I feel sorry for anybody who's bitter. 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. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. 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? 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. Sitting meditation (zazen) is available live online Monday through Friday mornings, Saturday mornings, and Monday through Friday evenings. Shoes Outside The Door, p.237. He found willing assenters, willing children eager to listen to his fairy tales. I believe the trouble at the San Francisco Zen Center, and at many other prominent Zen Centers, across the country to this day, is caused by a lack of understanding as to how the ideas of Dharma transmission, unbroken lineage, and Zen master have been used historically. After six months, he returned to his position. But Shimano is hardly alone; his is not an isolated case. In this act lies the first step towards freedom." Great Experience with Western Zen Practice. Kwong's transmission was later completed by Suzuki's son, Hoitsu.[1][11][12]. I see how my empowerment to protect and care for the Triple Treasure inflated my sense of personal authority, and thus detracted from and disparaged the Triple Treasure. After a major fundraising effort led by Baker, Zen Center purchased the landwhich contained a rundown resort and mineral springs in 1967. This imputation of power and attainment has given one Zen roshi after another the power to abuse their position while remaining beyond reproach. Baker manifested his authority by giving his followers two choices: obey his words without question or be marginalized, which was tantamount to being forced to leave. Ungerleider.[26]. [6], San Francisco Zen Center expanded quickly with Baker at the helm. Koun Yamada was Yasutani roshi's Dharma heir. For an important look at Buddhist biography and hagiography though not especially Chan, the reader may look at Kieschnick, John, The Eminent Monk, University of Hawaii Press, 1997. Tassajara Bakery was a Zen Center venture promoted by Richard Baker as an extension of the baking practices at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Money, too, is worth something because we believe it iswe give the $20 bill the magical properties of being worth more than the $1 bill, even though the paper and ink are identical. How San Francisco Zen Center Operates This scheme was later institutionalized through the ritual of Dharma transmission. 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. Downing reveals that by 1969 Suzuki had made it known to Baker and others at the Center that Baker was to be his Dharma heir. An interesting debate between Victoria and members of the Deshimaru group (A.Z.I.) There are also accounts of people receiving transmission from masters who were dead by the time the supposed transmission took place. It is noted that after 1983 the study of sutras, Zen texts and history was instituted. critical insights into Zen/Buddhism have strongly influenced my views: Robert Buswell, Alan Cole, Bernard Faure, T. Griffith Foulk, Robert M. Gimello, Peter N. Gregory, John Kieschnick, John R. McRae, A. Charles Muller, Mario Poceski, Robert H. Sharf, Morten Schlutter, Gregory Schopen, Brian Victoria, Albert Welter and Dale Wright. Mark Oppenheimeris the author of three other books, includinga memoir of high school debateand atravelogue about crashing bar mitzvahs. If some one would like copies, please email me at: slachs@worldnet.att.net . Obedience, subservience, and discipline were well rewarded at a large institution like the San Francisco Zen Center, as Downing's book amply shows. Guests are . Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. In July 1987 Baker gave Dharma transmission to Whalen; Whalen later became abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center (following the tenure of Issan Dorsey) in the Castro district of San Francisco. For an analysis of the inherent power relations in the one-dimensional description of a roshi and how it is taken for being natural, see "Symbolic Violence and Social Reproduction" and "Uses of Language" in, Jenkins, Richard, Pierre Bourdieu, Routledge, 1992, pp.103-110 and pp.152-162 respectively. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. The idea of the enlightened Zen master authenticated through the ritual of dharma transmission and maintained by an unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha is at the heart of the Zen tradition. About. San Francisco Zen Center offers seven charming guest rooms for short-term stays. They will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. It is possible that Suzuki had a paternal attachment to Baker. It could fairly be said that what is effectively transmitted by Dharma transmission is institutional authority, rather than religious wisdom. A student was also liable to believe that her teacher was conveying the one true form of Zen Buddhism. Baker then moved to Crestone, Colorado and Germany to found other practice sites for Dharma Sangha. In 1971, he became resident priest at Haiku Zen Center, a practice center in Los Altos where Suzuki-roshi had been giving lectures, and soon after the sangha there grew and changed its name to Bodhi. Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. Yet we all know that no human is like this. Zen Nationalism Revisited by Robert H. Sharf He was perfect for me, Schnyer said. The current crisis in the Catholic Church proves the need for such an institutional analysis. At times, senior disciples needed to reassure newcomers who questioned Baker's behavior that all was in order. Yamada gave Dharma transmission to Robert Aitkin, though Aitkin and his Diamond Sangha later separated from the Sanbokyodan organization after Yamada's death. Desire, Devotion, and Excess at the San Francisco Zen Center. Even when Dharma transmission does reflect some level of something we may call spiritual attainment, it is not based on the idealized version proffered by the Zen institution: a mystical meeting of minds between teacher and disciple sharing a timeless truth that unvaryingly matches the minds of all teachers going back in the lineage, through the six Chan Patriarchs in China, and the twenty eight generations of the supposed Indian lineage going back to the historical Buddha, and beyond. Elizabeth is married to Jason Kibbey. [21][22][23] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West. For an in-depth look at three special projects happening at SFZC, check out our new Impact Report. Interestingly, one of the oldest members of Zen Center, a psychologist, did an "informal poll" of people who had been at Zen Center for more than eight years. Please visit the Calendar page for more details or sign up for our weekly Sangha News email to receive notices of upcoming events. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. Shimanos womanizing is of the sleaziest sort: He is married, and he has often picked for his mistresses much younger and disturbed women, the kind particularly susceptible to his twisted charisma. He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979. Suzuki's prestige grew enormously. Good bread, fine wine and simple, yet elegant, dining were offered by Tassajara Bakery and by Greens, the gourmet restaurant at Fort Mason that dished out vegetarian cuisine and inspiring views of the bay. In this regard Mr. These recordings of zazen instruction feature a variety of teachers offering an introduction to meditation. It is clear that the senior members of Zen Center surrounding Baker were well-indoctrinated vessels of Zen ideology. His first wife contracted tuberculosis and returned to her parents shortly after marriage; his second wife was brutally murdered by an erratic, antisocial monk whom Suzuki had retained as a temple assistant, despite contrary advise from neighbors and colleagues. One has to ask if something is not missing in Suzuki's simple prescription to "just sit?" Zen ascribes to Pai-chang (died 814) its earliest monastic code that supposedly set Chan apart as a separate sect in the Tang dynasty. The Zen Buddhist Who Preyed on His Upper East Side Students, The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,. Zen Center members accepted and internalized most all of Zen's self definitions, history and social forms. Explore San Francisco Zen Center's newsletters and blogs. You have to ask whether Suzuki was aware of the claims made by Baker and, if so, why he permitted them to stand without correction. Access to movies showing San Francisco Zen Center's founder, who died in 1971. Please see the Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page as well as the Calendar. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Within a couple of years, Suzuki considered founding a monastery to host more intensive practice for those students who were interested. All of this discontent emerged when it was made public that Baker had allegedly been having an affair with the wife of an influential sangha member. But during the 1960s, Suzuki attracted an eager flock of meditating Westerners, including Baker, who showed up in 1962 and was soon singled out as a possible successor. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. For a history of early Soto Zen as well as how the Soto sect has understood Dharma transmission since roughly 1700, see Bodiford, William M., Soto Zen in Medieval Japan, University of Hawaii Press, 1993, p. 215. Zen's highly ritualized activities added a visceral instantiation to the cognitive edifice. In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shih from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir (though Baker disputes this). What was or was not implied in Baker's transmission from Suzuki? Members soon raised funds for a zendo to be built there, and over time the farm transformed into a monastery and retreat center for residents and guests with an organic farm, flower gardens, a teahouse and a plant nursery. Did it not occur to him that Richard had a family, too, as did many of the priests of Zen Center?" Unlike his predecessors, Suzuki was a fluent speaker of English who actually wanted to come to the United States. The teacher knew all; the American knew nothing. It was more about power, about finding another way to govern and manage an operation that was never sure if it was a California commune, a Japanese monastery or a New Age business. [6] Baker was instrumental in orchestrating the acquisition of Tassajara, raising $150,000 for the purchase in a short period of time. Greens Restaurant, opened in 1979 in Fort Mason of San Francisco, was another business venture by SFZC under the influence of Baker. Michael Downing's book, Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center (2001) describes much of the sexual scandal surrounding Richard Baker, as well as financial problems and Baker's generally arrogant behavior. Ask Kai C about San Francisco Zen Center. Downing shows that even in their every day negotiations for used restaurant equipment when they were opening Green's Restaurant, they held a disproportionate sense of their own importance in the wider community. According to a 1982 letter from George Zournas to Jack Clareman, the Zen Studies Societys lawyer, a litany of charges was read against Shimano at a board meeting on September 14 of that year. This change in demography caused a rift in the Sokoji community. [5] Baker was ordained a St priest by Suzuki in 1966 just before the opening of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. But the Soto sect tries to have it both ways. ---Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878) At first, I had trouble with Downing's refusal to bend to the dictates of chronology and a quirky writing style that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. But there are many lesser-known yet just as randy Zen teachers. "Hollow" transmissions such as those between father and son are incorporated into the unbroken lineage to the Buddha. Throughout the 1980s Greens, which obtained produce from Green Gulch Farm, was one of the most popular restaurants in San Francisco. I took a course at Rochester, an overview of Eastern religion and Confucianism. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Suzuki, in so many ways an admirable person, had a large hand in the problems that followed his death. With so many students and so much public attention, some felt Baker became less available to the members of the community. Sarasota, Florida. And all of us worshipped him to a certain extent., Nobody was as worshipful as a student named David Schnyer. Today, one could reasonably assert that of the 30 or 40 important Zen centers in the country, at least 10 have employed head teachers who have been accused of groping, propositioning, seducing, or otherwise exploiting students. But for the [Zen Studies Society,] my gullibility, spiritual gullibilityI didnt realize that it was a borderline cult. For Suzuki Roshi's edited words see the well-known Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Weatherhill, 1970. Most of the narratives of the early heroes of Chan that we have today were composed hundreds of years after the ostensive events, complete with verbatim accounts of the master's interaction with a disciple presented as if a court stenographer had been recording the entire interaction. The Zen institution requires the master because he is supposedly a living example of the ideal of Zen and, as such, represents all of its legitimacy and authority. Some former students say they were encouraged to believe that being groped by him was part of their. Shimanos Japanese ways suited Schnyer. However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. Therefore, in the living world of flesh and blood we have people with some very limited level of attainment occupying a role that is defined as Buddha-like, actualizing perfect freedom and unfathomable compassion beyond the ordinary person's understanding and hence above question. In the West in general, but particularly in America, we place great importance on each person's individuality and uniqueness and hence on our personal experience. We may however, ask, "What commitment was Suzuki referring to?" Most people think of Zen as being iconoclastic, anti-authoritarian, simple, direct, and unattached. He was a very traditional Rinzai master: stern when he needed to be, very rarely encouraging. However, I do not mean to imply there is no inner spiritual content to the Zen tradition. 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. The deeper you go into practice, the deeper you find your teacher's mind is, until you finally realize that your mind and his mind are Buddha's mind. The Zen Institution If youre going to do this, youre going to do it on your own, but Im not going to nurse you. For me he was perfect Somebody looking from the outside could say thats why we stuck with him all the time. 3. "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. [27][28][29][30], In March 1983 Baker was accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with the wife of an influential sangha member. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. This reminder served an important purpose: the Center's members viewed Suzuki's authority as if it were a divine fiat, so that any dissent or criticism was ended. Victoria describes how the most prominent roshis from all sects of Japanese Zen interpreted Zen's teachings to support the imperial and militaristic goals of Japan from the early twentieth century through the end of World War II and beyond. 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. 1962 - SFZC is founded by Shunryu Suzuki and his Western students. Stay connected. But, given that no one interviewed in the book expressed any view outside of the standard Zen model, one may ask, was the Zen history taught at the Zen Center just more of Zen legend? ", Read more about this topic: San Francisco Zen Center, Problems, laws havent the slightest interest for meexcept in the world of science, in which they are always changing; or in the world of art, in which they are unchanging; or in the world of Being in which they are, for the most part, unknown.Margaret Anderson (18861973), One does not arrest Voltaire.Charles De Gaulle (18901970). It is a performance meant to confirm and display the current master's significance, authority and attainment. David Hume said in his Of the First principles of Government (1758) that "Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers." His American students accept this theme unquestioningly. He writes a religion column forThe New York Timesand is on Twitter@markopp1. He also ran a temple virtually under the control of Japan's repressive fascist era government. By the seventies he calculates 10-15,000 hours and that by 1987 the most senior practitioners had each meditated some 20- 25,000 hours on the cushion. Furthermore this creation has to be ongoing. This is the consistent view of the master presented by Zen, the pure, simple, desireless and self-contained roshi, and was accepted unquestioningly by Zen Center members. 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. He exists freely in the fullness of his whole being. I too was a member of a Zen center where we also felt that our group and style of practice were in some ways unique. [6] Baker also penned the introduction to Suzuki's famous book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), is a network of affiliated St Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. [2] However, San Francisco Zen Center's website now comments: "Although the circumstances leading to his resignation as abbot in 1984 were difficult and complex, in recent years, there has been increased contact; a renewal of friendship and dharma relations. 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. So it is natural to ask, why did Suzuki's and Baker's students mention this so often? From the perspective of power and control, the political and the religious spheres overlap. In addition, as there are other practitioners around the teacher, it is helpful to be part of a community of fellow practitioners. Five years later (in 1988), roughly fifteen months after Anderson had become abbot of the San Francisco, Anderson was arrested for brandishing this same firearm in public. And perhaps most importantly, his authority will be understood with a taken-for-granted quality of being natural. Perhaps tellingly, Baker made this claim at the height of the Vietnam War, when virtually 100% of Zen followers were opposed to the war and hence having an anti-war/anti -government roshi in his lineage was good currency. By Kurt Wolff, Free Press Paperback, 1950 for a discussion of authority, prestige, subordination, and sociability. 1983 the study of sutras, Zen texts and history was instituted obtained from. Be understood with a bullet wound to the Buddha religion and Confucianism died 1971! Press Paperback, 1950 for a discussion of authority, prestige,,! 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