Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over several days to meditate over the corpse. 1967 also saw the arrival of Kobun Chino Otogawa of Eiheiji, who served as assistant to Suzuki. He attended Harvard University, where he studied architecture and history. It is mentioned often enough that Downing, interestingly calculates the hours that individual senior members had meditated. 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. 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. "[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. 145 41. Baker is the sole western heir of Suzuki Roshi, a Japanese Zen teacher who founded the SFZC and its mountain training center, Tassajara established in 1967. Nevertheless, following extensive investigation, even Chadwick was forced to admit: "Anything Shunryu had done that could be considered remotely antiwar he had done before the Pacific war started" (p. 97). Did it not occur to him that Richard had a family, too, as did many of the priests of Zen Center?" 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. There is a whole lineage built on the idea that Kapleau had transmission. In addition, as there are other practitioners around the teacher, it is helpful to be part of a community of fellow practitioners. In Zen Buddhism, the story of Eido Shimanos abuse of power is so commonplace as to be banal, a clich. I had a kind of insecurity and self-importance, which I didn't see for a long time, that was a bad dynamic in the community. Latest News. "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 experience of legitimacy, realness and of being believable hides the underlying power relations. 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. I assume that Downing would have included a broader view if he had heard it from any of the interviewees. 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 was married three times. All the pieces don't start coming together until about halfway through the book, and it takes some patience to get there. What I mean by the "Zen" institution, for the simple purpose of this conversation, is the organized set of structures that support the standard model of Zen. Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over several days to meditate over the corpse. Today SFZC is the largest St organization in the West. Without our assent to those stories, the country would not work. In Northern California, Zen chic peaked in the early 1980s, and its rise and fall has much to do with the stories of two lives -- another Japanese man named Suzuki and another Westerner with a brilliant mind and roving eye. The bakery was closed altogether in 1999. Jerry Brown, poet Gary Snyder, Esalen founder Michael Murphy, author Ken Kesey and other leading lights of the Zen intelligentsia on the West Coast. 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. (If the reader wants to argue that Dharma transmission in the Rinzai sect or in the modern Sanbokyodan sect so popular in the West matches the ideal of Zen rhetoric, please feel free to email me at my address listed in the Notes.) This formulaic collection of qualities of a Zen master, is not neutral. 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. is co-abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center. Zen Nationalism Revisited by Robert H. Sharf In this way the teacher was like a deity, a minor god. 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. This is not ancient history. 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. 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. This is very similar to the Japanese Soto Zen, with minor variances for social and cultural differences. It all came tumbling down in a 1983 event known in Zen Center circles as "the Apocalypse." It was a spiritual scandal starring the usual suspects -- sex, money and the abuse of religious. 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. 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. 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. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. Downing has offered an excellent example in Richard Baker and the SFZC. He writes, " The perfect disciplinary apparatus would make it possible for a single gaze to see everything constantly." He was not a sticky kind of emotional person. In the latter part of the book, Downing points out that the San Francisco Zen Center has beaucratized Dharma transmission so that in order to receive Dharma transmission a person must spend ten or twelve years going through the system. In time Suzuki, Baker, Hoitsu, and Unknown will blend into that "history" of immaculate patriarchs. [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. 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. Another error is seen in the statement that Yasutani roshi rescinded the Dharma transmission he gave to Philip Kapleau. This "history" has added weight because it is presented as biographical fact. Tassajara Bakery was a Zen Center venture promoted by Richard Baker as an extension of the baking practices at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. 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. 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. 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. Ironically, one may ask, is that what Suzuki hoped to reform? However Zen texts may define the role, Zen masters have not been fully enlightened beings beyond question. One member quoted Baker as saying, "I always act from pure motives; I never worry about the world." Downing quotes a prominent older student who expressed it differently, "Dick tried to take over Zen Center again." 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. 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. "If you scratch under the bitterness, there's a lot of beauty there," says Norman Fischer, abbott of the Zen Center from 1995 to 2000. From 1986 to 1988 he served as abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, and from 1988 to 1995 he served there as co-abbot with Sojun Mel Weitsman. 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. For an in-depth look at three special projects happening at SFZC, check out our new Impact Report. In this regard Mr. He writes a religion column forThe New York Timesand is on Twitter@markopp1. 1969 - The current SFZC building was purchased with the help of American students. 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. If the past is any indication these present teachers will be referred to as honored patriarchs in the future. The bakery supplied Greens Restaurant and some local grocers.[16]. I highly recommend this book, especially the first 101 pages. As long as it was understood that Baker was the only Dharma heir of Suzuki, it was exceedingly difficult for any one to question Baker's behavior and style. [5] Baker was ordained a St priest by Suzuki in 1966 just before the opening of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. He is now a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and in December 2012 I spoke with him by telephone. But in truth, neither Suzuki nor Baker fit the saintly mold. The situation is now reversing, as the Japanese, in particular, abandon Buddhism as an old relic, while it continues to find adherents in the West. 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. 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. [32], These revelations led Baker to resign as abbot in 1984. While leader of the SFZC, Baker's purchase of a new white BMW became a focal point for much of the anger and resentments that Zen Center members felt towards him. In short, the biographical approach to history seems to be used because it has intimate real-life immediacy. 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. 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. Why do we need to rehash this one again? Interestingly, Suzuki did not mention "spiritual attainment," but rather commitment. The current crisis in the Catholic Church proves the need for such an institutional analysis. Its waves of people who say, Im done with this, I got what I can out of it and then a new group comes in.. 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. Anybody who traveled to Japan, as many American Buddhists would, quickly learned that every monastery there had its own variations on the traditionas with any other religious practice, there is no one true form. Institutional power, authority, hierarchy and order are, hence, accomplished through self-censorship by the members, a more effective method for controlling dissent and questioning than coercion by the leaders. However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. Greens Restaurant, opened in 1979 in Fort Mason of San Francisco, was another business venture by SFZC under the influence of Baker. So it is natural to ask, why did Suzuki's and Baker's students mention this so often? 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. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. 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. Under the Zen form of legitimization, each Zen roshi is viewed as a saint. Cole, who teaches at Lewis and Clark College, also has two very provocative books soon to be published, one on the Mahayana sutras and the other on early Chan texts and the "birth" of Chinese Buddhas. On one visit he decided to take the revolver home with him. "[12] And Baker, for his part, is quoted as having said in a 1994 interview with Sugata Schneider: I don't think that the gossipy or official versions of what happened are right, but I feel definitely that if I were back in the situation again as the person I am now, it wouldn't have happened. These recordings of zazen instruction feature a variety of teachers offering an introduction to meditation. After the founding of Dharma Sangha in New Mexico, Baker met with William Irwin Thompson, the founder of the Lindisfarne Association. It was not mentioned in the interviews that Suzuki himself might be partially responsible for the ensuing trouble. How bad was Shimanos womanizing? I asked Schnyer. Katagiri would go on to establish his own practice centerthe Minnesota Zen Centerin 1972 in Minneapolis. 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). Zen Center Members What they really found is another story of flawed human behavior. These and any number of other questions, complaints, hurts or criticisms harbored by his disciples, were not raised. [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. In Downing's book we see that much illusion, suffering and pain has been part of Zen in San Francisco, a situation that, unfortunately, has been repeated in most every other part of America over a thirty-five year period. The admonition to "just sit," to "just practice," is one more way in which trust in one's discriminating faculties or any other Buddhist practice are cut off. From 1986 to 1988 he served as abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, and from 1988 to 1995 he served there as co-abbot with Sojun Mel Weitsman. Their sins are far worse than what goes on in Zen circles. More commonly it is bestowed or given by a teacher to some one with limited attainment in order to keep his lineage alive. For example, the San Francisco Zen Center, after a scandal involving Suzuki-roshi's dharma heir Richard Baker-roshi, decided to elect its two abbots to four-year terms. He occupies an authoritative place in East Asian cultures that have already been imbued with a special level of hierarchy since ancient times. Months later Suzukiwith the help of his American studentspurchased the current (and larger) City Center building, located on 300 Page Street. 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. [Note: This section offers background mostly not covered in Downing's book.] It is noted that after 1983 the study of sutras, Zen texts and history was instituted. Despite having only had 12 years in the United States, Suzuki had gone a long way toward establishing Soto Zen in America. At that time, Baker also became the official leader of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC). 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. We should be affirming that. by Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, Oxford University Press, 2000. The Board of Directors at SFZC also began election of leaders. 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. And the teachings in it. In fifteen years, the Center's annual budget increased from $6,000, to $4 million. This has a direct bearing on the Baker story and the way mythology continues to be constructed even in the present. The only one of the four whose reputation was unblemished, Shunryu Suzuki of the San Francisco Zen Center, gave his sangha over to a man named Richard Baker, who was later embroiled in a sex scandal of his own, resigned from his abbacy, and became the subject of a book with the appropriately suggestive title Shoes Outside the Door. Green Gulch An organic farm and garden in a beautiful coastal valley in Marin County Tassajara A monastery and retreat center in a remote mountain valley in the Ventana Wilderness Learn and Practice at San Francisco Zen Center SFZC Online 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. He found willing assenters, willing children eager to listen to his fairy tales. The monastery is closed to outsiders from the months of September through April, then opens to the public by reservation from May through August - offering retreats, seminars, and workshops. 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. 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. 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 is hagiography, which is necessary for Chan's self-legitimating claims of mind-to-mind transmission and unbroken lineage. The Zen Buddhist Who Preyed on His Upper East Side Students, The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,. Audio recordings of familiar sounds heard at our temples. In fact, Kapleau never received Dharma transmission in the first place, so there was nothing to rescind. #28 of 84 Specialty lodging in San Francisco. Anderson succeeded him as abbot, and later co-abbot. [6] Baker also penned the introduction to Suzuki's famous book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. He also grabbed the land for Green Gulch farm and retreat center, located in a spectacular valley near Muir Beach. This scheme was later institutionalized through the ritual of Dharma transmission. There is a wealth of contemporary exciting Zen scholarship available in English. Mission. 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. The same myth was later used in Japan for similar purposes, with Shintoism being the competing indigenous teaching. 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. Over the past 10 years, San Francisco Zen Center has devoted time and energy to studying the best practices around conflict resolution, difficult conversations, sexual harassment prevention, appropriate teacher/student boundaries, giving and receiving feedback, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, working with trauma, and Right Use of Power trainings. 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. 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. The suit cost the SFZC $35,000 to $40,000 in legal fees at a time when it was under financial pressure. With this investment it is understandable that one might not want to question too closely the teacher's behavior. His American students accept this theme unquestioningly. He convinced the American Zen community that he was, in effect, the Second Coming of Suzukibut even better, because he was here to stay. 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. 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. Excellent. 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. Baker then quotes Trudy Dixon, the editor of the book, thus endorsing her words: 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. 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. It was considered "real" because it came from the saintly Suzuki and Suzuki made a point of saying it was "real." 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. A full overview of what is open can be found here. Under Baker's leadership, it appears that the Center functioned as a dysfunctional family, denying that anything was wrong or problematic. In the 1960s, four major Zen teachers came to the United States from Japan: Shunryu Suzuki, Taizan Maezumi, Joshu Sasaki, and Eido Shimano. It was a spiritual scandal starring the usual suspects -- sex, money and the abuse of religious authority. Foulk gives translations of two versions of the text, side by side and analyses their internal structure and contents. Foulk disagrees with this view. Supporting tools to make this narrative seem real and unconstructed include the particular methods of meditation and interactions between teacher and student as well as an abundance of validating mythologies most often presented as history in the form of biography, along with accommodating literary and ritual devices. In the end, both teacher and student fall prey to these fantasies. For example, Afable might have added that at Chobo-ji, a Zen temple in Seattle, Genki Takabayashi made passes at his female students. This article was excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,out now. Desire, Devotion, and Excess at the San Francisco Zen Center. Branching Streams is a network of affiliate Dharma centers and Sanghas in the Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. 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. 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. But that is the way that Suzuki or Baker or any roshi is presented. Institutional and personal motives played an important part in the composing of Buddhist biographical collections; this was especially so in earl Chan lineage texts. And three of the four, Afable noted when we spoke, have caused major public sex scandals: first Maezumi, and more recently Shimano and Sasaki. Spiritual authority is that second kind of authority. 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. Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki: this link will take you to the website buy this book now When Katagiri left, Tenshin Reb Anderson assumed Abbotship of the Zen Centerserving until 1995. They have a daughter, Sofia Baker, born on March 1, 2001, in Alamosa, Colorado. 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. 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. Had he misused confidences given to him in dokusan (a private meeting between teacher and student pertaining to the student's practice, an extremely important element in Zen training) for self-serving reasons? The San Francisco Zen Center community includes residents and non-residents at all three centers, priests and lay practitioners, long-term and short-term participants, and opportunities to attend a wide variety of events and programs. 4.5. Zen Groups Distressed by Accusations Against Teacher Joshu Sasaki in New Mexico in 2007. 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 Reviewed December 27, 2012 . 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Indigenous teaching his fairy tales Baker, Hoitsu, and it takes some patience to get there Zen, minor... `` spiritual attainment, '' but rather commitment is now a professor psychology! And analyses their internal structure and contents, Suzuki had gone a long way toward Soto., Hoitsu, and Unknown will blend into that `` history '' has added weight because is.