About
Alonso Méndez is a Tzeltal Maya cultural astronomer based in Taos, New Mexico. Born in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, he spent over twenty years researching Pre-Columbian astronomical knowledge. He worked as a project artist and researcher on archaeological excavations at Palenque beginning in 1997, documenting discoveries and producing reconstructive drawings. His investigations identified astronomical alignments in major temples and contributed new interpretations of hieroglyphic texts. Méndez has published findings on Maya astronomy and participated in educational programs through NASA and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. He served as co-scriptwriter for a planetarium production on Maya astronomy and advisor to museum exhibits. He continues work as a research associate with the Solstice Project in Santa Fe and the Maya Exploration Center in Austin.
Teaching focus
Méndez appears at Upaya as part of the wider faculty Roshi Joan Halifax has gathered to teach alongside the Soto Zen core. Upaya's programs regularly bring in scholars, clinicians, scientists, poets, and knowledge holders from beyond the Zen sangha to teach in dialogue with the practice. Méndez's sessions live inside that container. The work tends to ask how a particular field of expertise meets contemplative practice and what each can learn from the other. Sessions are usually held alongside zazen and the Soto Zen forms that structure the days at Upaya, so students can expect a rhythm of formal sittings, talks or seminars from Méndez, group conversation, and silence. The framing is open enough for non-Buddhist participants to take part fully. The depth comes from Méndez's own field rather than from technical Zen instruction. For students with a steady practice, the value is in seeing how practice meets a specific discipline, and how that discipline reads when held inside the container Upaya provides. For people newer to Zen, Méndez's sessions are a low-friction way into that container.
Background
Alonso Méndez appears in Upaya Zen Center's teacher and faculty roster as part of the wider contemplative community Roshi Joan Halifax has gathered in Santa Fe, New Mexico, over the past four decades. The biographical material on file is drawn directly from Upaya's own teacher page and reflects what Méndez has chosen to share there. Alonso Méndez is a Tzeltal Maya cultural astronomer who has spent more than twenty years researching the astronomical knowledge of the Pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas. Born in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Alonso spent much of his youth surrounded by the vibrant highland Maya culture of the Tzeltal and Tzotzil. as well as the emergent movement in anthropology and ethnography that occurred during the 60s and 70s. In this atmosphere of dynamic contact between cultures Alonso grew and witnessed critical changes that altered the physical and cultural landscape of Chiapas. Alonso attended Middlebury College. Graduating in 1987 with a degree in Fine Arts. His skill as an artist would prove critically useful when in 1997 he joined the archaeological projects in Palenque first as project artist with the Palenque Mapping Project and subsequently with the Proyecto Grupo de las Cruces and the Proyecto Arqueologico Palenque. During this time Alonso produced drawings that documented the new discoveries, and developed 3d reconstructive drawings of the site. In this atmosphere of discovery, he began to conduct astronomical investigations at Palenque and other important sites in the area, and discovered many new astronomical alignments in the major temples as well as new understanding of the hieroglyphic texts. He has published these findings, and has participated in educational programs with focus on Indigenous science and knowledge through NASA and the Smithsonian, NMAI. Alonso also participated as co scriptwriter for the full dome planetary production of Maya astronomy for the Chabot Planetarium in San Francisco, and advisor to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry exhibit Lenses on the Sky. Alonso continues his work in cultural astronomy as a research associate with the Solstice Project in Santa Fe and the Maya Exploration Center of Austin Texas and currently lives with his family in Taos NM. That body of work places Méndez inside a center known for blending Soto Zen practice with contemplative care for the dying, climate work, neuroscience dialogues, and a long-running program for clinicians and chaplains called GRACE. Upaya's roster mixes resident priests with visiting scholars, doctors, scientists, poets, and indigenous knowledge holders, and the programs reflect that blend. Méndez's appearances at Upaya situate this work inside that wider conversation between zazen and the world it sits inside. For practitioners who arrive at Upaya through a sesshin or a Being with Dying training, the common thread is a posture of upright, alert presence under whatever conditions show up. The forms are recognizably Soto Zen: zazen, kinhin, oryoki, the Bodhisattva precepts, dharma talks, and dokusan with senior teachers. The framing is wider than any single discipline, which is part of what has made Upaya a meeting ground for working clinicians, scientists, artists, and long-time Buddhist practitioners. Méndez contributes to that container in the role Upaya's website assigns. People interested in the specific arc of Méndez's career outside Upaya can follow the linked website and external publications listed on the Upaya page itself, which is where any deeper biographical detail belongs.
Lineage
Méndez's teaching home for the work documented here is Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, founded by Roshi Joan Halifax in the 1980s and rooted in the Soto Zen lineage. Upaya's broader faculty includes resident priests, visiting senior teachers, scientists, clinicians, poets, and indigenous knowledge holders. Méndez contributes as part of Upaya's wider faculty rather than as a Zen priest. Information about specific dharma transmission lines, ordination, or external lineage roots belongs on Méndez's own site rather than fabricated here.
What to expect
In a program with Méndez at Upaya, expect zazen and Soto Zen forms paired with teaching in Méndez's own area of focus. Days follow Upaya's rhythm of sittings, walking meditation, meals, talks, and time for questions. Silence is taken seriously, but so are the conversations that come out of it. The framing is wide enough for people from outside Buddhist practice to take part fully. Long-time Zen students will recognize the forms; newcomers will be supported through them. Expect to leave with a clearer sense of how practice meets the specific subject Méndez is teaching.