
Recorded on April 27, 2024
The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan), Translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken The Record of Transmission of Light (Denkoroku), Master Keizan JĆkinComplete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Zenji, Translated by Norman WaddellThe Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen
This talk, given by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin, explores case 35 of the Gateless Barrier: âWhich is the True Châien?â This wonderfully creative koan uses a Tâang era ghost tale of a young woman divided from herself, to help us uncover our own real Self today. Itâs the old old story of Identity â the essential quest of myth and folklore worldwide â recast as a koan with the power to help us live more fully. [This case is sometimes also known as âSei and Her Soul Are Separated.â}
Books cited:Original Painting â âMoon Among the Cloudsâ by Rafe Martin
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org -
Recorded on April 20, 2024.
The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan), Translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken The Story of Zen, by Rick McDanielThe Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
This talk, given by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin, explores case 38 from the Gateless Barrier - "Wu-tsu's Buffalo Passes Through the Window." A most interesting koan!
In the case, a buffalo's massive head, horns, shoulders, legs and hooves all pass easily through the latticed window. So, why can't the tiny tail pass through? Impossible! Crazy! -- and yet -- it's a wonderful koan in which the Buddha's most profound wisdom meets the lively wisdom of fairy tales. Zen Master Hakuin called this a nanto koan, meaning that he felt that it was one of the eight most difficult koan cases. Is it? See what you think.
Referenced:Photo credit: Buffalo/Ox, by Rafe Martin
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org -
Recorded April 13, 2024.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the RingsThomas Traherne, Centuries Poems and Thanksgivings. Vol. 1: Introduction and Centuries
Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin explores the meaning of the Buddha's birth, which took place roughly 2600 years ago. A birth that is so remarkable prompts us to ask: Where did someone come from who was able to so quickly give up all wealth and privilege, and by devoting himself fully to the great anguish of our common human condition, realize a way of helping all beings? What does his effort and insight mean for us today?
Roshi Martin reads from his recently published book -- "A Zen Life of Buddha" (Sumeru Books, 2023).
Referenced:Photo credit: Buddha Birth Altar at Endless Path Zendo by Rose Martin
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org -
Recorded March 30, 2024.
The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan), Translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken - Case 25 Yang-shan's Sermon from the Third SeatWallace Stevens, âThe Snow ManâWilliam Blake - The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Keizan Jokin, DenkorokuThe Odyssey, Robert Fitzgerald, trans.Basho â in Haiku âSpringâ R.H. Blyth
Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin shares Case 36 from The Blue Cliff Record "Ch'ang Sha Wandering in the Mountains."
With Châang Shaâs spring time stroll in the hills we discover (and clarify) that ongoing Zen practice means a full life, not isolation. The Buddha got up from under the Bodhi Tree. The point of Zen â if we can speak in such terms â is not to stay forever seated in zazen facing a wall, but to live fully, maturing with family, careers, relationships, interests, ups and downs, sickness and health, activism, citizenship, music and art all as the Way. Châang Sha shows how it goes. Hsueh tâou, compiler of The Blue Cliff Record, says, âIâm grateful for that answer.â As are we!
Additional works cited âPhoto credit: Highland Falls, by Rafe Martin
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org -
Recorded March 23, 2024.
The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan), Translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken - Case 28 "Lung-t'an (Ryutan) Blows Out a Candle" (also titled "Lung-t'an Renowned Near and Far")The Blue Cliff Record, Translated by Thomas Cleary and J.C. Cleary - Case 4 "Te-shan Carries His Bundle" The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan), Translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken - Case 13 "Te-shan: Bowls in Hand"Dogs, Trees, Beards and Other Wonders: Meditations on the Forty-eight Cases of the Wumenguan by Ken Tetsuzan Morgareidge
Roshi Rafe Martin completes his exploration of the Zen pilgrimage of Te-shan and the things he carried as he matures from youthful firebrand into refined and mature teacher. In this teisho, Te-shan is carrying his bowls to the noon-day meal. Is he early? Is the meal late? What is "the last word"? Does he have it or doesn't he? Does anyone? And how about us -- what is the last word? Can we say?
Selected references:Photo credit: Standing Buddha/Seated Buddha, by Rafe Martin
Books by Roshi Rafe Martin Talks on YouTube More information at endlesspathzen.org -
Recorded on March 17, 2024.
The Blue Cliff Record, Translated by Thomas Cleary and J.C. Cleary - Case 4 "Te-shan Carries His Bundle"The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, and Enlightenment by Roshi Philip KapleauOriginal Chan Teachings of Buddhism Selected from The Transmission of the Lamp, Translated with Introductions by Chan Chung-Yuan
In this second teisho on the trilogy of Te-shan koans, Roshi Martin looks at Case 4 of the Blue Cliff Record: âTe-shan Carries His Bundle.â In the previous teisho Te-shan set down the backpack of brilliant commentaries on the Diamond Sutra heâd been lugging around. Here he carries his bundle of monkâs gear and, post-satori, seems hardly to know what to do with it.
Selected references:Photo credit: Wooden Buddha in the shrine room at Endless Path Zendo, Rafe Martin
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