Though these themes are mentioned a number of times by students, it seems curious that in Downing's interviews, no one ever questioned what this meant, no one mentioned what Suzuki meant, why Baker's transmission was supposedly real or if Suzuki or Baker ever explained the difference between "real" and unreal transmissions. 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. For an earlier view of the immediate events surrounding Baker, see Butler, Katy, "Events Are The Teachers", The CoEvolution Quarterly, winter 1983, pp.112-123. 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. All trouble at the Center was internalized and personalized by its members. In the end, Baker's problems at the Zen Center weren't so much about his seven or eight sexual affairs over a 20-year span (Chapter 23, if you get impatient). He also grabbed the land for Green Gulch farm and retreat center, located in a spectacular valley near Muir Beach. I finished high school early, and at 17 I went to college, Schnyer said. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. Mind-to-mind transmission implies that the student has attained an understanding equal to his Zen master/roshi and so on backwards, hence being equal to the original, unmediated wordless understanding that supposedly passed between Sakyamuni and Mahakasyapa. Baker then moved to Crestone, Colorado and Germany to found other practice sites for Dharma Sangha. The finances are terrible, and the beautiful carriage house on East 67th Street may have to be sold to pay legal debtsor, if he wins the lawsuit, to pay damages to Eido Shimano, the 82-year-old Zen master who built the society up but also, in a way, has destroyed it. Importantly, teachers can inspire followers by setting a living example through interactions with their students and others and, with the conduct of their own life, demonstrate that Zen practice can make one a wiser and more compassionate human being. The center received significant media coverage concerning the 1984 resignation of then abbot Zentatsu Richard Baker, who was ousted after it was alleged that he had been having an affair with the wife of a prominent Zen Center member. 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. "Hollow" transmissions such as those between father and son are incorporated into the unbroken lineage to the Buddha. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. I remember many heated arguments, he told me, and no doubt one of my many arguments was: this is personal behavior, not illegal behavior., Denis Kelly, a former Dai Bosatsu vice abbot, and himself no model of sexual continencehe too has had affairs, he told me, including one that almost broke up his current sanghashared Schnyers understanding of the proper hierarchical relationship between the Zen master and his female students. It is a sanitized description wherein any one roshi is replaceable by any other roshi, which is really no person at all. "The years people spent here were not wasted years of being duped. It simply means that a power structure has evolved that will perpetuate itself even if it means imputing "attainment" to people who don't really have it. That Kapleau never received Dharma transmission was exposed in a public letter from Yamada roshi dated,1/16/86. It all came tumbling down in a 1983 event known in Zen Center circles as "the Apocalypse." Soon these Westerners participated in regular services, and new non-Asian students came to outnumber the Japanese-American congregation. 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. As in any field, there is a need for experienced and knowledgeable teachers. Trust me." One justification sometimes heard, glib to my ear, is that enlightenment is not about morality. I dont know, he said. And he found them quite easily, because Westerners practicing Zen have an almost infantile relationship to what they perceive to be the authentic, Oriental father. I feel sorry for anybody who's bitter. Me and my friend always had suspicions he had ongoing relationships with Japanese women that were kept quiet, and were more or less continuous. It was a spiritual scandal starring the usual suspects -- sex, money and the abuse of religious authority. This is hagiography, which is necessary for Chan's self-legitimating claims of mind-to-mind transmission and unbroken lineage. Unfortunately, the Western Zen community has not explored the many important questions implied by Zen At War. In short, the biographical approach to history seems to be used because it has intimate real-life immediacy. This scheme was later institutionalized through the ritual of Dharma transmission. 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. [2] From 1968 to 1971, he traveled to Japan to practice at the primary St monasteries there, including Antaiji, Eiheiji, and Daitokuji. He was 67 years old. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. Analysis or active use of "the discriminating mind" is frowned upon, or worse, it is viewed as a sign of having too large an ego. 1967 also saw the arrival of Kobun Chino Otogawa of Eiheiji, who served as assistant to Suzuki. Was Baker's commitment to Zen practice much greater than a number of other of Suzuki's close, very committed senior disciples? ---Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878) But for the [Zen Studies Society,] my gullibility, spiritual gullibilityI didnt realize that it was a borderline cult. And that very presentation is the freight of the Zen machine. This necessitates the production of virtual quotas of such highly exalted people, while in the realm of "spiritual attainment" it is rare to produce just one such person. We did something great. 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. But Downing does approach the story with an open mind, and doesn't fall into the trap of trying to portray Baker as a monster or a saint. [6], San Francisco Zen Center expanded quickly with Baker at the helm. Learn about the latest news from affiliate sanghas with Tova's newsettes and other timely articles. 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. San Francisco Zen Center 300 Page Street San Francisco, California 94102 www.sfzc.org. It is this idealized version of Dharma transmission that claims the master is an enlightened being that is the source of the Zen master's extraordinary claim to authority. With this view in place, the entire spectrum of permissible thought is now caught and limited within Zen's mythological presentation, which was a completed creation by the eleventh century in China. So it is natural to ask, why did Suzuki's and Baker's students mention this so often? If the past is any indication these present teachers will be referred to as honored patriarchs in the future. 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. Zen Mind? He does not sit zazen and only chants when he has a service to do for someone." He convinced the American Zen community that he was, in effect, the Second Coming of Suzukibut even better, because he was here to stay. Used with permission. Eighteen years later, there is still lingering bitterness about his overthrow. Guests are . Yet we all know that no human is like this. In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shih from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir (though Baker disputes this). 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. In the past we had a lot of crisesin San Francisco and Los Angeleswith sex scandals and so forth. If this was the case, it would seem that he failed this task in America. Some of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions. I dont remember saying that., Schnyer maintains a tidy understanding of his personal Zen galaxy, in which Shimano is the sun, hot and dangerous but necessary. That's what we made of it." It was not mentioned in the interviews that Suzuki himself might be partially responsible for the ensuing trouble. "[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. Zen priest Mel Weitsman served with Anderson as a co-abbot during the remainder of his term, and the tradition of two sitting Abbots continued for the next few decades. With this investment it is understandable that one might not want to question too closely the teacher's behavior. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. This "non-person" i.e., a roshi, is a generic person, who supposedly is a real member of the Buddha's family, the holder of absolute truth, whose function besides producing an heir to keep the lineage alive, is to wield authority: to be listened to, obeyed and bowed down to. 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Tenshin Reb Anderson-roshi, former abbot of City Zen Center, is senior Dharma teacher at Green Gulchtraining priests and laypeople, leading sesshins, giving talks and conducting workshops while also living onsite. This relationship between the public and private was easily translated to the needs of the San Francisco Zen Center, with meditation halls and public spaces on the lower levels, and residential areas for practicing students on the upper floors. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. The bakery supplied Greens Restaurant and some local grocers.[16]. 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. It allows bureaucratic transmission, but it also uses "historical" biographies of eminent masters presented as desireless beings, the koans, and the many Zen stories and dialogues (mondo) to legitimize and to enhance authority, that make clear that transmission is given because of a deep insight into reality or spiritual attainment. Please keep it in mind. Institutional and personal motives played an important part in the composing of Buddhist biographical collections; this was especially so in earl Chan lineage texts. On May 23, 1959, Shunryu Suzuki (then age 55) came from Japan to San Francisco to serve as head priest of Sokojia Soto Zen temple then located at 1881 Bush Street in Japantown. 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." Latest News. 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. Any genuine interpretation or questioning of the meaning of Dharma transmission, lineage, the Zen roshi, their place in the institution, their accountability, and so on is made to seem absurd. Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki book review buy this book We see in Downing's book that it is precisely the idealized notion of Dharma transmission that pre-empted anything that Zen Center members saw for themselves when viewing Baker, their Dharma-transmitted leader, at least prior to the rupture in 1983. In the wake of Baker's resignation, SFZC transitioned to a democratically elected leadership model, until in 2010 there was a new introduction of a predesignated slated of board members. Mission. 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. For a view from the political perspective that has application in the religious arena see Edwards, David, "A Chest of Tools for Intellectual Self-Defense" in Burning All Illusions, South End Press, pp.177-224. As is common among members of new religions, they viewed themselves as special. He was doing what Japanese roshis are supposed to do, what they have done for centuries. Baker's case took place within a certain context, and to understand what happened it is helpful to look not only at Baker, but also at Zen institutional self-definitions and the patterns of social life they have engendered in the United States. "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." The Examiner reports that Preston has wants to use the mostly vacant 555 Fulton as . He was joined by his wife Mitsu (also from Japan) in 1961. One of the earliest texts extant is "Regulations of the Chan Approach" (Ch'an men Kuei-shih, which cannot be dated earlier than 988) that some scholars think was the preface to Pai-chang's Rules. He writes, " The perfect disciplinary apparatus would make it possible for a single gaze to see everything constantly." "To sum up the situation, we have no sources at all from the T'ang which mentions or describe explicitly "Chan" institutions," p. 267. This was likely prompted by a conversation between Robert Baker Aitken and Baker at San Francisco Zen Center concerning the question of Zen's availability to interested gays, for Dorsey went on to become abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center. 837 501. [2], In the late-1980s Baker also gave shiho to Issan Dorsey, whom he had ordained as a priest in 1975. He attended Harvard University, where he studied architecture and history. Even newer students, who come to Zen Center and find out about these incidents, are sometimes confused and question whether I can be their teacher. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. He exists freely in the fullness of his whole being. 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. Importantly, the head of every Soto temple must have Dharma transmission. 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. 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. 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. . Explore hundreds of dharma talksby San Francisco Zen Center teachers, practice leaders, and speakers from the wider community. Examining the work of any of the above-mentioned scholars will greatly reward the interested reader who would like to explore contemporary Zen/Buddhist scholarship. Without anything said or done, just the impact of meeting a personality so developed can be enough to change another's whole way of life. By this time there had also been an abundance of scholarly writing and empirical evidence exposing much of the mythology surrounding Zen. [2] As the American Dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, Baker assumed abbotship of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) shortly before Suzuki's death in 1971. Michel Foucault in "The Means of Correct Training" in Discipline and Punish, Trans. They should take credit for the fact that we did it for many years. 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. Tassajara baked bread for student and guest consumption since 1967, and Edward Espe Brown's Tassajara Bread Book, demonstrated consumer interest. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a group of his American students in 1962. "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. Reviewed December 27, 2012 . 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. Downing interviewed roughly eighty people, most of them Baker's students, approximately eighteen years after Baker was forced to resign. We should be affirming that. Not what the holy man is but what he signifies in the eyes of those who are not holy gives him his world- historical value. Downing has offered an excellent example in Richard Baker and the SFZC. He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979. San Francisco from the 1960's into the 1980's was considered by many to be the freest city in America, especially when understanding "libre" as freedom from ideological constraints. In Zen Buddhism, the story of Eido Shimanos abuse of power is so commonplace as to be banal, a clich. Founded in 1972 by the San Francisco Zen Center and Zentatsu Richard Baker, the site is located on 115 acres (0.47 km 2) in a valley seventeen miles (27 km) north of San Francisco [1] and offers a variety of workshops and classes throughout the year. ", Lachs, Stuart: Zen Center businesses embodied other Bay Area delights. They believed their way of living and of practicing Zen was the best alternative available in America. 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?. This imputation of power and attainment has given one Zen roshi after another the power to abuse their position while remaining beyond reproach. A good place to begin to examine the scholarly view of early Chan history and development is Foulk, T. Griffith, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Ch'an Buddhism in, Religion and Society in T'ang and Sung China, Ed by Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory, University of Hawaii Press, 1993, pp147-205. 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. 22, no.3-4. They will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. 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. Why should we think that Suzuki chose Baker as his only American Dharma heir based on his level of "spiritual attainment?" Besides Suzuki's chosen heir Baker's questionable behavior, Downing reveals many of the senior people scrambling for positions of authority, power, money and perks. The senior members blindly and unquestioningly bought into Zen's mythology and Baker's transmission being above and beyond question. 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. This is not surprising, being, as it is, a natural result of the customs and environment created by the Zen institution. Shimanos Japanese ways suited Schnyer. He was what I needed. . It also spun off its business and stopped pretending that work without compensation was "spiritual practice.". "[33], In the 1980s Baker ordained Issan Dorsey as a priest. Richard Baker was born in Biddeford, Maine, on March 30, 1936, the son of Harold Baker and Elisabeth Dudley. Excellent. There are two kinds of authority. There is a saying, "It is difficult to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it." Tassajara Zen Mountain Center ("Zen Mind Temple" or Zenshinji) was the first Zen Buddhist monastery built in the United States, and the first in the world to allow co-ed practice. 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. Whose Zen? Downing, who lives in Cambridge, Mass., provides an outsider's view into the incestuous circles at the first Buddhist monastery in the West. Spiritual authority is that second kind of authority. The tension was alleviated when Suzuki's Western students began gathering for separate services, albeit still at Sokoji, in 1961. [10] 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.[11]. Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. Stay connected. Understandably, Suzuki may not have been able to read across the Japanese-American cultural divide and therefore not see the character flaws of Baker that were obvious to some of his unenlightened American students. I think that really helped to put everybody on their best behavior. When Katagiri left, Tenshin Reb Anderson assumed Abbotship of the Zen Centerserving until 1995. However, this supposed wisdom is beyond words, is not understood by the unenlightened who are then not qualified to judge or evaluate it, whether expressed in the words or in the behavior of the wise one. 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? Around 1970, he began sitting regularly with a group in Santa Cruz that went on to form the Santa Cruz Zen Center. Today SFZC is the largest St organization in the West. San Francisco Zen Center offers seven charming guest rooms for short-term stays. Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. 13 reviews of San Francisco Zen Center "This place is really awesome! Some former students say they were encouraged to believe that being groped by him was part of their. 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." This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center and its leader until his death in 1971, was an impressive person, sincerely loved by most all the Center's members. After a major fundraising effort led by Baker, Zen Center purchased the landwhich contained a rundown resort and mineral springs in 1967. At that time, Baker also became the official leader of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC). I have copies of these letters. [Note: This section offers background mostly not covered in Downing's book.] He was convincing not just because of his own facility with a story, but because he found Americans who were very receptive to that story. It seems that Zen's emphasis on wisdom, while giving compassion only lip service, is really about power. In one well-known collection, the famous Grand Master Yunmen is not recorded at all. It is clear that the senior members of Zen Center surrounding Baker were well-indoctrinated vessels of Zen ideology. But there is another kind of authority, an opposite kind, grounded in the invisible, the faith-based, the fictional. Original Dwelling Place by Robert Aitken book review by Robert Goss buy this book now Foulk, T. Griffith, "The Zen Institute in Modern Japan", pp.157-177. 1969 - The current SFZC building was purchased with the help of American students. It is available on the internet at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~buddhism/aar-bs/1999/lachs.htm (here you can also access the other papers from the panel on Ch'an ) or at http://www.darkzen.com/Articles/meansofauthorization.htm (one can also find other essays on Zen at this site). 3. This dissertation also asks whether the Chan sect existed at all as a separate and distinct sect in the Tang dynasty, the supposed "golden age of Chan"). San Francisco Zen Center students and other students throughout history were also one cause of the problem. 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