The Bodhi Tree has been a Los Angeles institution since I can remember. Located in West Hollywood, on Melrose Avenue, the Bodhi Tree was one of the first bookstores of its kind. It was a metaphysical bookstore, redolent with incense burning in its labyrinthine rooms. Just walking through the door made you feel like you were in a different place and time.
The store stocked books from every religion and every metaphysical pursuit. There were 35,000 books in all. No genre bestsellers here. The Bodhi Tree was for reading and thinking, meditation and contemplation, things we don’t seem to do so much of anymore. Who has the time? The Bodhi Tree was founded by two men, Stan Madson and Phil Thompson, who in the Angeleno hippie days of 1970 first bought one bungalow and, later, its adjacent twin. It was name for the place where Buddha found enlightenment.
You could visit the Bodhi Tree in pursuit of metaphysics. People did. In fact, they came from all over the world. Or your could visit the Bodhi Tree in pursuit of the datable guys and gals who were seeking a love partner to accessorize their spiritual enlightenment. Yes, it was open seven days a week and late enough into the evening that singles found other singles with whom they hoped they shared a common bond. Probably the reason that so many of their offspring have such arcane names. In the decades where spirituality was the thing, what could be better come on lines than opening gambits pertaining to astrology, nutrition, auras, and Zen.
The Bodhi Tree was offering books on the Kaballah before the faddists had a clue about it. There were books on herbs, and books on Yoga. The place gave off its own special church-like aura, a much deeper sensory presence than, say, a Christian Science Reading Room. You felt that maybe you were onto something in your search for the spiritual, even if you weren’t. One one hand the Bodhi Tree was contained in a respectful if not reverential silence. But there were also discussions among the bookshelves and along the benches where customers sipped the different types of herb tea the owners put out gratis. Some of the discussion were complex and heady, while others bordered on the obnoxious.
Celebrities, Hollywood people, cane and went, mixing it up and were part of the usual clientele. There was no valet parking or special VIP sections. Los Angeles people are pretty blase about celebrity sightings anyway, although there was at least a smidgen of curiosity about what the actor or rock star was actually reading.
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Here at the Bodhi Tree, you could buy your talismans and amulets. Incense, of course, was big seller, as were the crystals and figurines the stones of a mystical quality. There were crystals to buy and even antique Chinese Coins for throwing the I-Ching. I still have some stored away and a couple I knew reminded me recently that we had given them coins for their wedding present. They had stumbled on them, recently. In their garage. I guess the oracle of the I-Ching wasn’t high on their priorities.
Now the Bodhi Tree is closing. It will be gone soon. And with it goes a piece of Los Angeles History. Like a good many products, the metaphysical offerings of the Bodhi Tree have not gone to the heavens so much as the Internet. Spirituality has gone mainstream, and like most things mainstream, it has been dumbed down somewhat. The more comprehensive volumes, and the antique works you could find at the Bodhi Tree have little demand in a world that takes complexity and nuance and renders them into easy to remember jargon. Chain stores can now sell the bestsellers and a few others at deep discounts, just a few shelves away from their celebrity volumes.
Like a mangled Zen proverb, the intellectual quality of many spiritual pursuits has been reduced to a simple tattoo or claim that even a crackpot theory can align you as one with the universe. To further alter the Zen Proverb, common thinking is such that if you didn’t see it on Dr. Phil, then it probably doesn’t exist.
So long to the Bodhi Tree and with it a piece of history and part of my youth. And say hello to the Starbucks or corporate chain store that will probably takes its place. As the mystics claim, nothing lasts forever.
