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
Japanese Zen often pointed to as an event that enhanced its profile in the Western world. It was during the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the number of Westerners pursuing a serious interest in Zen, other than descendants of Asian immigrants, reached a significant level. Eugen Herrigel's book "Zen in the Art of Archery" describing his training in the Zen-influenced martial art of Kyūdō, inspired many of the Western world's early Zen practitioners. However, many scholars, such as Yamada Shoji, are quick to criticize this book. The single most influential person for the spread of Zen Buddhism was D. T.