West Hollywood's Bodhi Tree Bookstore was founded in 1970 by aerospace engineers Phil Thompson and Stan Madson.
It was over 20 years ago that my mom handed me a copy of Shirley MacLaine’s Out On a Limb. I was in a real funk then, mad at the world, the prime targets my parents who had moved me the summer before my sophomore year in high school. Though I probably didn’t believe her at the time, I’ll never forget what my mom said of the book because it turned out to be so true:
“Maybe it will help you look at life differently and things as they are now won’t seem so bad.”
In fact, Out On a Limb was my first exposure to metaphysics and forever changed the way I perceive my connection to a higher power.
Flash forward to February of 2010 when I moved to Los Angeles. In my newbie studies of L.A. Weekly, I read an article about the closing of the famed Bodhi Tree Bookstore on Melrose in West Hollywood. It struck a cord with me, though for reasons I didn’t understand. I kept the article as a reminder to visit before it was too late.
In the early 70's, a neighbor gave the bookstore owners a Bodhi tree seedling. They planted it out back and today it stands at leas two stories high.
This Christmas season while on the hunt for a novelty store that would have gifts for just about anyone on my list, my neighbor suggested the Bodhi Tree, which I’d still had yet to visit.
I recalled the article said they’d be closing this year, giving me just a few more days. In fact, I fully expected to see an empty, locked storefront when I arrived.
On the contrary, what I found at the Bodhi Tree was a warm, welcoming space bustling with the Christmas spirit.
I found eight of my gifts there, way beyond my wildest gift-giving dreams.
I was initially suspicious of the genuinely friendly, helpful staff the likes of which are almost impossible to find these days.
I was transfixed by the charm of the place, from the hardwood floors to the complimentary herbal tea.
It was heartwarming to hear just about every person in the checkout line asking if it’s true: Is the Bodhi Tree really closing? And all of us relieved to hear the bookstore would be around into the New Year – a bittersweet, shortlived reprieve. That’s when the lease runs out, the current owners retire, and all are hopeful someone equally passionate comes along to give the Bodhi Tree a second life.
The Bodhi tree is significant as it is the type of tree Gautama sat under to achieve the state of grace that made him Buddha.
Still, I didn’t understand what had lent this quaint little bookstore national attention. Then I started my research of the Bodhi Tree for this blog post and discovered the following revelation on their website:
On a lazy Sunday afternoon in 1983, actress Shirley MacLaine wandered into the Bodhi Tree Bookstore and embarked on a journey that changed her life, the life of the bookstore and the spiritual life of mainstream America.
She described her first and subsequent visits to the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in her book Out on a Limb, in which she revealed her study and exploration of reincarnation, trance channeling and other metaphysical matters.
From the publication of that book, and the television series that followed, spirituality went mainstream and the Bodhi Tree Bookstore became widely known.
Clearly I’d forgotten Shirley MacLaine’s mention of the Bodhi Tree in her book. Knowing I occupied the same space where she embarked on the spiritual journey that so inspired me, I’m in awe and anxious to visit again in the New Year. Out On a Limb changed my life and, for that, I ultimately have the Bodhi Tree Bookstore to thank.
THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEW
For a couple of self-proclaimed “old-school booksellers” owners Stan Madson and Phil Thompson have done a fine job of ushering the Bodhi Tree into the new age of social media.
The trunk of the Bodhi tree is far bigger than you could wrap your arms around. In fact, you'd probably need three people to join hands around it.
They have an impressive presence on both Facebook and Twitter, not so much for the quantity of their followers (though it respectable) but for the quality of updates they share: informative, personable and frequent. They also have an impressive presence on Yelp with over a hundred near-perfect reviews.
My initial inclination was to brainstorm an aggressive social media campaign that might help “save” the Bodhi Tree. Sales have been falling for 15 years, with more than half of the spiritual books sold in the U.S. today through Amazon.com. As reported by L.A. Weekly, owner Stan Madson “believes that to continue, the store needs vitality, new energy and vision…. Perhaps a wealthy philosopher-entrepreneur will come in to buy the store and keep it going.”
So for now I’ll take a cue from owner Phil Thompson’s reaction to the Bodhi Tree’s uncertain future – a sentiment that my own mother could have shared with me 20-some-odd years ago with equal effect:
“In our best Buddhist sense, we try to incoporate the idea that things always change.”
Read the complete history of the Bodhi Tree Bookstore and, by all means, visit while you can at 8585 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.
Bodhi Tree owner Phil Thompson has suggested that under new ownership the Bodhi tree will be chopped down. Let's hope the new owners recognize the beauty (and inherently lucrative nature) of the tree and keep the Bodhi around.
With gratitude,
Meredith Simonds, Social Media Reviewer, Blogger and Consultant
The social media suggestions in this post are general and brief. To see what a comprehensive review entails, check out my Social Media Services.
