Chuckling at a joke about reincarnation, Rosemarie Krause sits in a group of thirteen gathered around a large wooden table while knitting a gray poncho. Her blonde hair tied back, she wears black glasses and a blue sweater with a green shirt underneath, paired with dark jeans and a smile. Looking up from her knitting for a moment, Krause makes a comment about meditation – speaking with a noticeable Scandinavian accent – before returning to her needles.

Krause is the Denmark-born wife of long-time Lower School Science Teacher James Audrain. Together, the two of them run Manjushree Hermitage, a Buddhist center just off of U.S. Highway 12 in Michigan City, Indiana.

Raised as a church-going Christian, Audrain attended the University of Chicago Laboratory School in his youth before graduating from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Audrain converted to Buddhism roughly 15 years ago. “My parents are still very active in the church,” Audrain said, “but Buddhism just made sense.”

After meeting at a Buddhist Center in Nepal while Audrain was on sabbatical during the 2010-11 school year, he and Krause wed. “Shangpa Rinpoche, our teacher from Nepal, stayed at our house while visiting Chicago to teach in the area,” Audrain said. “During his trip he asked [us] if we’d be interested in opening a Buddhist Center together.”

Shangpa, an internationally regarded Buddhist figure who hails from Nepal and received his education in the city of Pokhara, was identified as the reincarnation of the Great Yogi Shanghai Rinpoche at age two. “Rinpoche has a place in Denmark, Nepal, Singapore – all over the top, state of the art facilities – and then he chose here: Michigan City, Indiana.” Annie Malone, a parent emeritus at Morgan Park Academy, said. Formerly a counselor for the Chicago Public Schools and a private practice therapist, Malone teaches yoga at Manjushree.

Choosing to take Shangpa up on his offer, Audrain and Krause purchased a motel on a four-acre piece of land and operated the “Hidden Inn” together for a year and a half to accumulate the capital necessary to renovate the property.

Beginning work in 2013 and running at full capacity since 2015, Audrain and Krause operate Manjushree Hermitage together while caring for their young boys, three-year-old Bjorn and one-year-old Eskil. The family’s home is just a few steps away from the center.

From Northwest Indiana, Audrain commutes three hours round trip, primarily by train, to and from Parker. Despite a hectic schedule, Audrain and Krause alternate running the center and caring for their children.

“I do a lot of the facilities parts, but she actually runs the programming, communications, and all of that stuff,” Audrain said. “Usually I’ll take care of the kids while she’s running a meditation – sometimes I’ll run a meditation also. I usually do the book group discussion.”

Among other services, Manjushree Hermitage offers meditation sessions, discussion groups, and monthly potlucks. “The idea of meditation is to slow down the activity of mind and be able to let go of the thoughts you’d be chasing all the time,” Audrain said. “That can bring a greater awareness of the moment.”

Beyond meditation, the center offers discussion groups, yoga, tai chi, and more – aiming to cultivate a regular congregation in an area where many Manjushree practitioners have very few options otherwise.

Michigan City Buddhists fall under the “other” category of religious adherents, making up less than one percent of the town’s population. As a result, many of the center’s practitioners lacked a communal practice prior to the opening of Manjushree Hermitage.

“It’s a great thing, what James and Rosemarie have done,” Alene Valkanas said. “By creating this center, they founded a communal space, and we are so grateful to them that they have given us this opportunity to come together and learn from each other.” Now retired, Valkanas was raised Roman Catholic before graduating from the University of Chicago and going on to serve as the Executive Director of the Illinois Arts Alliance for 20 years.

Beverly Shores Clerk Treasurer and Hermitage practitioner Ellen Hunt agrees with Valkanas’ assessment. “I had been looking for more structure in my own practice,” Hunt said. “I wanted to find other people who feel the same way – to be in a collective where we’re all breathing together, thinking together.”

Prior to finding Manjushree Hermitage Hunt and her husband Frank Hardwick, an IT consultant, had been practicing Buddhism together, often meditating on the beach.

The sangha (“community”) that frequents Audrain’s facility consists of 40 to 50 regular practitioners from around the area with as many as 20 together on any one day. Originally intended to be an overnight lodging retreat for Chicagoans, many Manjushree regulars hail from the greater Michigan City area.

Similar to Audrain, most of the center’s practitioners converted to Buddhism – having been raised differently by their parents. “Buddhism doesn’t demand, like many of the other religions, that you have to recite the Ten Commandments or do this, that, or the other thing in order to be truly a Buddhist,” Valkanas said. “It is rather that you care about all sentient beings, you care about the Earth, you care about those who are close to you and those who aren’t.”