Mitra Bishop Roshi

MITRA BISHOP ROSHI, senior teacher at HVZC, is also the founder of Mountain Gate-Sanmonji in northern NM. She first encountered the practice of Buddhism while living in Asia and began practicing Zen in 1974 while living in Turkey, commuting to the Rochester Zen Center for sesshin. Later she moved to Rochester to do full time training at the Rochester Zen Center with Roshi Philip Kapleau. 

Mitra-roshi received a B.A. from Indiana University, and worked in graphic, interior, architectural, and heating-cooling design for many years. She has two children, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

In 1986 Mitra-roshi was ordained as a Zen priest by Roshi Kapleau. In 1992, after completing her formal training under him, she went to Okayama, Japan, where she continued to deepen and broaden her practice at Sogen-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple, under the guidance of the Ven. Harada Shodo-roshi.

When Mitra-roshi returned to the United States in 1996, she was formally sanctioned to teach by Roshi Kapleau as a Dharma Heir. In that same year she was asked to come to Hidden Valley Zen Center in San Marcos, California to guide the Sangha there. Concurrently, she established Mountain Gate as a monastic practice center in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

In 2020, Mitra-roshi retired from HVZC and moved full-time to Mountain Gate. Taking to heart the admonition, “There’s no beginning to enlightenment, no end to practice, no beginning to practice, no end to enlightenment,” she continues to teach and practice.