Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

Endless Path Zendo, is a lay Zen Buddhist community. Intimate and non-institutional in atmosphere, we are dedicated to realizing the Buddha Way in the midst of our own ordinary lives, finding our center of gravity in the creativity of Zen, and the Way of the Bodhisattva.

Zen teacher (roshi) Rafe Jnan Martin began traditional Zen practice in 1970, becoming a personal disciple of Roshi Philip Kapleau, author of The Three Pillars of Zen. After Kapleau Roshi’s retirement, he practiced with Robert Aitken Roshi, founder of the Diamond Sangha, then from 2002-2016 worked intensively with Danan Henry Roshi, founding teacher of the Zen Center of Denver and a Kapleau Roshi Dharma Heir as well as a Diamond Sangha Dharma Master.

Rafe received full lay ordination in 2009, and in 2012 received inka—recognition of his successful completion of the Diamond Sangha/ Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum, along with authorization to begin teaching. In 2016 he received full Dharma Transmission as an independent Zen teacher.

An award-winning author and storyteller whose work has been cited in Time, Newsweek, The NY Times, and USA Today, Rafe has a master’s degree in English literature and literary criticism and is a recipient of both national and state awards, including the Empire State Award for the body of his work. His writing has appeared in Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, Parabola, The Sun, and Inquiring Mind, among other journals of religion and myth. He has given talks at Zen and Dharma Centers around the US and Canada, as well as such venues as the American Museum of Natural History, Zuni Pueblo, and The Joseph Campbell Festival of Myth and Story.

His most recent books are A Zen Life of Buddha (Sumeru 2022), The Brave Little Parrot (Wisdom Publications, 2023) and A Zen Life of Bodhisattvas (Sumeru, 2023).

All Episodes

Endless Path Zendo | Roshi Rafe Martin

Are Bodhisattvas Real?

April 25, 2026

0:00 | 57:30

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 McDaniel

Photo of Hotei at Endless Path Zendo, by Rafe Martin

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.