Bodhi Manda Zen Center year. Sasaki Roshi came to the West in 1962 when a group of Zen practitioners in Los Angeles asked Myoshin-ji, Japan’s largest Rinzai school, to send a teacher. Sasaki was among several venerable Japanese teachers that helped to nourish the Zen community in North America as interest in Buddhism grew during the 1960’s. The increasing popularity of the Sasaki’s practice in Los Angeles led to the establishment of the Rinzai-ji home temple. It was followed by the creation of training centers and affiliated Zen temples in the United States, Canada and Europe, including the Bodhi Manda. The Bodhi Manda flourished
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (Mahamudra) organisation, notes that the practice starts with studying and pondering the dharma, where-after the practice of meditation commences. The "Vigyan Bhairav Tantra" is a chapter from the "Rudrayamala Tantra". It was introduced to the west by Paul Reps, a student of Lakshman Joo. Reps brought the text to wider attention by including an English translation in his popular book "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones". Cast as a discourse between the god Shiva and his consort Devi or Shakti, it briefly presents 112 meditation methods or centering techniques ("dharana"s). Zen Flesh, Zen Bones Zen Flesh, Zen Bones is a 1957 publication