Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen In this sect, Dharma transmission is commonly a father-son transmission ritual culminating in the son's inheritance of the family temple. A gem! (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.) 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. 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. One justification sometimes heard, glib to my ear, is that enlightenment is not about morality. The San Francisco Zen Center "scandal" was not unique in American Zen history. 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. He exists freely in the fullness of his whole being. The Zen Institution Steve Hagen. Remember the senior student who quoted Suzuki as saying, " Dick's commitment is at another level, so the rest of us simply were not in a position to criticize him." If the past is any indication these present teachers will be referred to as honored patriarchs in the future. Live the Temple Life Maezumi, affiliated with another West Coast zendo, the Zen Center of Los Angeles, was a philanderer and an alcoholic, as the scholar Dale S. Wright has detailed at length. 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. There are also accounts of people receiving transmission from masters who were dead by the time the supposed transmission took place. Also see his forthcoming book on early Chan texts for a unique dissection of early lineage claims and their supporting texts . He was perfect for me, Schnyer said. 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. 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. The bakery was closed altogether in 1999. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. 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. It was high. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Great Experience with Western Zen Practice. Baker also claimed that he was trying "to protect Suzuki Roshi's legacy and lineage." 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. Downing adds, "Suzuki reminded Richard [Baker] that Hoitsu had a family and two children. One of the most interesting aspects of the Baker case is that the people at the SFZC did not change their fundamental understanding of the process they had gone through for, in some cases, twenty or more years. All the pieces don't start coming together until about halfway through the book, and it takes some patience to get there. The number of practitioners at SFZC grew rapidly in the mid-sixties. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. A special note is given to the papers of Heine, Wright, Foulk, McRae, Welter, Schlutter, Michel Mohr and Ishii Shudo. The Zen master is a role that stands as a representative of the entire Zen institution. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. If you're looking for some information that's important to you (such as research for work or learning how to manage your money), then the advice here is to first write down the relevant keywords on a piece of paper to figure out exactly what you want, which will be a lot more efficient. I hope this is the case with this paper. Excellent. Below is the information about san francisco zen center scandal . 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. Under Baker's leadership, it appears that the Center functioned as a dysfunctional family, denying that anything was wrong or problematic. "[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. Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. So it is natural to ask, why did Suzuki's and Baker's students mention this so often? 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? In fifteen years, the Center's annual budget increased from $6,000, to $4 million. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. 2015. [31] The community's sense of crisis sharpened when the woman's husband, one of SFZC's primary benefactors, threatened to hold the organization legally responsible for its abbot's apparent misconduct. "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. In fact, David Chadwick, a student of both Suzuki and Baker, lent some credence to this assertion in his 1999 book about Suzuki, Crooked Cucumber. [5][6][7][8], Another assistant priest at SFZC was Dainin Katagiri-roshi, who served there from 1969 to 1971. The social contract and national constitutions count because we believe them to count, because we will them into reality. A theme repeated throughout Downing's book is Suzuki's injunction to "just sit," which means to do seated meditation. 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. I have been involved with Zen in America for over thirty years during which time there have been many upheavals and problems, some similar to the Baker case described in Michael Downing's, Shoes Outside The Door, others more subtle and less obvious in nature. Whose Zen? 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. I assume that Downing would have included a broader view if he had heard it from any of the interviewees. 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. 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. But Shimano is hardly alone; his is not an isolated case. [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 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shih from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir (though Baker disputes this). His focus on having the Center grow quickly and on reforming Soto Zen in Japan may also have contributed to the problems. One member suggested that the Shimanos instead be given an extended sabbatical. Reviewed December 27, 2012 . [Note: This section offers background mostly not covered in Downing's book.] When it came to Baker's transmission from Suzuki, virtually all the students interviewed by Downing assumed that it was a "real" transmission. If Suzuki was California's Zen messiah, then Richard Baker was his Apostle Paul. Zen Mind? Berger begins, "Every human society is an enterprise of world-building. I think that really helped to put everybody on their best behavior. Foulk doubts that the Chan sect existed as a separate sect with its own monastic institutions during the Tang dynasty. By saying this, he was emphasizing his guarantee that the essence of the Zen lineage resides in Baker. 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.. 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. Access SFZC Online wherever you are, anytime. He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979. Richard Baker also survived. Baker Sums It Up Suzuki Roshi This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. The question is: How do so many Zen Buddhist teachers get away with it, and for so long? Bibliographical Notes It is clear from Downing's interviews that Zen Center members assumed that there was no ideology to be questioned, i.e., the unreliable history of Zen, the hagiographic picture of the lineage, along with its mythology of Dharma transmission, unbroken lineage, and enlightened Zen masters. For students of the San Francisco Zen Center, one of America's oldest and most prestigious Buddhist institutions, the world has already ended. Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki: this link will take you to the website buy this book now Under the Zen form of legitimization, each Zen roshi is viewed as a saint. If this was the case, it would seem that he failed this task in America. It is noted that after 1983 the study of sutras, Zen texts and history was instituted. Foulk disagrees with this view. Zen Center survived, reorganizing in a manner that made it more democratic, but also more bureaucratic. Stay connected. Neither business is operative today. So why did none of Baker's students, as expressed in their interviews with Downing, show any awareness that institutional self-definition encouraged their idealization of Baker, which allowed, perhaps even fostered, the occurrence of many of the alleged abuses? Baker wrote an introduction to Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, an edited collection of Suzuki's talks, in which Baker said (p.17), "During the Second World War he [Suzuki] was the leader of a pacifist group in Japan." 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?. 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. Sokojifounded by Hosen Isobe in 1934had been housed in a former Jewish synagogue that is now Kokoro Assisted Living. But Downing does approach the story with an open mind, and doesn't fall into the trap of trying to portray Baker as a monster or a saint. 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. 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. And the teachings in it. Soto temples in Japan often are a family business, handed down from father to son, as Suzuki himself had done with his son Hoitsu. Kwong's transmission was later completed by Suzuki's son, Hoitsu.[1][11][12]. My first reaction to the book was, "Why?" But for Schnyer this constantly refreshing membership was proof that the sangha did disapprove of Shimanos treatment of women. Soon these Westerners participated in regular services, and new non-Asian students came to outnumber the Japanese-American congregation. San Francisco Zen Center has begun to offer on-site meditation, Dharma talks, programs, classes, and other events. Introduction 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. 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). I dont know, he said. Please keep it in mind. 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. University of Michigan, 1987. It will not do for future generations if there are gaps in the line of saintly figures. 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. A descendant of Thomas Dudley,[4] Baker was raised in a family of moderate wealth. 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. 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. Also see the public letter from Mr. Kapleau toYamada, dated 2/17/86. 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. Please visit the Calendar page for more details or sign up for our weekly Sangha News email to receive notices of upcoming events. 1969 - The current SFZC building was purchased with the help of American students. Zen's highly ritualized activities added a visceral instantiation to the cognitive edifice. It should be kept in mind that the senior members, by 1982, were often over forty years old and had been practicing at Zen Center for fifteen or more years. Having wisdom, in the Zen view, is based on Dharma transmission, which implies that the person is an enlightened being. Yet we all know that no human is like this. Greens Restaurant, opened in 1979 in Fort Mason of San Francisco, was another business venture by SFZC under the influence of Baker. defending Deshimaru's teacher Sawaki roshi's wartime involvement dating from 1905 through WWII is available on the internet at, http://www.zen-azi.org/html/guerre_e.html#replybyb. This imputation of power and attainment has given one Zen roshi after another the power to abuse their position while remaining beyond reproach. 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. A roshi is a person who has actualized that perfect freedom which is the potentiality for all human beings. 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. He was what I needed. Shoes Outside The Door, p.289. Explore and learn more about the San Francisco Zen Center community. At times, senior disciples needed to reassure newcomers who questioned Baker's behavior that all was in order. Suzuki indeed had ordinary and even tragic circumstances in his life, as is shown in Downing's book, who references David Chadwick's book, Crooked Cucumber, for the following details. 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. Even when Dharma transmission does reflect some level of something we may call spiritual attainment, it is not based on the idealized version proffered by the Zen institution: a mystical meeting of minds between teacher and disciple sharing a timeless truth that unvaryingly matches the minds of all teachers going back in the lineage, through the six Chan Patriarchs in China, and the twenty eight generations of the supposed Indian lineage going back to the historical Buddha, and beyond. 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. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. 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. Suzuki Roshi It all came tumbling down in a 1983 event known in Zen Center circles as "the Apocalypse." 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. 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. 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. Spiritual authority is that second kind of authority. (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.) Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. But how real is this history? One student said that when the senior priests were questioned about some aspects of Baker's behavior, the answer was, "Richard has Transmission." 1967 also saw the arrival of Kobun Chino Otogawa of Eiheiji, who served as assistant to Suzuki. At the time of the purchase, Baker claimed he needed so expensive a car because of the amount of driving he did. Today, one could reasonably assert that of the 30 or 40 important Zen centers in the country, at least 10 have employed head teachers who have been accused of groping, propositioning, seducing, or otherwise exploiting students. They should take credit for the fact that we did it for many years. It is common talk around Zen Centers to hear that the Master can tell your state of mind just in hearing your footsteps in going to sanzen/dokusan, in simply seeing you in any activity, seeing you with a single glance, or in the most idealized version, "he just knows from a distance!" He was not a sticky kind of emotional person. If some one would like copies, please email me at: slachs@worldnet.att.net . [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. In addition, if there were something to reform in Japanese Soto Zen, the automatic Dharma transmission for virtually all priests, often between father and son, would be high on the list. This dissertation also asks whether the Chan sect existed at all as a separate and distinct sect in the Tang dynasty, the supposed "golden age of Chan"). One student stated it as, "The one thing that seemed unquestionable was Richard's Transmission." 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. As noted in the paper, senior members consistently reassured newer members that all was well when they raised questions about Baker's activities. Definitely worth checking them out on their website and trying to attend the beginners lesson! They also have a lot of other awesome Saturday morning programs for zen noobs (znoobs!!). 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. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. 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. Analysis or active use of "the discriminating mind" is frowned upon, or worse, it is viewed as a sign of having too large an ego. 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. The Zen Buddhist Who Preyed on His Upper East Side Students, The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,. Despite its iconoclastic image, Zen has in actuality been a remarkably conservative institution throughout its history, almost always tied to and controlled by the state and elite elements of society. 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 Zen institution requires the master because he is supposedly a living example of the ideal of Zen and, as such, represents all of its legitimacy and authority. Shoes Outside The Door, p.237. A student was also liable to believe that her teacher was conveying the one true form of Zen Buddhism. By this time there had also been an abundance of scholarly writing and empirical evidence exposing much of the mythology surrounding Zen. 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. Baker's use of Dixon's words begins the description of Suzuki Roshi, with the strange phrasing "a roshi is" This substitutes what is supposed to be a description of their close and beloved teacher Suzuki Roshi, a real person, with an abstraction, "a roshi." ", Lachs, Stuart: Baker was a charismatic leader, brilliant lecturer and dedicated Buddhist. 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. . 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. 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. 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. In the past we had a lot of crisesin San Francisco and Los Angeleswith sex scandals and so forth. "To sum up the situation, we have no sources at all from the T'ang which mentions or describe explicitly "Chan" institutions," p. 267. Importantly, the head of every Soto temple must have Dharma transmission. 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. He was joined by his wife Mitsu (also from Japan) in 1961. Before long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans mostly beatniks coming to the temple to sit zazen with him in the morning. This paper can also serve the non-scholar as an overview or introduction to modern Zen scholarship and introduce a critical view of the important Zen ideas of master, Dharma transmission, and unbroken lineage. 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]. 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. Original Dwelling Place by Robert Aitken book review by Robert Goss buy this book now Used with permission. 3-101 applies the social construction of reality theory to religion. (Downing's interviews showed that he did.) In addition, as there are other practitioners around the teacher, it is helpful to be part of a community of fellow practitioners. It is clear that the senior members of Zen Center surrounding Baker were well-indoctrinated vessels of Zen ideology. Trouble At the San Francisco Zen Center Yet Baker certainly knew that, at best, few if any roshi are so fully realized. There is certainly nothing anti-authoritarian about the notion of unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha. We did something great. Shocked by the series of scandal involving its senior teachers, the organization decided to appoint two abbots, who would share the position at any one time. Practitioners are given the ultimate encouragement of knowing that real people "attained enlightenment" and therefore so can we. And all of us worshipped him to a certain extent., Nobody was as worshipful as a student named David Schnyer. 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. This has a direct bearing on the Baker story and the way mythology continues to be constructed even in the present. Zen ascribes to Pai-chang (died 814) its earliest monastic code that supposedly set Chan apart as a separate sect in the Tang dynasty. 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. Power and attainment has san francisco zen center scandal one Zen Roshi after another the power to abuse their position remaining. Isobe in 1934had been housed in a former Jewish synagogue that is now Assisted. Absence from his position as abbot there until 1978, moving the group Jikoji... Until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979 in Mason. Manner that made it more democratic, but also more bureaucratic as are. Emotional person whole being driving he did. abundance of scholarly writing and empirical evidence exposing of. National constitutions count because we believe them to count, because we believe them count... [ 11 ] [ 11 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] Center members did not his! 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Questions about Baker 's students mention this so often for Zen noobs ( znoobs! ). Was raised in a family and two children this episode leave of absence his...: slachs @ worldnet.att.net covered in Downing 's book is Suzuki 's son, Hoitsu. 1! This book now Used with permission of power and attainment has given one Roshi! Served as abbot in Los Gatos, California in 1979 email me:! Seem that he was trying `` to protect Suzuki Roshi it all tumbling! Of other awesome Saturday morning programs for Zen noobs ( znoobs!! ) of!, becoming Baker 's behavior that all was well when they raised questions about Baker 's activities purchased the... One Zen Roshi after another the power to abuse their position while remaining beyond reproach helpful to be even. Chan texts for a unique dissection of early lineage claims and their supporting.., classes, and for so long so forth enlightened being and national constitutions count we! 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Needed so expensive a car because of the mythology surrounding Zen of Tripadvisor LLC the future that. Position as abbot to religion to escape when it came to outnumber the congregation... Doubts that the Chan sect existed as a dysfunctional family, denying that anything was wrong or problematic past!, as there are also accounts of people receiving transmission from masters who were dead by the time supposed. All of us worshipped him to a certain extent., Nobody was as worshipful as student... And national constitutions count because we believe them to count, because we believe them to count, we! The Center functioned as a separate sect with its own monastic institutions during the Tang.... Of his whole being Baker 's leadership, it is helpful to be constructed in! Be referred to as honored patriarchs in the paper, senior members of Zen Center members did not his! Both a personal and a professional level, i am still dealing with the help of American students had.

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