Michael Wang
The Bodhi Manda Zen Center is an American Zen Buddhist practice and retreat center located in a village in the stunning mountains of northwest New Mexico, sandwiched between a bar and a Catholic Convent. Bodhi Manda translates to area of enlightenment, i.e. a sacred meditative space where the essence of enlightenment is present.
The Jemez Bodhi Mandala (another name for the center) was founded by Michele E. Martin in 1973, a Yale doctorate who went on to become an editor, translator, and author for many Buddhist texts. She purchased and donated the property, and practiced at the center for 3 years before pursuing her career as an editor, translator, and writer. After working as an editor for several years, she moved to Nepal in 1987 to study Buddhist philosophy and the Tibetan language. She “is the author of Music in the Sky: The Life, Art, and Teaching of the Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje and translator of the root text and general editor of A Song for the King: Saraha’s Mahamudra Meditation“. Her goal is to see a database of translations open to learners all around the world, which she works to achieve as a member of the Buddhist Digital Resource Center.
Their practice teaches American Rinzai Zen Buddhism; Rinzai is a Japanese derivative of the Mahayana tradition that also draws from certain teachings from the Linji school of China. It should be noted that in Japan, Rinzai is not one homogeneous tradition; instead it has numerous branches under the overarching umbrella of Rinzai. The practice of Rinzai that was transplanted to the West comes from many of these different lineages, and the particular one that the Bodhi Manda Zen Center follows is the Myoshin-ji school. Its development was guided by Zen Master Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, who was an influential figure in the early days of Zen in the United States in the 1960s and through his retirement in 2012. He told Michele Martin to “find hot springs, I will come”. The center holds a special focus on Zazen, or sitting meditation, and emphasizes direct, personal understanding of reality over traditional scriptures and doctrine.
The current Abbess is Jiun Hosen, an Osho (Zen priest) ordained in 1983 after studying under Sasaki Roshi. She has been in residence at the center since 1980, serving as its Abbess and spiritual teacher. She has established and fostered relationships with local and international Buddhist centers, including the preexisting relations with the center of which it is an affiliate, the Rianzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles. This is part of a larger network aligning under Sasaki Roshi, which includes another big center in LA, Mount Baldy. The Abbess is also supported by a Board of Directors who serve various functions such as Bodhi bookkeeper, newsletter editor, and treasurer. Members of the Board do not live at the Center, but have all at one point done a retreat or come to the village to practice.
The center itself holds fascinating history and vision. Its Zendo building (meditation hall) was constructed in 1884 and is one of the oldest buildings in Jemez Springs. It was originally a hotel in the village, which at the time was owned by the Catholic Church. They are also currently constructing the “Great Wall of Jemez”, which sounds impressive (it’s really just a privacy wall that functions to block noise from the highway).
The website does not offer information on the demographics of the community, but it seems to be more of a retreat location than an active practice. It’s located in the mountains 60 miles from Albuquerque, and is not in an area of high population density. For reference Jemez Springs as a whole had a population of 352 in the 2022 census. This makes the Center a small community within a small community. To further contextualize this, group retreats are capped at twenty-five people. Clearly the direct community is not extensive whatsoever, but people who have been on retreats often stay connected and return occasionally for big events such as Bodhifest. The focus on retreats is interesting, especially given that they all have their own associated fees, which will be discussed later. Most of their events are either events where they host for some other organization, have a ‘sesshin’, or a ‘Zazenkai’. The sesshins are 5-7 day periods of intensive meditation, interviews with teachers, silent formal meals, and dharma talks. These are offered throughout the year, typically in the spring and fall seasons. Zazenkai means “come together for meditation”; they are shorter and much less intensive than sesshins, and are offered on a monthly basis. There are daily practice obligations commenced by the striking of the wooden Han including an early morning meditation, community work throughout the day, and traditional elements of Zen life, such as walking meditation and work practice. They also have Full Moon Sits on occasion, where they sit in the Zen Garden under the full moon and meditate. Many Buddhist holidays and celebrations are observed, such as the birth of the Buddha. Bodhifest is an annual event that celebrates the Bodhi itself and its Sangha, with live music and even African and Pueblo dancers. It is quite interesting to see the cultural blend at the Bodhi Mandala, an American meditation center based off a Japanese tradition of a religion of Indian origin in an area with Pueblo influence.
The center takes donations, Dana for the Abbess, and volunteer work from people on retreats. They also have different tiers of membership fees, but it is unclear from the website what these tiers mean and what membership grants you access to. The retreats all have their own fees, with Zazenkai costing between 200-250 dollars, 5 day Sesshins costing between 450-600 dollars, and the 7 day Sesshins costing between 600-810 dollars. They also host events for external organizations for a fee, such as workshops and seminars. For example, this year they held a seminar titled The Evolution of Women in Buddhism, with female Dharma teachers from around the world. They also have more creative methods of accepting funds, such as being included in a will or trust, being a retirement plan beneficiary, and they accept stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.
A blog post detailing a practitioner’s experience at Jemez Bodhi Mandala illuminates some of the internal workings and day to day life at the Center. He describes the style of Buddhism as “deliberately intense, martial, masculine, abrupt, graceless, and unsentimental”. A 2:55 AM wake-up bell signifies the beginning of an 8 minute period in which the practitioner must ready themselves and get in place for their early morning tea. One would think they would get to bed close to sunset in order to get enough sleep, but they would sometimes get to bed around 11:00 PM. All day meditation was observed under threat of the kyosaku, a stick used to, quite literally, whip meditators into shape. In between his two Sesshins the author was subjected to a week of manual labor, including trenching and pipe-laying. The Center also holds a “no processing” expectation, i.e. let everyone figure out the meaning behind the teachings and meditation on their own, because “the words conceal the meaning”. The intense Sanzen (interview with the Zen master) was done by none other than Kyozan Joshu Sasaki during the author’s time at the Center. He describes Sasaki Roshi as “the first person who I have met in my life who I recognize as obviously genuinely liberated/enlightened”. Roshi’s lectures are summarized by the author as hitting the main points of the balance of expansion and contraction, and that there is no separation between the perceiver and the perceived. He also says that Roshi would admonish his translators for not understanding the subtleties of Roshi’s lecture, and that he suspects much of the profoundness of Roshi’s teachings were lost in translation. One big oddity he found in Jemez Bodhi Mandala was their attitude towards certain taboos such as alcohol or inter-Sangha relations that are usually seen as inappropriate. Celebratory meals had wine, liquor, and beer served, and whereas casual relations are grounds for expulsion in many serious Buddhist communities even in America, the author says “Hosen noticed [his] dalliances, and mostly responded by smiling in tolerant amusement.” He furthers this description of the Abbess by stating “”it was [his] impression that “she had taken on many of her teacher’s best attributes : spiritual clarity, absolute dedication, immediate presence, and a habit of open-hearted teasing people about where they are clinging”.
In conclusion, the Bodhi Manda Zen Center is simultaneously a rigorous experience of Zen Buddhism while also being an anomaly in its relaxed stance on tradition. It focuses intensely on regiment and understanding reality, but does not care to deify the Buddha or follow rules it deems arbitrary or unnecessary. A true embodiment of Westernized Buddhism, it blends existing culture with what it wants to take from the originators of the philosophy.
Sources:
All images are taken from the official Bodhi Manda Zen Center website:
https://www.bdrc.io/member/michele-martin/
https://datausa.io/profile/geo/jemez-springs-nm
https://intromeditation.com/Wordpress/bodhi-manda-zen-center-in-new-mexico/