Body-Mind Temple
SHINJINJI
Body-Mind Zen Temple (ShinJinJi, from Dogen’s Shobogenzo), joins its sibling temple, Peaceful Dragon (AnRyuJi), at Two Streams Zen Sanctuary in Westhampton, Massachusetts.
ShinJinJi, the former urban temple, The Zen Center on Main Street (‘Zen on Main’) in Northampton, Massachusetts, is now embraced by tall trees, the sounds of crickets, birds, chipmunks, the sound of the stream and the frequent visits of bears in the woods of rural New England.
Prior to the founding of Two Streams Zen in 2011, Zen on Main gazed down upon the comings and goings on Main Street. Here, the Sangha practiced with the constant presence of unhoused people inhabiting the sidewalks, continuous sounds of traffic, the unexpected cacophony of musicians, and the conversations of those walking by. During its time as the only dedicated meditation practice space in Northampton for many years, The Zen Center on Main Street was an affiliate of The Village Zendo in New York City.
Guiding Teacher
Dr. Catherine Anraku Hondorp, Sensei
Anraku Sensei’s passion for infusing liberatory practices within Dharma teachings and structures stems from her own experience growing up White in a northeastern U.S. urban Black ghetto. The eldest daughter of a mother who was an Early Childhood educator and a father who was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, Anraku Sensei grew up with five siblings in a mixed race family during the volatile era of the Civil Rights Movement. Thus, her direct, embodied experience of the inequities of race and class, as well as the effectiveness—and at times, ineffectiveness —of spiritual leadership to make a difference.
Anraku Sensei’s emerging queer identity and social consciousness found expression in performance art, dance and choreography. In this milieu, encountering meditation practice ignited a deep spiritual questioning which eventually brought her to the path of Zen beginning formal Zen studies in 1987 with John Daido Loori at Zen Mountain Monastery and receiving Lay Precepts ordination (Jukai) in 1990. In 1996 she began studies with Enkyo O’Hara, receiving from her Zen Priest ordination in August 2000, and in December 2009 receiving Dharma Transmission and the title Sensei from Roshi O’Hara at Wisdom House in Litchfield, Connecticut.
Anraku Sensei has had the fortunate blessing to also have received teachings and instructions on sewing Buddha’s Robe from Zenkei Blanche Hartman Roshi, to have studied with the Venerable Pema Chödrön and Zen Master Soeng Hyang (Bobby Rhodes) who have also inspired her to engage in long term 100-day solo retreats.
Her connection and study with Roshi Bernie Glassman gave her the challenge to bring the mind of Zen to bearing witness and taking action.
In her spiritual role Anraku Sensei was a Buddhist Chaplain at Smith College Center for Religious & Spiritual Life, one of the founding Chaplains at Hampshire College Spiritual Life Center, a visiting Buddhist Chaplain for Wesleyan University, and a founding faculty member of the Buddhist Chaplaincy Foundations program for the New York Center for Contemplative Care.
For several years, she was a part of the planning committee for Smith College’s, Many Flavors of the Dharma and Women in Buddhism Conferences.
Academically, Anraku Sensei holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Logan College of Chiropractic.
In the market place, she integrates her chiropractic practice with her training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner® and certified Internal Family Systems Practitioner.
Her post-graduate studies in these modalities include the highest level of Network Spinal Analysis®, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner® training, and a certified Level 3 Internal Family Systems Practitioner. This has allowed Anraku Sensei to have assisted all levels of trainings in these modalities in Portugal, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States and online.
Day to day, Anraku Sensei is dedicated to conscious, honest, and healing relationships with people and the land. She is a lover of all animals, a perpetually hopeful gardener, a writer of prose, and enjoys her life and adventures with her spouse and their three cats, Nube, Yoda, and Vida.