Surely others felt the same way, but only Schnyer and Kelly have been so bold or articulate, have made clear the amorality, and the misogyny, that can infect Zen practice and enable its malefactors. Its raison d'etre is to produce people who possess a fundamental insight into life, people who are not fooled by appearances or ideas. 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. is the head teacher at the Dharma Field Meditation and Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The conception of an unbroken lineage based on the idea of mind-to-mind transmission going back to the Buddha superceded a previous idea of authority that was based on texts, i.e., the sutras, which were understood to embody the words of the historical Buddha. I feel sorry for anybody who's bitter. 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. Not surprisingly, virtually 100% of the time these breaches of morality serve the pleasure and interests of the supposed enlightened one. "[33], In the 1980s Baker ordained Issan Dorsey as a priest. 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. Also available are practice sessions with SF Zen Center teachers. Baker claimed the Center was "denying 2,500 years of how Buddhism was developed and continued" He made a number of other historically inaccurate claims, and finally dropped the suit saying that he was pressured to institute the threat by a lawyer student of his: "There was a lawyer who kept bugging me." At times, senior disciples needed to reassure newcomers who questioned Baker's behavior that all was in order. The Zen Studies Society was marked by frequent turnover. I don't know for certain but Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind was published in 1970, only one year before Baker himself received Dharma transmission and the title, Zen master. This was especially true of people wanting to climb Zen Center's ladder to positions of authority, power, and prestige, which was totally dependent on Baker's sanction. 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 Yet for reasons known only to him he proceeded to make Baker his only American Dharma heir. Guests are . Foulk, T. Griffith, "The Zen Institute in Modern Japan", pp.157-177. (It should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) 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. 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. I am greatly indebted to the works of the following scholars, among others, whose [2][6][14], A once controversial figure, Richard Baker was publicly criticized for his behavior at San Francisco Zen Center. 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. Read any of these texts of Zen, The Book of Serenity, a Soto sect koan collection, being one prominent example, and this will be abundantly clear. Kwong's transmission was later completed by Suzuki's son, Hoitsu.[1][11][12]. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, shortly before his death in December 1971, gave him Dharma transmission in the Soto sect of Zen, thereby making Baker, for his students and for all future people in his lineage, an authentic link to the Buddha. Zen Groups Distressed by Accusations Against Teacher Joshu Sasaki in New Mexico in 2007. 4.5. Please consider a donation to San Francisco Zen Center. [21][22][23] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West. It is noted that after 1983 the study of sutras, Zen texts and history was instituted. "[16], On September 25, 1999 in Salem, Baker married Marie Louise, daughter of Maximilian, Margrave of Baden, and grandniece of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. In reality it means, "don't question, don't look!" 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. Also see, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, Trans.and Ed. So it is natural to ask, why did Suzuki's and Baker's students mention this so often? Baker himself was quick to remind his flock that he was the only American to receive Dharma transmission from Suzuki Roshi. Unfortunately, this issue is not raised or considered by any of the Zen Center members interviewed in the book. 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. Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki book review buy this book 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. . 1969 - The current SFZC building was purchased with the help of American students. This is not surprising if we remember that in Soto Zen "spiritual attainment" is rarely a criterion for Dharma transmission. 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.. Trouble At the San Francisco Zen Center It could fairly be said that what is effectively transmitted by Dharma transmission is institutional authority, rather than religious wisdom. [5] Baker was ordained a St priest by Suzuki in 1966 just before the opening of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. One justification sometimes heard, glib to my ear, is that enlightenment is not about morality. This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. 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. Baker also claimed that he was trying "to protect Suzuki Roshi's legacy and lineage." 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. In this scheme, each teacher can trace his lineage and hence, authenticity, back to the historical Buddha. See Alan Cole, "It's All in the Framing." Spiritual authority is that second kind of authority. In the end, both teacher and student fall prey to these fantasies. The deal I cut with him, Kelly told me, was that he stop sleeping with Western women and only sleep with Japanese women, because they dont tell.. Elizabeth is married to Jason Kibbey. He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979. 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. A theme repeated in Downing's interviews is Suzuki's seemingly quirky idea of reforming Soto Zen in Japan by having his American students go there as living examples of reform. [27][28][29][30], In March 1983 Baker was accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with the wife of an influential sangha member. I am also thankful to Mark Baldwin, Sandra Eisenstein, Simeon Gallu, Grace Luddy, Kevin Matthews, Bruce Rickenbacher and Marlene Swartz for many hours of discussion, helpful suggestions, and editorial assistance. But how real is this history? It has three practice places which offer daily meditation, regular monastic retreats and practice periods, classes, lectures and workshops throughout the Bay Area. Stuart Lachs, October 2002 Not only is the book a compelling read; it also, more importantly perhaps, provides raw data for observing Zen mythmaking in action. Practitioners are given the ultimate encouragement of knowing that real people "attained enlightenment" and therefore so can we. It was a spiritual scandal starring the usual suspects -- sex, money and the abuse of religious authority. 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. Introduction In the 1960s, four major Zen teachers came to the United States from Japan: Shunryu Suzuki, Taizan Maezumi, Joshu Sasaki, and Eido Shimano. Throughout the 1980s Greens, which obtained produce from Green Gulch Farm, was one of the most popular restaurants in San Francisco. 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. And stayed for 10 years.. Downing has offered an excellent example in Richard Baker and the SFZC. 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. "To sum up the situation, we have no sources at all from the T'ang which mentions or describe explicitly "Chan" institutions," p. 267. The Zen master is a role that stands as a representative of the entire Zen institution. 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? A vibrant community in an urban temple in the heart of San Francisco. Under Baker's leadership, it appears that the Center functioned as a dysfunctional family, denying that anything was wrong or problematic. It also spun off its business and stopped pretending that work without compensation was "spiritual practice.". 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. It was considered "real" because it came from the saintly Suzuki and Suzuki made a point of saying it was "real." In particular, Suzuki's San Francisco Zen Center lineage continues through his bureaucratic "transmission" to his son Hoitsu. I think this happened because Zen's teaching to avoid words and explanation was taken too literally and has fostered an unfortunate narrowing of perspective. It is fashionable among practitioners in the West to consider critical thought as "un-Zen." Berger begins, "Every human society is an enterprise of world-building. 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. By saying this, he was emphasizing his guarantee that the essence of the Zen lineage resides in Baker. 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. The Zen Institution This is a very interesting piece of "history" which is no doubt destined to be repeated. 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. The tension was alleviated when Suzuki's Western students began gathering for separate services, albeit still at Sokoji, in 1961. Stay connected. And as complete neophytes in Buddhism, they were apt to believe most anything a teacher said: The Americans had no competing knowledge, no critical faculties, no grounds to challenge the teacher, no fixed point on which to stand. A special note is given to the papers of Heine, Wright, Foulk, McRae, Welter, Schlutter, Michel Mohr and Ishii Shudo. 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. "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. 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. I took a course at Rochester, an overview of Eastern religion and Confucianism. It matters that we keep assenting to the stories. 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. 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. Ironically, one may ask, is that what Suzuki hoped to reform? Therefore, in the need to remain at the Center, members had a powerful incentive to fully buy into Zen's mythology. (See Foulk, "Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice," listed in the notes for a fuller discussion.) Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions by Robert H. Sharf The volunteer project's founding director was Frank Ostaseski, who served until 2004. Another error is seen in the statement that Yasutani roshi rescinded the Dharma transmission he gave to Philip Kapleau. 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. About. He was 67 years old. Former students have said that he was addicted to power, abusive of his position, extravagant in his personal spending, and inappropriate in his love life. "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. 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. 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). However Zen texts may define the role, Zen masters have not been fully enlightened beings beyond question. [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. 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. 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. Months later Suzukiwith the help of his American studentspurchased the current (and larger) City Center building, located on 300 Page Street. 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 counted the blow-ups, youd say just a few [women,] but we think he ran his life like a Japanese businessmanlots of affairs, but most of them discreet. This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. 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. 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. 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. While traveling back to school after a vacation, he stopped with a friend at Dai Bosatsuthe Zen Studies Society's monastery in the Catskillsand was impressed immediately. A gem! Until recently, the United States had very few natives who possessed that knowledge. Jerry Brown, poet Gary Snyder, Esalen founder Michael Murphy, author Ken Kesey and other leading lights of the Zen intelligentsia on the West Coast. 1962 - SFZC is founded by Shunryu Suzuki and his Western students. This article is not saying that there is no place for a Zen teacher. [10] The Residence combined residential rooms that could house 70 women on the upper floors, with public spaces for spiritual, recreational, and educational uses on the ground floor and basement. 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." Some Zen followers believe that Zen is only concerned with enlightenment and is not concerned with personal behavior or with ordinary morality. "The years people spent here were not wasted years of being duped. 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. Furthermore this creation has to be ongoing. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. 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. Members had not the slightest inkling that their view of Zen was controlled. ", Lachs, Stuart: Religion occupies a distinctive place in this enterprise." Public opinion shows that while parishioners are, of course, disturbed by priests' abuse of children and young teens, they are more upset by the institutional cover up and denial of that behavior. Baker then quotes Trudy Dixon, the editor of the book, thus endorsing her words: These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. San Francisco Zen Center 300 Page Street San Francisco, California 94102 www.sfzc.org. One of the greatest reasons that Shimano could sleep with so many women is that it bothered the men so little. In not clearly explaining the meaning, to his disciples at the SFZC, of his transmission to Baker, while stressing that it was "real;" Suzuki chose to perpetuate a fiction and to dishonor the trust they had given him. I finally asked Schnyer if he had said what Zournas attributed to him: He hasnt raped anyone yet, has he? Ungerleider.[26]. San Francisco Zen Center offers seven charming guest rooms for short-term stays. In this regard Mr. Suzuki's prestige grew enormously. This formulaic collection of qualities of a Zen master, is not neutral. With so many students and so much public attention, some felt Baker became less available to the members of the community. Was he perhaps not a fully realized person? 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. Guests stay at the Lindisfarne Guest House, a traditional Japanese building with a wood-burning stove as the heating source. I am thankful for Michael Downing's work, which is extremely valuable. "[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. I think that really helped to put everybody on their best behavior. Me and my friend always had suspicions he had ongoing relationships with Japanese women that were kept quiet, and were more or less continuous. But it always seemed as though the real story and the real scandal were about something else. Suzuki's arrival came at the tail end of the Beat movement and just prior to the social movements of the 1960s, both of which had major roots in San Francisco. They will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. 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. But there is another kind of authority, an opposite kind, grounded in the invisible, the faith-based, the fictional. Right now, Manhattans Zen Studies Society, perhaps the most prestigious Zen Buddhist center in the United States, is being torn apart by lawsuits, backstabbing, and infighting. This is very similar to the Japanese Soto Zen, with minor variances for social and cultural differences. The experience of legitimacy, realness and of being believable hides the underlying power relations. [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. Obedience, subservience, and discipline were well rewarded at a large institution like the San Francisco Zen Center, as Downing's book amply shows. The San Francisco Zen Center "scandal" was not unique in American Zen history. 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. 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. [32], These revelations led Baker to resign as abbot in 1984. Mark Oppenheimeris the author of three other books, includinga memoir of high school debateand atravelogue about crashing bar mitzvahs. San Francisco Zen Center's purpose is to make the teachings and practice of Soto Zen Buddhism widely available, to train teachers, and to help cultivate mindfulness and compassion in the world. The other was to establish Chan's primacy over the indigenous teachings of Confucianism and Taoism in the eyes of the state and the elite of society. This is not to imply that there is no value to be gained in the practice of Zen. People put their hearts into the practice and the Center, sometimes going as far as asserting that the Center represented the cutting edge of Zen in the America. Please see the Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page as well as the Calendar. City Center A vibrant community in an urban temple in the heart of San Francisco. In fifteen years, the Center's annual budget increased from $6,000, to $4 million. Before long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans mostly beatniks coming to the temple to sit zazen with him in the morning. Ironically, what follows is in many ways a religious text. Baker presided over it all like a feudal lord, hosting dinner parties with then-Gov. Richard Baker was born in Biddeford, Maine, on March 30, 1936, the son of Harold Baker and Elisabeth Dudley. Mark Oppenheimeris the author of three other books, includinga memoir of high school atravelogue... `` the Zen lineage resides in Baker the group to Jikoji in Gatos... View of Zen was controlled seen in the Framing. 's and Baker 's leadership, it appears the. 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