Bodhi History
Michele E. Martin founded the Jemez Bodhi Mandala in 1973 as a place for Zen Buddhist practice and teaching. Over the years, the spirit of her donation has grown into a quiet and reflective retreat location, meditation center, and teaching space. We are indebted to Michele’s vision, passion, and generosity, and for finding and helping acquire this site. We continue to grow and develop from Michele’s original intention. In 2021, Michele recorded a retrospective video of the early days at the Bodhi. You can view this video on our Youtube Channel.
In the same year of its founding, the Bodhi Manda Zen Center invited Zen Master Kyozan Joshu Sasaki to offer his guidance in the Rinzai Zen Buddhist tradition. Sasaki Roshi came from Japan in 1962, when a group of people in Los Angeles asked Myoshin-ji, Japan’s largest Rinzai school, to send a teacher. The Rinzai-ji home temple was established in Los Angeles in 1968. Sasaki became the guiding light of a Zen community that flourished as interest in Buddhism grew in North America in the 1960’s. It was followed by the creation of training centers and affiliated Zen temples in the United States, Canada and Europe. Joshu Sasaki Roshi retired from teaching in January 2012, and this lineage is carried forward today by ordained Zen teachers (oshos), monks, nuns, and numerous lay practitioners.
Jiun Hosen, Osho, began her formal training with Zen Master Joshu Sasaki Roshi in 1979 and has been in residence at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center since 1980. She was ordained as a Zen nun in April, 1983. Hosen’s devotion to practice led her to become a Zen Priest or “Osho” formally recognized in a “Suijishiki” Ceremony at the Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles, California on July 21, 1988. The following year Jiun Hosen was first appointed as Abbess to the Bodhi Manda Zen Center, and carried on her work as Abbess and Director. The Board of Trustees reaffirmed her position of Abbess and Director of the Bodhi on April 10th, 2015.