Despite this, few people interviewed seemed to be aware that by continually repeating the transmission story without reflection and without making the effort to understand what they were part of, they were in fact becoming an integral component in the creation of a new myth-which was then used by people like Richard Baker. San Francisco is not mentioned in Newsom's plans, but Supervisor Dean Preston has proposed a similar action. The experience of legitimacy, realness and of being believable hides the underlying power relations. The first is grounded in something tangible, concrete, observable: the soldier with his gun, or the scientist with her laboratory results. For a peek into a period only shortly before our own, we can use Brian Victoria's book Zen At War. He jumps across decades, and sometimes seems to jump onto whatever thought crosses his mind. For a very fine book review of Shoes Outside the Door, see Crews, Frederick, "Zen & the Art of Success," The New York Review of Books, 28 Mar. Learn and Practice at San Francisco Zen Center, residential guest student practice opportunities, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. Mission. But in the end it is not the extraordinariness of the teacher that perplexes, intrigues, and deepens the student, it is the teacher's utter ordinariness. Many women and others in the Zen community have suffered as a result, and we regret and apologize for our collective failure to stop this harm. Dorsey went on to serve as abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco, where he worked to develop hospice care for AIDS patients. Although Baker claimed that his relationship was a love-affair which had not yet been consummated, the outcry surrounding the incident led to accusations of impropriety, including the admissions by several female members of the community that they had had affairs with Baker before or during his tenure as abbot. [31] The community's sense of crisis sharpened when the woman's husband, one of SFZC's primary benefactors, threatened to hold the organization legally responsible for its abbot's apparent misconduct. Reviewed December 27, 2012 . In 1989, some six years after Baker was forced to leave, he threatened to take back Zen Center by going to court. It seems that Zen's emphasis on wisdom, while giving compassion only lip service, is really about power. Not only the work of Zen writers, but political analysts, social critics, sociologists, and my involvement with the practice have informed my thinking about the state of contemporary Zen in the West. Baker's use of Dixon's words begins the description of Suzuki Roshi, with the strange phrasing "a roshi is" This substitutes what is supposed to be a description of their close and beloved teacher Suzuki Roshi, a real person, with an abstraction, "a roshi." Baker's introduction to Suzuki's edited words in the well known book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind gives a description of Suzuki as the ideal of a fully realized Zen master. Zen Hospice Project also continues to train and coordinate volunteers who provide non sectarian, non-medical care to residents of the hospice and palliative care ward at Laguna Honda Hospital, a skilled nursing facility operated by the City and County of San Francisco. It was not surprising, then, that when trouble arose at the Center it was mostly assumed that something must be wrong with the members themselves; that it was because they did not use or handle well Suzuki's pure teaching. It allows us a much closer look than we get through, say, looking at the many biographies of past masters from Chan in China during the Tang dynasty (CE 618-907). [17], Last edited on 21 December 2022, at 18:50, Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States, "The Long Learning Curve: An Interview With Richard Baker Roshi", Zentatsu Richard Baker page on the Crestone Mountain Zen Center website, Richard Baker and the Myth of the Zen Roshi, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Baker_(Zen_teacher)&oldid=1128738434, This page was last edited on 21 December 2022, at 18:50. The flow of his consciousness is not the fixed repetitive patterns of our usual self-centered consciousness, but rather arises spontaneously and naturally from the actual circumstances of the present. [5], In 1969, Sokoji's board of directors asked Suzuki to resign his position as the temple's priest, asserting that he was spending more time with his Western students than the Japanese-American congregation. A good part of the goal of Buddhism is to reduce illusion and suffering. It is important to remember now that the interviews Downing conducted in 1998-2000 were long after the events at the SFZC took place. If you're looking for some information that's important to you (such as research for work or learning how to manage your money), then the advice here is to first write down the relevant keywords on a piece of paper to figure out exactly what you want, which will be a lot more efficient. The results of this in terms of the quality of his life are extraordinary-buoyancy, vigor, straightforwardness, simplicity, humility, security, joyousness, uncanny perspicacity and unfathomable compassion. I think that really helped to put everybody on their best behavior. It was like a "game" of Zen where if any one speaks out or asks the wrong question, the "game" is ruined or finished, at least for that person. After six months, he returned to his position. A Zen teacher can certainly assist his students in their practice, can encourage the students to be diligent, guide their meditation practice in both public and private meetings, offer aid in difficult times, talk about Zen texts to enrich the student's sense of the tradition and explicate Buddhist and Zen ideas. [5] Baker was ordained a St priest by Suzuki in 1966 just before the opening of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Shocked by the series of scandals involving its senior teachers, the organization decided to appoint two abbots, who would share the position at any one time. There was a widespread conceit in their thinking that they were the center or "cutting edge" of Zen in America, not cognizant that many other Zen groups were forming city/country Centers and also experimenting with the ideas of setting up monasteries, group practice, communal living and forming a sangha. Bibliographical Notes It should be kept in mind that the senior members, by 1982, were often over forty years old and had been practicing at Zen Center for fifteen or more years. Kobun was resident teacher at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center until 1970. It is interesting to note that these beliefs persisted strongly even into the year 2000, roughly the time of Downing's interviews when there had been thirty-five years of sexual and financial scandals in the Zen community in America. In addition, the few American students of his who went to Japan came back disappointed, which upset Suzuki because he thought these students would then think less ofBuddhism. In short, the biographical approach to history seems to be used because it has intimate real-life immediacy. The Zen Institution There is a saying, "It is difficult to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it." Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. And as complete neophytes in Buddhism, they were apt to believe most anything a teacher said: The Americans had no competing knowledge, no critical faculties, no grounds to challenge the teacher, no fixed point on which to stand. This article was excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,out now. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. If this was the case, it would seem that he failed this task in America. With one or two exceptions, the only views expressed of Baker's errant behavior among the Center's members was in the context of their personal experience. One was to make the state consider Chan the primary sect of Buddhism. Please send to slachs@worldnet.att.net. Mark Oppenheimeris the author of three other books, includinga memoir of high school debateand atravelogue about crashing bar mitzvahs. San Francisco Zen Center SFZC Online Welcome to SFZC Online Below you'll find information about our online offerings: resources for beginners, zazen (meditation) and chanting, Dharma talks, live online practice sessions with teachers, as well as classes and workshops from our Online Programs. Members had not the slightest inkling that their view of Zen was controlled. As noted in the paper, senior members consistently reassured newer members that all was well when they raised questions about Baker's activities. The senior disciples consistently stressed that Baker's transmission was real; it made him into a "pure vessel of the Dharma," a man of wisdom, far beyond the questioner's obviously limited understanding and suspicion. This "history" has added weight because it is presented as biographical fact. This is not surprising, being, as it is, a natural result of the customs and environment created by the Zen institution. After six months, he returned to his position. He remained abbot there until 1984, the year he resigned his position after it was disclosed in the previous year that he and the wife of one of SFZC's benefactors had been having an ongoing affair. Richard Baker was 36 years old when he was installed as abbott of the San Francisco Zen Center in 1971. And what was Suzuki's intention here? Unfortunately, the Western Zen community has not explored the many important questions implied by Zen At War. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a group of his American students in 1962. In particular, Berger, Peter,L. At that time, Baker also became the official leader of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC). These days, when we think of predatory clergy, we think of Roman Catholic priests. His critics say Baker "still doesn't get it," doesn't understand the errors of his way. I have seen such a view expressed in four other major Zen communities as well as in a Tibetan community. Hence, roughly 95% of all Soto priests in Japan have Dharma transmission, most receiving it after spending at most three years in a monastery, some with as little as six months. The film was directed by veteran filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and executive produced by physician, Shoshana R. 1969 - Suzuki was asked to resign as priest at Sokoji by the temple's board of directors because he was spending more time with his Western students than the Japanese-American congregation. Furthermore, Chadwick told Victoria that when he (Chadwick) had once asked Baker himself about the basis for the claim, Baker replied that he could not remember! This was especially true of people wanting to climb Zen Center's ladder to positions of authority, power, and prestige, which was totally dependent on Baker's sanction. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. But the percentage of the Zen clergy implicated in sexual misdeeds is many times greater than that of the Catholic clergy. Brian Victoria was so interested in the possibility of a public pacifist/anti-war Soto monk that he contacted Suzuki's son Hoitsu who told him: "I don't know where all of this antiwar talk comes from, but my father and the rest of the family supported Japan's war effort just like everyone else." Former students have said that he was addicted to power, abusive of his position, extravagant in his personal spending, and inappropriate in his love life. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. It is noted that after 1983 the study of sutras, Zen texts and history was instituted. For a most interesting examination of early Chan lineage and truth claims read from a critical textual analysis rather than reading them "for information about Truth and Practice" or about "historical claims to own truth", see Cole, Alan, "It's All in the Framing", a paper given at U.C. Branching Streams is a network of affiliate Dharma centers and Sanghas in the Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. This story appears to be an example of modern day creation of hagiography that will be repeated in the future. In this sect, Dharma transmission is commonly a father-son transmission ritual culminating in the son's inheritance of the family temple. Under the Zen approach, the Chan masters are clearly more potent than the monastics of other Buddhist sects, who merely explicate the Dharma through texts, often texts that are further distanced from their authoritative origins by the act of translation. I am also thankful to Mark Baldwin, Sandra Eisenstein, Simeon Gallu, Grace Luddy, Kevin Matthews, Bruce Rickenbacher and Marlene Swartz for many hours of discussion, helpful suggestions, and editorial assistance. The Examiner reports that Preston has wants to use the mostly vacant 555 Fulton as . Was he hypocritical for reprimanding his students for flirting while he carried on numerous affairs with his female students, including one that ruptured his best friend's marriage? At the time, Schnyer was just 24 years old, yet he had been a Shimano student since he was a teenager. Unlike his predecessors, Suzuki was a fluent speaker of English who actually wanted to come to the United States. Also see the public letter from Mr. Kapleau toYamada, dated 2/17/86. These revelations led to community-wide pandemonium, and in 1984 Baker was forced to resign as abbot. This is the sort of detail, which might be useful to both present and future students, but it is absolutely missing from all of the completely standard biographies of Zen masters through the ages. In particular, Suzuki's San Francisco Zen Center lineage continues through his bureaucratic "transmission" to his son Hoitsu. Was it all really such a big deal? There are some good, and unavoidable, reasons for Americans dependence on Japanese roshis (and, more recently, as Americans have become interested in Tibetan Buddhism, for their dependence on foreign teachers like the Dalai Lama). Foulk disagrees with this view. Obedience, subservience, and discipline were well rewarded at a large institution like the San Francisco Zen Center, as Downing's book amply shows. Not surprisingly, virtually 100% of the time these breaches of morality serve the pleasure and interests of the supposed enlightened one. 2 Thank Kelly S . A special note is given to the papers of Heine, Wright, Foulk, McRae, Welter, Schlutter, Michel Mohr and Ishii Shudo. More tellingly, Baker, inserted the very idealized description of qualities and characteristics supposedly of Suzuki Roshi, generalized to all roshi, knowing it would inevitably, indeed shortly, be applied to himself. Kwong's transmission was later completed by Suzuki's son, Hoitsu.[1][11][12]. My first reaction to the book was, "Why?" He also ran a temple virtually under the control of Japan's repressive fascist era government. 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That little piece of paradise in the Marin County headlands is just a short drive from the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, perfect for a quick retreat. His death came shortly after the publication of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a collection of lectures translated into numerous languages and considered a classic of contemporary Zen literature. is the head teacher at the Dharma Field Meditation and Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I suspect I probably said something like that, Schnyer said. There is a whole lineage built on the idea that Kapleau had transmission. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. Yet, after Tatsugami Roshi, one of the important training teachers from Eiheji, one of the two main Soto Zen training monasteries in Japan, conducted only one training period at Tassajara, Zen Center's monastery in California, Suzuki "arranged" for him not to return because his American students were so dissatisfied. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. And stayed for 10 years.. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. To see how the most prominent Japanese Zen roshi as well as some of the roshi associated with bringing Zen to America, in spite of the rhetoric of the standard model of Zen, functioned in Japan from roughly 1911 through WWII, see Victoria, Brian, Zen At War , Weatherhill, 1997. Richard Baker is an extremely bright and talented person and a born salesman. [10] The Residence combined residential rooms that could house 70 women on the upper floors, with public spaces for spiritual, recreational, and educational uses on the ground floor and basement. Guests are . Writings featured as biography in Zen are most often an idealized presentation of how a master should perform his role rather than the life of a real person. [34], Following Baker's resignation, Dainin Katagiri led the community until 1985. A monastery and retreat center in a remote mountain valley in the Ventana Wilderness SFZC Online Resources for beginners, zazen (meditation) and chanting, Dharma talks, live online practice sessions with teachers, as well as classes and workshops from our Online Programs. This formulaic collection of qualities of a Zen master, is not neutral. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. There are two kinds of authority. "[16], On September 25, 1999 in Salem, Baker married Marie Louise, daughter of Maximilian, Margrave of Baden, and grandniece of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. This paper can also serve the non-scholar as an overview or introduction to modern Zen scholarship and introduce a critical view of the important Zen ideas of master, Dharma transmission, and unbroken lineage. "To sum up the situation, we have no sources at all from the T'ang which mentions or describe explicitly "Chan" institutions," p. 267. The last of these was Bodhidharma, who began the patriarchal line in China that led to Hui-neng, traditionally considered to be the sixth and last Chan patriarch. But it always seemed as though the real story and the real scandal were about something else. Join the San Francisco Zen Center Membership Program. Baker then quotes Trudy Dixon, the editor of the book, thus endorsing her words: But there are many lesser-known yet just as randy Zen teachers. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. By this time there had also been an abundance of scholarly writing and empirical evidence exposing much of the mythology surrounding Zen. However, there is no surviving text of Pai-chang's Rules. Public opinion shows that while parishioners are, of course, disturbed by priests' abuse of children and young teens, they are more upset by the institutional cover up and denial of that behavior. Latest News. Americans needed somebody to teach them the rituals. Koun Yamada was Yasutani roshi's Dharma heir. Nor did anyone even think to view the situation through the lens of the Buddhist teachings themselves or even the particular teachings of their beloved founder Suzuki. To this end, Zen Center is engaged in numerous social and ecological initiatives. If some one would like copies, please email me at: slachs@worldnet.att.net . I finally asked Schnyer if he had said what Zournas attributed to him: He hasnt raped anyone yet, has he? Maezumi, affiliated with another West Coast zendo, the Zen Center of Los Angeles, was a philanderer and an alcoholic, as the scholar Dale S. Wright has detailed at length. The latter choice was too painful for many for any number of reasons, including: 1) many believed that the Center was the best place to practice Zen and so leaving meant giving up what made life seem most meaningful, 2) their self-identities as Zen practitioners were connected to the Center, 3) loyalty to Suzuki Roshi, 4) leaving close friendships established through communal living and especially through practicing meditation together, 5) loving the lifestyle and 6) fear of losing one's position in the hierarchy and the possibility for future higher positions culminating in being Dharma transmitted oneself. There are also accounts of people receiving transmission from masters who were dead by the time the supposed transmission took place. Baker was a charismatic leader, brilliant lecturer and dedicated Buddhist. Explore hundreds of dharma talksby San Francisco Zen Center teachers, practice leaders, and speakers from the wider community. This is one reason why we are looking at his case, to see how the system works, how it has always worked. Yamada gave Dharma transmission to Robert Aitkin, though Aitkin and his Diamond Sangha later separated from the Sanbokyodan organization after Yamada's death. At a meeting of the Board of Directors of Lindisfarne at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, Thompson convinced the board to donate the campus that he had establishedwith its passive solar Lindisfarne Fellows House, Founder's House, and Lindisfarne Chapelto Baker-roshi's Dharma Sangha. Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. We can begin to approach an answer by thinking about the nature of authority. Zen elevates its leaders to super-human status, then emphasizes that we should be obedient and subservient to a powerful and supremely accomplished authority figure, precisely because he is powerful and supremely accomplished. A large institution like Zen requires hundreds of such living role players. Suzuki surely knew that his fellow Japanese Soto roshi and priests would hardly accept Americans as examples for the reform of Zen, especially in Japan. 2002: 8-11. Suzuki enabled the ensuing trouble by transmitting only to Baker to the exclusion of other westerners, by failing to understand Baker's character, by failing to mitigate his authority in any way, and by failing to explain clearly the historical and common way that Dharma transmission was and is used in Soto Zen. After six months, he returned to his position. In America, it is common in Zen and other communities led by a charismatic teacher to view events that could generate questions such as these not as real life-problems, but as "skillful means" employed to convey the essence of "the teaching." One member suggested that the Shimanos instead be given an extended sabbatical. 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