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
Rochester Zen Center the Center to form the Springwater Center, located an hour south of Rochester. The Rochester Zen Center has also contributed to the intellectual development of American Zen, through Philip Kapleau's books, "The Zen of Living and Dying", "Zen Merging of East and West", "To Cherish All Life", and the recent "Awakening to Zen" and the writings of its members and its decennial anniversary conferences. In 1986, the 20th Anniversary Conference focused on "Buddhism and Nonviolence," and the 1996 Thirtieth Anniversary explored "Buddhism in America." Since 1986 the head abbot at Rochester Zen Center has been Bodhin Kjolhede, who was sanctioned