That's what we made of it." In the case of Zen, students usually come to the teacher with a set of preconceptions, acquired mostly through reading, about the fully attained Zen master as being virtually beyond their comprehension. Please see the Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page as well as the Calendar. How San Francisco Zen Center Operates After six months, he returned to his position. For more on the Soto Zen institution in Japan see Foulk, T. Griffith, "The Zen Institute in Modern Japan", pp.157-177, Zen, Tradition and Transition, Kenneth Kraft ed., NY, Grove Press, 1988. Ungerleider.[26]. 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." This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. My first reaction to the book was, "Why?" Another error is seen in the statement that Yasutani roshi rescinded the Dharma transmission he gave to Philip Kapleau. In particular, Berger, Peter,L. He exists freely in the fullness of his whole being. This happened almost 20 years ago and has been written about over the years by numerous insiders, outsiders and apologists of varying kinds. The idea of the enlightened Zen master authenticated through the ritual of dharma transmission and maintained by an unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha is at the heart of the Zen tradition. Downing, who lives in Cambridge, Mass., provides an outsider's view into the incestuous circles at the first Buddhist monastery in the West. 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. 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. An interesting debate between Victoria and members of the Deshimaru group (A.Z.I.) 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. 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. Steve Hagen. The deeper you go into practice, the deeper you find your teacher's mind is, until you finally realize that your mind and his mind are Buddha's mind. Mark Oppenheimeris the author of three other books, includinga memoir of high school debateand atravelogue about crashing bar mitzvahs. (It should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) Stuart Lachs, October 2002 And he was also just a guy, kind of like Bill Clinton was just a guy. Zen Center members accepted and internalized most all of Zen's self definitions, history and social forms. His American students accept this theme unquestioningly. Is it any wonder that the inevitable abuses that we have seen for the last thirty years should follow? 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. The results of this in terms of the quality of his life are extraordinary-buoyancy, vigor, straightforwardness, simplicity, humility, security, joyousness, uncanny perspicacity and unfathomable compassion. 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. 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. Introduction He was neither. [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. (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.) Desire, Devotion, and Excess at the San Francisco Zen Center. Spiritual authority is that second kind of authority. In one well-known collection, the famous Grand Master Yunmen is not recorded at all. Despite extraordinary personal shortcomings, Eido Shimano continued to wield spiritual authority throughout his time at the Zen Studies Society. Neither business is operative today. 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. They weren't so much about about money (Chapter 27, if that's your cup of tea). 3. Dharma transmission has been awarded and is still awarded for many reasons besides spiritual attainment. From the perspective of power and control, the political and the religious spheres overlap. It acquired property worth around $20 million and built up a network of affiliated businesses staffed by Zen Center students, which included the vegetarian Greens Restaurant in Fort Mason, a bakery, and a grocery store. Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. He may have slept with dozens; I personally have identified over a dozen, and spoken to many of them. 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. Despite the controversy connected with his resignation, Baker was instrumental in helping the San Francisco Zen Center to become one of the most successful Zen institutions in the United States. He was 67 years old. Was it all really such a big deal? Richard Baker is a man who through the ritual of Dharma transmission has been installed in the Soto Zen sect's "authentic" unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha. As is common among members of new religions, they viewed themselves as special. In 1966, Suzuki and Baker scouted Tassajara Hot Springs, located in Los Padres National Forest behind Big Sur, as a possible location for the envisioned monastic center. For an in-depth look at three special projects happening at SFZC, check out our new Impact Report. Green Gulch Farm ("Green Dragon Temple", or Soryuji), located in Sausalito, California in a valley on the Pacific Ocean, was acquired by SFZC in 1972. In this scheme, each teacher can trace his lineage and hence, authenticity, back to the historical Buddha. Foulk, T. Griffith, "The Zen Institute in Modern Japan", pp.157-177. Downing interviewed roughly eighty people, most of them Baker's students, approximately eighteen years after Baker was forced to resign. It also spun off its business and stopped pretending that work without compensation was "spiritual practice.". "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. 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. (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.) However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. A special note is given to the papers of Heine, Wright, Foulk, McRae, Welter, Schlutter, Michel Mohr and Ishii Shudo. [17], Last edited on 21 December 2022, at 18:50, Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States, "The Long Learning Curve: An Interview With Richard Baker Roshi", Zentatsu Richard Baker page on the Crestone Mountain Zen Center website, Richard Baker and the Myth of the Zen Roshi, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Baker_(Zen_teacher)&oldid=1128738434, This page was last edited on 21 December 2022, at 18:50. "It was a fantastic drive," he said, it was safe to drive and that he liked to keep his legs in zazen posture. More tellingly, Baker, inserted the very idealized description of qualities and characteristics supposedly of Suzuki Roshi, generalized to all roshi, knowing it would inevitably, indeed shortly, be applied to himself. The Zen Institution This article was excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,out now. Importantly, the head of every Soto temple must have Dharma transmission. 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. Zen Hospice Project also continues to train and coordinate volunteers who provide non sectarian, non-medical care to residents of the hospice and palliative care ward at Laguna Honda Hospital, a skilled nursing facility operated by the City and County of San Francisco. There is nothing in the description that allows someone in the future to distinguish Suzuki, Hoitsu or any of their heirs from any of thousands of hallowed ancestors. Foulk disagrees with this view. 1962 - SFZC is founded by Shunryu Suzuki and his Western students. Most people think of Zen as being iconoclastic, anti-authoritarian, simple, direct, and unattached. This is not a new idea nor is it unique to Chan/Zen. 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. 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. [6] Baker was instrumental in orchestrating the acquisition of Tassajara, raising $150,000 for the purchase in a short period of time. Audio recordings of familiar sounds heard at our temples. 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. Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over several days to meditate over the corpse. Jerry Brown, poet Gary Snyder, Esalen founder Michael Murphy, author Ken Kesey and other leading lights of the Zen intelligentsia on the West Coast. 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. An organic farm and garden in a beautiful coastal valley in Marin County, A monastery and retreat center in a remote mountain valley in the Ventana Wilderness. Suzuki surely knew that his fellow Japanese Soto roshi and priests would hardly accept Americans as examples for the reform of Zen, especially in Japan. A number of Downing's interviewees spoke of receiving the true or pure Zen teaching from Suzuki Roshi. Mission. We agree that the Constitutional Convention made law for all the people, and for all generations to come; we agree that the government will back up our money, if no longer with gold, then with its promises. Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions by Robert H. Sharf A theme repeated throughout Downing's book is Suzuki's injunction to "just sit," which means to do seated meditation. The meeting, which Zournas had hoped would mark the end of Shimanos tenure, turned out to be another show of support. As in any field, there is a need for experienced and knowledgeable teachers. San Francisco is not mentioned in Newsom's plans, but Supervisor Dean Preston has proposed a similar action. 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. 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. I suspect I probably said something like that, Schnyer said. 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 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. Yet, I have found that within the Zen community there is little self-examination about Zen as an institution and its self-definitions and what the effects of these are in the world of flesh and blood people. When Kelly grew frustrated with Shimanos womanizing, he made a proposition. Suzuki planned to give transmission to Bill Kwong but died before his completion. In the early 1990s the Board of Directors at the Zen Center created the "Ethical Principles and Procedures for Grievance and Reconciliation" for its members, for conflict resolution mediation guided by Buddhist precepts. Throughout the 1980s Greens, which obtained produce from Green Gulch Farm, was one of the most popular restaurants in San Francisco. At the same time, this supposed desireless image of the roshi is meant to invoke desire in us for him. 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. Introduction 2 Thank Kelly S . Furthermore this creation has to be ongoing. And that very presentation is the freight of the Zen machine. Explore hundreds of dharma talksby San Francisco Zen Center teachers, practice leaders, and speakers from the wider community. One was to make the state consider Chan the primary sect of Buddhism. It matters that we keep assenting to the stories. 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. Even though the bureaucratic "transmissions" in the Soto church have nothing to do with spiritual insight, the Soto institution does nothing to dissuade people thinking that there is a mind-to-mind connection between its "roshis" and the historical Buddha. 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. A good part of the goal of Buddhism is to reduce illusion and suffering. Richard Baker is an extremely bright and talented person and a born salesman. 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. "[33], In the 1980s Baker ordained Issan Dorsey as a priest. The Zen Institution 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. Was his lifestyle less than exemplary? Some of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions. [2] From 1968 to 1971, he traveled to Japan to practice at the primary St monasteries there, including Antaiji, Eiheiji, and Daitokuji. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. While jogging through Golden Gate Park, Anderson deviated from the path to urinate in some bushes. Also see the public letter from Mr. Kapleau toYamada, dated 2/17/86. This is a mythology of Zen, a pure fiction. 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. Religion occupies a distinctive place in this enterprise." 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. 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. 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Greens Restaurant, opened in 1979 in Fort Mason of San Francisco, was another business venture by SFZC under the influence of Baker. Sarasota, Florida. "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. Zen Center businesses embodied other Bay Area delights. Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. There is a wealth of contemporary exciting Zen scholarship available in English. 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. His first wife contracted tuberculosis and returned to her parents shortly after marriage; his second wife was brutally murdered by an erratic, antisocial monk whom Suzuki had retained as a temple assistant, despite contrary advise from neighbors and colleagues. Baker Sums It Up 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. Spiritual attainment, insight into timeless truth(s) or any other profound changes in one's inner life play virtually no part in the majority of these Dharma transmissions or in the every day functions of these roshis. Not surprisingly, virtually 100% of the time these breaches of morality serve the pleasure and interests of the supposed enlightened one. 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. 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. These recordings of zazen instruction feature a variety of teachers offering an introduction to meditation. 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. (See Foulk, "Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice," listed in the notes for a fuller discussion.) 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. [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 his letter, Zournas, who had resigned the presidency in July, details for the lawyers benefit how the various board members reacted to a motion that Shimano and his wife, then the organizations treasurer, be fired. 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. 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. 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. This article is not saying that there is no place for a Zen teacher. The Church hierarchy has displayed a consistent concern for protecting and maintaining the eminence of the abusive priests and the holiness of the institution of the Catholic Church, rather than concern for the children and teenagers trusted to their care. The student who enters the "practice" having read a myth will expect to find the myth, and will think they have found the myth. One of the greatest reasons that Shimano could sleep with so many women is that it bothered the men so little. 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. I highly recommend this book, especially the first 101 pages. 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? His focus on having the Center grow quickly and on reforming Soto Zen in Japan may also have contributed to the problems. 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. That Kapleau never received Dharma transmission was exposed in a public letter from Yamada roshi dated,1/16/86. Around 1970, he began sitting regularly with a group in Santa Cruz that went on to form the Santa Cruz Zen Center. Zen ascribes to Pai-chang (died 814) its earliest monastic code that supposedly set Chan apart as a separate sect in the Tang dynasty. Learn and Practice at San Francisco Zen Center, residential guest student practice opportunities, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. He attended Harvard University, where he studied architecture and history. 2015. This is not ancient history. 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.. They will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. This is very similar to the Japanese Soto Zen, with minor variances for social and cultural differences. I have found the work of the following social analysts to be especially illuminating: Peter L. Berger, Pierre Bourdieu, Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, David C. Korten, Thomas Lukach, Howard Zinn and Angela Zito. It was not mentioned in the interviews that Suzuki himself might be partially responsible for the ensuing trouble. The Zen master is a role that stands as a representative of the entire Zen institution. It is important to remember now that the interviews Downing conducted in 1998-2000 were long after the events at the SFZC took place. Foulk doubts that the Chan sect existed as a separate sect with its own monastic institutions during the Tang dynasty. What the teacher really offers the student is literally living proof that all this talk and the seemingly impossible goals can be realized in this lifetime. by Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, Oxford University Press, 2000. The senior members blindly and unquestioningly bought into Zen's mythology and Baker's transmission being above and beyond question. 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. Used with permission. 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. I hope this is the case with this paper. As noted in the paper, senior members consistently reassured newer members that all was well when they raised questions about Baker's activities. 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. There is a whole lineage built on the idea that Kapleau had transmission. 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