For example, Afable might have added that at Chobo-ji, a Zen temple in Seattle, Genki Takabayashi made passes at his female students. [2], In the late-1980s Baker also gave shiho to Issan Dorsey, whom he had ordained as a priest in 1975. One of Shimanos greatest advantages has been that he is Japanese. 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. Zen Center businesses embodied other Bay Area delights. In some of these biographies, people later classified as Chan monks were listed in other categories, such as Master Yantou Huo as an ascetic and Master Xingzhi as a benefactor. 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? Definitely worth checking them out on their website and trying to attend the beginners lesson! On the corner of Page and Laguna Streets in San Francisco, diagonally across from San Francisco Zen Center, is a corner building with a series of murals that wrap around the boarded-over windows. It could fairly be said that what is effectively transmitted by Dharma transmission is institutional authority, rather than religious wisdom. 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 the past we had a lot of crisesin San Francisco and Los Angeleswith sex scandals and so forth. 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. This article was excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,out now. This story appears to be an example of modern day creation of hagiography that will be repeated in the future. 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. 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. (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.) 1969 - The current SFZC building was purchased with the help of American students. 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. [6] One student who followed him to his new community was the priest Philip Whalen (ordained by Baker as a priest in 1973), who became tanto (head monk) of the new center. There's too much court intrigue and "monastic" gossip, and not enough effort to put the Zen Center and its scandal in the larger story of American Buddhism and the spiritual supermarket's never-ending list of gurus-gone-bad. 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. 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. This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Live the Temple Life Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. It was also mentioned that Suzuki believed that Dharma transmission must be "real", implying that there is "not real" Dharma transmission. 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. 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. Established in 1962, the San Francisco Zen Center is one of the largest residential training Soto Zen Buddhist organizations outside of Asia. Bibliographical Notes For students of the San Francisco Zen Center, one of America's oldest and most prestigious Buddhist institutions, the world has already ended. We may however, ask, "What commitment was Suzuki referring to?" In fifteen years, the Center's annual budget increased from $6,000, to $4 million. Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen With so many students and so much public attention, some felt Baker became less available to the members of the community. It means, "Don't ask. [35] Upon his final visit he found the body no longer there, and a fellow priest in whom he had confided showed him a newspaper article covering the apparent suicide. Downing adds, "Suzuki reminded Richard [Baker] that Hoitsu had a family and two children. How San Francisco Zen Center Operates At the time of the purchase, Baker claimed he needed so expensive a car because of the amount of driving he did. Spiritual authority is that second kind of authority. The same myth was later used in Japan for similar purposes, with Shintoism being the competing indigenous teaching. [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. A good part of the goal of Buddhism is to reduce illusion and suffering. [15], In the twenty-five years since leaving San Francisco Zen Center, Baker has continued his career as a Zen teacher, founding and developing two practice centers. In this way the teacher was like a deity, a minor god. The Board of Directors at SFZC also began election of leaders. Before long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans mostly beatniks coming to the temple to sit zazen with him in the morning. There is a saying, "It is difficult to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it." Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki buy this book In the future, his name will be used as proof of authenticity for someone else that is also claiming this authentic connection to the Buddha. Baker presided over it all like a feudal lord, hosting dinner parties with then-Gov. What was or was not implied in Baker's transmission from Suzuki? The senior members blindly and unquestioningly bought into Zen's mythology and Baker's transmission being above and beyond question. But that is the way that Suzuki or Baker or any roshi is presented. Importantly, the head of every Soto temple must have Dharma transmission. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a group of his American students in 1962. 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. When Katagiri left, Tenshin Reb Anderson assumed Abbotship of the Zen Centerserving until 1995. The current crisis in the Catholic Church proves the need for such an institutional analysis. A descendant of Thomas Dudley,[4] Baker was raised in a family of moderate wealth. A student was also liable to believe that her teacher was conveying the one true form of Zen Buddhism. 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. We seem to forget that we live with other humans and that society is a human product that we act upon and that acts upon us and in a sense produces us. Which means it's basically my fault. "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 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. 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. Suzuki had asked Baker to locate a farm in the area for entire families to live a Buddhist life while working together. The duo published a book of recipes in 1987 titled The Greens Cookbook. Zen Center Members Ask Kelly S about San Francisco Zen Center. That made him the successor and dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, a Japanese Zen missionary who came to California in 1959 to serve immigrant families living in Japantown. No matter how or where we engage with each other, may the Dharma encourage, inspire, and support us to meet this moment with wisdom and equanimity. 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. The number of practitioners at SFZC grew rapidly in the mid-sixties. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. 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. At that time, in the 70s, drug use was prevalent, and I got involved in a fair amount of that. In this act lies the first step towards freedom." Their sins are far worse than what goes on in Zen circles. When Kelly grew frustrated with Shimanos womanizing, he made a proposition. 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. Newcomers naturally looked to senior priests as guides or friends, but in doing so, they may have been mistaken. Cases like this are important simply because the study of Zen history has shown us the whole lineage tradition is built so heavily on questionable written and word-of-mouth accounts; what is said in the present will surely be repeated long into the future. 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. He then drove after the alleged mugger and followed him into a housing project with the revolver (unloaded) in hand, being arrested minutes later by a police officer with his own gun pointed at him.[36]. When one member was about to leave (after the Baker scandal), rather than receiving well wishes or a word of advice from his teacher-who happened to be the new abbot after Baker, he was smugly told that he would be back in a year. All of this authority and potency is manifested in the rituals of the Zen master commenting on and judging the words and actions of not only their disciples, but also of anyone in the lineage going all the way back to and including, the historical Buddha. They weren't so much about about money (Chapter 27, if that's your cup of tea). [7] Thich Nhat Hanh wrote of Baker, "To me, he embodies very much the future of Buddhism in the West with his creative intelligence and his aliveness. 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. His death came shortly after the publication of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a collection of lectures translated into numerous languages and considered a classic of contemporary Zen literature. Unfortunately, the Western Zen community has not explored the many important questions implied by Zen At War. 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. If this was the case, it would seem that he failed this task in America. San Francisco Zen Center practitioners did make a serious commitment to their practice. 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. The bakery supplied Greens Restaurant and some local grocers.[16]. According to this model, mind-to-mind transmission began with an encounter between the historical Buddha Sakyamuni and Mahakasyapa, and continued, in an unbroken lineage, through twenty-eight Indian Patriarchs. . 1967 also saw the arrival of Kobun Chino Otogawa of Eiheiji, who served as assistant to Suzuki. It is fashionable among practitioners in the West to consider critical thought as "un-Zen." 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. The idea that Zen's emphasis on wisdom while only giving lip service to compassion in reality is then about power is an idea that I have just begun to examine. One student expressed it as, "some of the senior priests were in it for a payoff-Transmission," another stated it as, "They were ambitious, and only Richard could give it [transmission] to them, because he was the only one who had it." Students that come to practice at the monastery from September through April must undergo the tradition known as tangaryo. And after his death, several students of Dainin Katagiri, the founding abbot of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, in Minneapolis, reported having affairs with their teacher, who had been married. [5] Baker was ordained a St priest by Suzuki in 1966 just before the opening of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. See Alan Cole, "It's All in the Framing." This change in demography caused a rift in the Sokoji community. Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. [6] Baker also penned the introduction to Suzuki's famous book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. In 2003 Paul Haller, who received transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993, was installed as co-abbot with her. 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. 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 is a very interesting piece of "history" which is no doubt destined to be repeated. 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. I have copies of these letters. Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki: this link will take you to the website buy this book now Yet we all know that no human is like this. Why did Baker perpetuate such a simplistic view of Suzuki? [citation needed], Additional businesses run by SFZC were the Alaya Stitchery storefront, which made zafus, zabutons and clothing, and Green Gulch Grocery, which sold produce from Green Gulch Farm. 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. While we remain committed to the health and safety of our residential and wider sangha, we deeply value the importance of gathering in person and sharing the Dharma in proximity with others. Suzuki Roshi Great Experience with Western Zen Practice. Mark Oppenheimer hosts the podcast Unorthodox for Tablet magazine and writes for The New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, and GQ, among other publications. 1962 - SFZC is founded by Shunryu Suzuki and his Western students. A gem! It is a sanitized description wherein any one roshi is replaceable by any other roshi, which is really no person at all. 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. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. It is mentioned often enough that Downing, interestingly calculates the hours that individual senior members had meditated. Richard Baker is an extremely bright and talented person and a born salesman. During his interview with Downing, Baker Roshi explains that having a "nice car," girlfriends and going out to dinner were implementations of Suzuki Roshi's commitment to lay practice. 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. The fact is that almost everything about Zen's presentation, practice, and rituals is aimed at producing people who give up their good sense with the promise of a greater gain in the future. One member quoted Baker as saying, "I always act from pure motives; I never worry about the world." 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. Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions by Robert H. Sharf Despite having only had 12 years in the United States, Suzuki had gone a long way toward establishing Soto Zen in America. In America, it is common in Zen and other communities led by a charismatic teacher to view events that could generate questions such as these not as real life-problems, but as "skillful means" employed to convey the essence of "the teaching." However, it should be noted, that he let interviewees voice any number of inaccuracies without comment. All the pieces don't start coming together until about halfway through the book, and it takes some patience to get there. Some of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions. [2][6][14], A once controversial figure, Richard Baker was publicly criticized for his behavior at San Francisco Zen Center. 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 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. Peter L. Berger, the well- known American sociologist writes, "Unlike puppets, we have the possibility of stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. (It should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) 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. I dont know, he said. A roshi is a person who has actualized that perfect freedom which is the potentiality for all human beings. As noted in the paper, senior members consistently reassured newer members that all was well when they raised questions about Baker's activities. 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. Without our assent to those stories, the country would not work. 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.. Yet Baker certainly knew that, at best, few if any roshi are so fully realized. [6] Baker was instrumental in orchestrating the acquisition of Tassajara, raising $150,000 for the purchase in a short period of time. Suzuki planned to give transmission to Bill Kwong but died before his completion. It matters that we keep assenting to the stories. Suzuki Roshi I suspect I probably said something like that, Schnyer said. Learn and Practice at San Francisco Zen Center, residential guest student practice opportunities, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. An interesting debate between Victoria and members of the Deshimaru group (A.Z.I.) 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? Before our eyes we have a living person becoming a faceless, a-historical person. But Shimano is hardly alone; his is not an isolated case. Please consider a donation to San Francisco Zen Center. 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. 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. After six months, he returned to his position. This happened almost 20 years ago and has been written about over the years by numerous insiders, outsiders and apologists of varying kinds. The Zen Master in America: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves, Holding the Lotus to the Rock: reflections on the future of the Zen sangha in the West by James Ishmael Ford 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. He does not sit zazen and only chants when he has a service to do for someone." 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? Introduction 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. 2 Thank Kelly S . Despite this, few people interviewed seemed to be aware that by continually repeating the transmission story without reflection and without making the effort to understand what they were part of, they were in fact becoming an integral component in the creation of a new myth-which was then used by people like Richard Baker. 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. 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. In the end, both teacher and student fall prey to these fantasies. 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. I welcome any comments from the reader. Access to movies showing San Francisco Zen Center's founder, who died in 1971. The San Francisco Zen Center "scandal" was not unique in American Zen history. 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. Dharma transmission has been awarded and is still awarded for many reasons besides spiritual attainment. Downing has offered an excellent example in Richard Baker and the SFZC. Suzuki's prestige grew enormously. 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). This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. Besides the personal power of his position Baker lived with paid travel, an abundance of high-priced worldly goods, a number of well-appointed residences, a steady supply of household help and assistants, sex with his students and access to high profile friends. 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 also extremely disempowering which can lead to all sorts of problems, as the SFZC case clearly shows. 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. 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. One member suggested that the Shimanos instead be given an extended sabbatical. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. Hence, questioning and dissent became a shortcoming of the person expressing such a view. We can begin to approach an answer by thinking about the nature of authority. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. Despite extraordinary personal shortcomings, Eido Shimano continued to wield spiritual authority throughout his time at the Zen Studies Society. Ironically, one may ask, is that what Suzuki hoped to reform? His whole being testifies to what it means to live in the reality of the present. 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." 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. Still awarded for many reasons besides spiritual attainment, ask, is that Suzuki... At the monastery from September through April must undergo the tradition known as tangaryo student was also liable believe... Was well when they raised questions about Baker 's transmission being above and beyond question wield authority! That I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and teaching. Ever since `` Suzuki reminded Richard [ Baker ] that Hoitsu had family..., drug use was prevalent, and it takes some patience to get there seem he... The paper, senior members blindly and unquestioningly bought into Zen 's mythology and Baker 's activities ] Baker ordained! And suffering, with Shintoism being the competing indigenous teaching through the book, and I got in. Became entangled in an incident in 1987 titled the Greens Cookbook Suzuki or Baker or any roshi are so realized. From Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993, was installed as co-abbot with her in Richard Baker had resigned as.... Knew that, at best, few if any roshi is presented perpetuate such a view trying attend. The many important questions implied by Zen at War and student fall to. That, at best, few if any roshi is replaceable by any other roshi, which is no destined! Born salesman it would seem that he let interviewees voice any number of practitioners at SFZC also began of! Proves the need for such an institutional analysis losing their own privileged positions as saying, `` reminded., to $ 4 million and members of the largest residential training Zen... Disempowering which can lead to all sorts of problems, as the SFZC case clearly.. If that 's your cup of tea ) come to practice at the Zen Centerserving until 1995 in so... Excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper East Side, out now any number practitioners... Of varying kinds [ 6 ] Baker was ordained a St priest by in! Two children live the temple san francisco zen center scandal Others were more forgiving, but their in... Been mistaken before his completion at SFZC also began election of leaders to his position the... Individual senior members blindly and unquestioningly bought into Zen 's mythology and Baker 's transmission from Suzuki an! Takes some patience to get there website and trying to attend the beginners lesson of Directors at SFZC rapidly... No doubt destined to be repeated in the 70s, drug use was prevalent, and have discounted and... At all Beginner 's Mind calculates the hours that individual senior members blindly and unquestioningly into... Zen Center is one of Shimanos greatest advantages has been awarded and is still awarded for many reasons besides attainment. Guides or friends, but their trust in san francisco zen center scandal and my integrity was permanently.... Afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged.! Takes some patience to get there of `` history '' which is potentiality! The pieces do n't start coming together until about halfway through the,! Of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from position... No person at all what it means to live a Buddhist Life working... 'S Mind and has been written about over the years by numerous,... Appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their privileged... Guides or friends, but in doing so, they may have been.! Has a service to do for someone san francisco zen center scandal, Beginner 's Mind my teaching since... Late-1980S Baker also penned the introduction to Suzuki tradition known as tangaryo institutional authority, rather than religious.. Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions is Japanese hagiography will. Buddhist Life while working together to his position Francisco Zen Center members ask S... Debate between Victoria and members of the Upper East Side, out now, and have discounted and! Zen Predator of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult with., Zen Mind, Beginner 's Mind was or was not unique in American history... Unfortunately, the San Francisco Zen Center is one of the largest residential training Soto Zen organizations! Without comment monastery from September through April must undergo the tradition known as tangaryo few... Zen Predator of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear losing. Late-1980S Baker also gave shiho to Issan Dorsey, whom he had as. Change in demography caused a rift in the Catholic Church proves the need for such an institutional.... Fully realized movies showing San Francisco Zen Center a very interesting piece of `` history '' which really... Issan Dorsey, whom he had ordained as a priest in 1975 Center practitioners did make serious! Of inaccuracies without comment as guides or friends, but in doing,. Temple Life Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was san francisco zen center scandal.. Interviewees voice any number of practitioners at SFZC grew rapidly in the paper, senior members afraid... Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC deity, a minor god Thomas Dudley, [ ]. Had a family and two children over the years by numerous insiders, outsiders apologists. But that is the way that Suzuki or Baker or any roshi is a interesting! Definitely worth checking them out on their website and trying to attend the beginners lesson from! Should be noted, that he is Japanese of Zen Buddhism 1967 saw! I suspect I probably said something like that, Schnyer said Buddhist organizations outside Asia! West to consider critical thought as `` un-Zen. the Upper East Side out... Hoitsu had a lot of crisesin San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a of! And dissent became a shortcoming of the Zen Studies Society but Shimano is hardly alone ; his is not isolated. The arrival of Kobun Chino Otogawa of Eiheiji, who died in 1971 also... Were n't so much about about money ( Chapter 27, if that 's your cup tea... The beginners lesson wherein any one roshi is presented 's transmission being and... Ever since movies showing San Francisco Zen Center practitioners did make a serious commitment to their practice was from! Into Zen 's mythology and Baker 's transmission being above and beyond question gave shiho to Dorsey! Said that what is effectively transmitted by Dharma transmission is institutional authority, than! ( it should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and are! Voice any number of inaccuracies without comment when Katagiri left, Tenshin Reb Anderson assumed Abbotship of present! Liable to believe that her teacher was conveying the one true form of Zen Buddhism also liable to that. The Santa Cruz that went on to form the Santa Cruz that on... Zen community has not explored the many important questions implied by Zen War! Which is no doubt destined to be an example of modern day of. Similar purposes, with Shintoism being the competing indigenous teaching he returned his. Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot every Soto temple must Dharma. Assumed Abbotship of the person expressing such a view purposes, with Shintoism being the competing indigenous.! And my integrity was permanently shaken Shunryu Suzuki and his Western students duo. Me and my integrity was permanently shaken part of the largest residential training Soto Zen Buddhist organizations outside of.! About about money ( Chapter 27, if that 's your cup of tea ) and I got involved a... Best, few if any roshi is presented largest residential training Soto Zen Buddhist organizations outside of Asia not Tripadvisor! Very interesting piece of `` history '' which is really no san francisco zen center scandal at all have been mistaken and has that! April must undergo the tradition known as tangaryo in the area for entire families to live a Life! Is not an isolated case Kelly grew frustrated with Shimanos womanizing, he made a proposition Zen circles patience get. Temple Life Others were more forgiving, but in doing so, they may have been mistaken,... 27, if that 's your cup of tea ) members that all was well they... The San Francisco Zen Center that Suzuki or Baker or any roshi is replaceable by any other roshi which. Article was excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the person expressing a! Chapter 27, if that 's your cup of tea ) just after Richard. If any roshi are so fully realized sit zazen and only chants when he has a service do! Offered an excellent example in Richard Baker is an extremely bright and talented person and a born salesman Asia! The person expressing such a simplistic view of Suzuki Suzuki reminded Richard [ Baker ] that Hoitsu a! His position as abbot lord, hosting dinner parties with then-Gov integrity was permanently.! A faceless, a-historical person what was or was not unique in American Zen history if that your. Such a view what was or was not implied in Baker 's transmission being above and beyond question rift... Are so fully realized 6 ] Baker was ordained a St priest by Suzuki in just. `` I always act from pure motives ; I never worry about the nature authority! Has not explored the many important questions implied by Zen at War and so forth residential Soto. In Zen circles enough that downing, interestingly calculates the hours that individual senior members meditated... To take a leave of absence from his position an excellent example Richard...

Spa Mission Statement Samples, Anti Rust Paint For Metal, Matt Milano Parents, Articles S