Members along with Baker literally built their world based on the language and view of Zen accompanied by ritualized behavior that added to the sense of being embedded in and being an active participant of that sacred world. Before long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans mostly beatniks coming to the temple to sit zazen with him in the morning. 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 supposed enlightened Master gets the last word in judging not only the student's behavior and verbal responses, but also the whole of the past enlightened lineage including the historical Buddha by commenting on and judging any and all of the past Masters in the old cases (koan) and in their recorded sayings. 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. Zen is a Chinese invention roughly beginning in the seventh or eighth century of this era. There is a whole lineage built on the idea that Kapleau had transmission. In fact, a number of older students who had known Baker for years left the Zen Center when he was installed as both abbot and roshi of SFZC. 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. [5][6][7][8], Another assistant priest at SFZC was Dainin Katagiri-roshi, who served there from 1969 to 1971. 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. Your support is crucial to sustain our practice centers and thriving online community. They have shown us clearly that much of what has been presented by the tradition as "history," is really a myth created with two purposes. Sitting meditation (zazen) is available live online Monday through Friday mornings, Saturday mornings, and Monday through Friday evenings. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. 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Mel Weitsman and Michael Wenger, University of California Press,1999 and for a biography of Suzuki's life see, Chadwick, David, Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunyru Suzuki, Broadway Books, 1999. That Kapleau never received Dharma transmission was exposed in a public letter from Yamada roshi dated,1/16/86. In 1995 Zoketsu Norman Fischer was installed as Abbot at SFZC, and in 1996 Zenkai Blanche Hartman was appointed as co-Abbot with him (becoming the first female Abbot in SFZC history). In fact, it was often not based on spiritual attainment at all, most especially so in Japanese Soto Zen, which is the sect of Suzuki, Baker and the San Francisco Zen Center. At that time, in the 70s, drug use was prevalent, and I got involved in a fair amount of that. In fact, Kapleau never received Dharma transmission in the first place, so there was nothing to rescind. [13], Following his departure from the San Francisco Zen Center in 1984, Baker relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he founded a new community known as Dharma Sangha. Today SFZC is the largest St organization in the West. They believed their way of living and of practicing Zen was the best alternative available in America. The issue here is not how individual students behave foolishly or even in a self-serving way, it is the admonition to "just sit" - even for twenty thousand hours - is no guarantee against foolishness or delusion. Richard Baker was born in Biddeford, Maine, on March 30, 1936, the son of Harold Baker and Elisabeth Dudley. I believe that the reason for this surrender, in the case of Zen, is clear, structural, and self-perpetuating. The student who enters the "practice" having read a myth will expect to find the myth, and will think they have found the myth. And what was Suzuki's intention here? A vibrant community in an urban temple in the heart of San Francisco. Find classes, retreats, practice periods, and many more offerings in the San Francisco Zen Center calendar of events. The virgin birth, the Buddha, Joseph Smiths golden plates that became the Book of Mormonto build spiritual tradition, it does not matter if the people were real or if the events happened. Spiritual authority is that second kind of authority. Under the Zen form of legitimization, each Zen roshi is viewed as a saint. This is a convenient and economical way to stay in the city while experiencing life in a Zen Buddhist temple and enjoying the serene elegance of a building designed by Julia Morgan. These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. For an outstanding article on Sanbokyodan Zen, a Zen sect important in the West see, Sharf, Robert, "Sanbokyodan, Zen and the Way of New Religions", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Fall 1995, Vol. [9] The building, designed by Julia Morgan, was built as the Emanu-el Residence Club in 1922 for the Emanu-el Sisterhood. 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. [citation needed], Additional businesses run by SFZC were the Alaya Stitchery storefront, which made zafus, zabutons and clothing, and Green Gulch Grocery, which sold produce from Green Gulch Farm. When one member was about to leave (after the Baker scandal), rather than receiving well wishes or a word of advice from his teacher-who happened to be the new abbot after Baker, he was smugly told that he would be back in a year. At times, senior disciples needed to reassure newcomers who questioned Baker's behavior that all was in order. Hence, questioning and dissent became a shortcoming of the person expressing such a view. Located atop a bumpy 10-mile (16km) road which is difficult for some vehicles to climb, Tassajara offers shuttles to and from the retreat for those inclined to forgo trying to make the trek on their own. "It is, basically, a description of a number of monastic procedures implicitly attributed to Pai-chang, set in a quasi-historical context, and presented with the authors own explanation and laudatory remarks. That made him the successor and dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, a Japanese Zen missionary who came to California in 1959 to serve immigrant families living in Japantown. The idea and ritual of Dharma transmission rather than the meaning or content of that transmission, becomes the prominent and meaningful fact. Months later Suzukiwith the help of his American studentspurchased the current (and larger) City Center building, located on 300 Page Street. Shoes Outside The Door, p.237. 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. Visitors can enjoy the springs, go swimming or on hiking trips, and have the opportunity to arrange for practice with the community living at the monastery for a few days. In 2003 Paul Haller, who received transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993, was installed as co-abbot with her. He is now a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and in December 2012 I spoke with him by telephone. In fact there are few major centers not touched by sexual or other scandals, but the SFZC case suffices for the discussion we will have here. You can quarrel with their authority, but if the gun works, or if the experiment was well designed and conclusive, you are likely to lose the argument. "Zen Dharma transmission between master and disciple could occur whether or not the disciple had realized enlightenment, just so long as the ritual of personal initiation had been performed." Suzuki died of cancer on December 4, 1971. For an analysis of the idealized, one-dimensional style of describing a roshi, the one of Suzuki in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind being just one contemporary example, see "Simpleness" in Alan Cole's previously mentioned paper, "It's All in the Framing", p.6. To legitimize the various family lines within Zen, Zen's self-definition necessitates establishing a continuing unbroken lineage of transmitted masters connected to the historical Buddha. SteveSiesta. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a group of his American students in 1962. Interestingly, the later versions of the supposed events often have more detail than the earlier versions, implying that we are dealing with literary creations rather than historical biography. One justification sometimes heard, glib to my ear, is that enlightenment is not about morality. Alan Sherman, Vintage Books, 1995 (reprint edition), 1995, pp.170-195 discusses a number of aspects of the penal system, its disciplinary power and the simple instruments from which it derives its power: hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment, and their combination-the examination. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. Foulk doubts that the Chan sect existed as a separate sect with its own monastic institutions during the Tang dynasty. The new president, Sylvan Busch, did not open his mouth to show any disapproval of Mr. and Mrs. Shimanos activities. And then there was Schnyer, the youngest board member, who, according to Zournas, defended Shimano by reportedly saying, He hasnt raped anyone yet, has he?. Baker then moved to Crestone, Colorado and Germany to found other practice sites for Dharma Sangha. Jerry Brown, poet Gary Snyder, Esalen founder Michael Murphy, author Ken Kesey and other leading lights of the Zen intelligentsia on the West Coast. Seeing Through Zen by by John R. McRae book reviews buy this book, Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen, Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'an/Zen Buddhism in America, The Zen Master in America: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves, Holding the Lotus to the Rock: reflections on the future of the Zen sangha in the West, Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions, Finding Safe Harbor: Buddhist Sexual Ethics in America, Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center, Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki, Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki. If some one would like copies, please email me at: slachs@worldnet.att.net . However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. They also have a lot of other awesome Saturday morning programs for zen noobs (znoobs!!). According to the dust jacket, Downing spent three years interviewing 80 people at the center of the Zen Center scandal. 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. For some thirty years a significant group of scholars have been investigating the development of the Chan sect in Chinese Buddhism. Unfortunately, the Western Zen community has not explored the many important questions implied by Zen At War. It is fashionable among practitioners in the West to consider critical thought as "un-Zen." I have seen such a view expressed in four other major Zen communities as well as in a Tibetan community. In the last few decades as opposed to the past, we have had a clear personal view of the actual people involved, Richard Baker being only one. So it is natural to ask, why did Suzuki's and Baker's students mention this so often? In particular, Berger, Peter,L. After all, the only two previous Dharma transmissions Suzuki gave, to his son Hoitsu and to Unknown, were not based on attainment at all. A special note is given to the papers of Heine, Wright, Foulk, McRae, Welter, Schlutter, Michel Mohr and Ishii Shudo. Baker Sums It Up [6] Baker was instrumental in orchestrating the acquisition of Tassajara, raising $150,000 for the purchase in a short period of time. A number of Downing's interviewees spoke of receiving the true or pure Zen teaching from Suzuki Roshi. 4 Thank Kai C . We seem to forget that we live with other humans and that society is a human product that we act upon and that acts upon us and in a sense produces us. He was not a sticky kind of emotional person. This group is by far the largest Zen group in France and is active in the U.S.A. as well as in other parts of Europe. [9], Although Baker claimed that his relationship with the woman was a love-affair which had not yet been consummated, the outcry surrounding the incident led to a series of accusations of impropriety on Baker's part, including the admissions by several female members of the community that they had had affairs with Baker before or during his tenure as abbot. Some of these students began calling their group City Center, and they incorporated in 1962 as the San Francisco Zen Center.[1][2][3][4][5]. The volunteer project's founding director was Frank Ostaseski, who served until 2004. 1967 also saw the arrival of Kobun Chino Otogawa of Eiheiji, who served as assistant to Suzuki. One component of Buddhism is to recognize cause and effect. Richard Baker is an extremely bright and talented person and a born salesman. Peter L. Berger, the well- known American sociologist writes, "Unlike puppets, we have the possibility of stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. One older student expressed it this way, "In our hands, and it was in our hands, it [Suzuki's pure teaching] became a bludgeon of power, a source of competition, jealousy, and paranoia. 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. Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions by Robert H. Sharf This is also extremely disempowering which can lead to all sorts of problems, as the SFZC case clearly shows. Latest News. It seems that Zen's emphasis on wisdom, while giving compassion only lip service, is really about power. For a look at how religious fantasies may cause trouble, especially with leaders, see "Religion and Alienation" in Berger, Peter L., The Sacred Canopy, pp, 81-101. This is not ancient history. He was leader of the largest Zen center in the United States and founder of Tassajara, the first Zen monastery in America; he sent a number of American disciples to study in Japan and was surrounded, as was Baker, by hundreds of devoted, unquestioning, often young and energetic followers. A large institution like Zen requires hundreds of such living role players. And stayed for 10 years.. According to revelations that have tumbled out over the past two years, and which I chronicle in-depth in a new e-book, Shimano has spent 50 years preying sexually on his students. It is clear from Downing's interviews that Zen Center members assumed that there was no ideology to be questioned, i.e., the unreliable history of Zen, the hagiographic picture of the lineage, along with its mythology of Dharma transmission, unbroken lineage, and enlightened Zen masters. (I don't mean to say that Kapleau is any more or less qualified to teach for receiving transmission or not, and in fact he is one of the few major teachers not involved with sexual or other scandal though one of his disciples did have a major scandal.) Andy Afable, one of Shimanos former head monks, called these four the major missionaries of Zen, as they had all received transmission from leading Japanese teachers: That is, they had been deemed worthy to be the heirs, to be responsible for the persistence of the teachings. Therefore, in the need to remain at the Center, members had a powerful incentive to fully buy into Zen's mythology. It all came tumbling down in a 1983 event known in Zen Center circles as "the Apocalypse." I dont know, he said. A gem! Richard Baker also survived. In particular, Suzuki's San Francisco Zen Center lineage continues through his bureaucratic "transmission" to his son Hoitsu. Also see, Brown, Edward Espe, Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen, Harper Collins, 2002, Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai, Ed. Also available are practice sessions with SF Zen Center teachers. [8] Within a very short period of time Baker broadened the scope of SFZC, starting first with the acquisition of Green Gulch Farm in southern Marin county, in 1972. In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shih from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir (though Baker disputes this). ", 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 no longer ruled by an almighty abbott-for- life, but abbotts with term limits. The Zen master is a role that stands as a representative of the entire Zen institution. Was Baker's commitment to Zen practice much greater than a number of other of Suzuki's close, very committed senior disciples? San Francisco Zen Center practitioners did make a serious commitment to their practice. [32], These revelations led Baker to resign as abbot in 1984. It is a performance meant to confirm and display the current master's significance, authority and attainment. Zen at War by Brian Daizen A. Victoria: a link to varioius book reviews buy this book now It was almost like a magic theater, where if someone received Dharma transmission, and hence, was a supposed enlightened being, he would become a different person who could do anything he pleased. 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. 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From the perspective of power and control, the political and the religious spheres overlap. Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen City Center A vibrant community in an urban temple in the heart of San Francisco. He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979. He writes a religion column forThe New York Timesand is on Twitter@markopp1. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. Likewise, Dharma transmission was as much about institutional prosperity, prestige, authority, continuity and acceptance and control by imperial authorities as it was about notions of enlightenment and spiritual perfection. Like whoa, and when you start the practice, the practice I feel isits very profound. 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. Introduction Finding Safe Harbor: Buddhist Sexual Ethics in America by Stephanie Kaza, Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center by Michael Downing: book review by Vladimir K. buy this book Tassajara baked bread for student and guest consumption since 1967, and Edward Espe Brown's Tassajara Bread Book, demonstrated consumer interest. Some Zen followers believe that Zen is only concerned with enlightenment and is not concerned with personal behavior or with ordinary morality. defending Deshimaru's teacher Sawaki roshi's wartime involvement dating from 1905 through WWII is available on the internet at, http://www.zen-azi.org/html/guerre_e.html#replybyb. But Shimano is hardly alone; his is not an isolated case. While this is obviously a general statement that demands further qualification, it serves to introduce some of the basic problems to be dealt with here. These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. 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. San Francisco is not mentioned in Newsom's plans, but Supervisor Dean Preston has proposed a similar action. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a group of his American students in 1962. My first reaction to the book was, "Why?" It could fairly be said that what is effectively transmitted by Dharma transmission is institutional authority, rather than religious wisdom. A senior member relates in Downing's book that Suzuki himself refused to hear criticism of Baker by other members of the Center because, as he said, " To his [Suzuki's] way of thinking, Dick's commitment was at another level, so the rest of us were not in a position to criticize him." This is not a new idea nor is it unique to Chan/Zen. Why did Baker perpetuate such a simplistic view of Suzuki? In 1987 SFZC started the Zen Hospice Project, a volunteer hospice program run out of a guest house on Page Street with five residential beds. Baker presided over it all like a feudal lord, hosting dinner parties with then-Gov. He was a very traditional Rinzai master: stern when he needed to be, very rarely encouraging. (It should be noted that Suzuki could read English.) Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over several days to meditate over the corpse. Others have told me that my view, informed by historical scholarship (as opposed to Zen's own fictional history), sociology, political and social analysis as well as long personal involvement, has been helpful in clarifying some of the illusion and in reducing some of the pain. Berkeley, March 17th, 2002. The number of practitioners at SFZC grew rapidly in the mid-sixties. The past generations are presented in a saintly and exalted manner, which adds to the prestige of the tradition as a whole, but most importantly, to the prestige of the last name on the lineage chart, the living teacher. In the 1960's and 70's, San Francisco Zen Center students, like most other Zen students in the U.S.A., thoroughly accepted (among a range of glaring historical inaccuracies) the idealistic Zen rhetoric, including the notion that Dharma transmission is only about spiritual attainment, that all roshis are essentially equal, and that Zen institutions in East Asia are apolitical and divorced from the state. 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). 4.5. More commonly it is bestowed or given by a teacher to some one with limited attainment in order to keep his lineage alive. On one visit he decided to take the revolver home with him. Perhaps the biggest change is that the two current co-abbotts are women. Was his lifestyle less than exemplary? And three of the four, Afable noted when we spoke, have caused major public sex scandals: first Maezumi, and more recently Shimano and Sasaki. 2015. "[36], SFZC is connected, in an unofficial capacity, to the following Zen Centers:[1], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}374626N 1222534W / 37.774009N 122.426075W / 37.774009; -122.426075. One student expressed it as, "some of the senior priests were in it for a payoff-Transmission," another stated it as, "They were ambitious, and only Richard could give it [transmission] to them, because he was the only one who had it." The film was directed by veteran filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and executive produced by physician, Shoshana R. Sokojifounded by Hosen Isobe in 1934had been housed in a former Jewish synagogue that is now Kokoro Assisted Living. One member suggested that the Shimanos instead be given an extended sabbatical. Institutional mythology, which created a seamless picture of unbroken lineage along with pure, desireless perfection and attainment housed in the body of the master, was not questioned, and hence, remained intact. [15], In the twenty-five years since leaving San Francisco Zen Center, Baker has continued his career as a Zen teacher, founding and developing two practice centers. [1] Zen Hospice Project was the subject of the Netflix 2018 Academy Award-nominated[24] short documentary End Game,[25] about terminally ill patients in a San Francisco hospital as well as at the Zen Hospice Project house, featuring the work of palliative care physician BJ Miller and other palliative care clinicians. 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. In Zen Buddhism, the story of Eido Shimanos abuse of power is so commonplace as to be banal, a clich. It was high. In some ways, it was an obvious choice. Steve Hagen. He was 67 years old. Branching Streams is a network of affiliate Dharma centers and Sanghas in the Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. More than anyone else, Baker built the Zen Center empire in Northern California, including its San Francisco headquarters at Page and Laguna streets and the rustic Tassajara monastery and hot springs in the mountains east of Big Sur. This was because Aitkin, being a foreigner, was forbidden by the new leader Kubota Roshi, from giving Dharma transmission, while Japanese of equal standing in the organization were permitted this privilege (p.451). Having wisdom, in the Zen view, is based on Dharma transmission, which implies that the person is an enlightened being. Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. [7], Baker received Dharma transmission from Suzuki in 1970,[2] and then was installed as abbot of San Francisco Zen Center during the "Mountain Seat Ceremony" on November 21, 1971. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. But for the [Zen Studies Society,] my gullibility, spiritual gullibilityI didnt realize that it was a borderline cult. 'S and Baker 's behavior that all was in order received shih from richard. 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