Greens Restaurant, opened in 1979 in Fort Mason of San Francisco, was another business venture by SFZC under the influence of Baker. 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. One of the oldest and perhaps most outspoken members who was eventually forced out by Baker stated, "this was a system that was about staying asleep because it was too risky to wake up." 1969 - Suzuki was asked to resign as priest at Sokoji by the temple's board of directors because he was spending more time with his Western students than the Japanese-American congregation. A number of Downing's interviewees spoke of receiving the true or pure Zen teaching from Suzuki Roshi. 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. The other was to establish Chan's primacy over the indigenous teachings of Confucianism and Taoism in the eyes of the state and the elite of society. Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center and its leader until his death in 1971, was an impressive person, sincerely loved by most all the Center's members. [8] Within a very short period of time Baker broadened the scope of SFZC, starting first with the acquisition of Green Gulch Farm in southern Marin county, in 1972. For a history of early Soto Zen as well as how the Soto sect has understood Dharma transmission since roughly 1700, see Bodiford, William M., Soto Zen in Medieval Japan, University of Hawaii Press, 1993, p. 215. Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki book review buy this book 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. For example, Afable might have added that at Chobo-ji, a Zen temple in Seattle, Genki Takabayashi made passes at his female students. 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. When Kelly grew frustrated with Shimanos womanizing, he made a proposition. There are two kinds of authority. In one well-known collection, the famous Grand Master Yunmen is not recorded at all. It is noted that after 1983 the study of sutras, Zen texts and history was instituted. [5][16][17][18][19], In 2000 Jiko Linda Cutts was appointed Abbess, having received Dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1996. Below is the information about san francisco zen center scandal . 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. (Downing's interviews showed that he did.) It is interesting to keep in mind that Suzuki's lineage is alive today at the San Francisco Zen Center because of transmissions through Hoitsu. The historical fact is that monasteries actively courted the state and elite elements of society, depended on donations from wealthy patrons and or the state, had tenant farmers work their often vast donated and inherited land holdings, etc. 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. This is very similar to the Japanese Soto Zen, with minor variances for social and cultural differences. The virgin birth, the Buddha, Joseph Smiths golden plates that became the Book of Mormonto build spiritual tradition, it does not matter if the people were real or if the events happened. [2][6][14], A once controversial figure, Richard Baker was publicly criticized for his behavior at San Francisco Zen Center. Sasaki, of Rinzai-ji, a Zen center in Los Angeles, is now 106 years old and, as his board members finally admitted in 2013, was groping and fondling unwilling students well into his 11th decade. A good place to begin to examine the scholarly view of early Chan history and development is Foulk, T. Griffith, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Ch'an Buddhism in, Religion and Society in T'ang and Sung China, Ed by Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory, University of Hawaii Press, 1993, pp147-205. 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. It may be Zen-like, but it can also be annoying. ", Read more about this topic: San Francisco Zen Center, Problems, laws havent the slightest interest for meexcept in the world of science, in which they are always changing; or in the world of art, in which they are unchanging; or in the world of Being in which they are, for the most part, unknown.Margaret Anderson (18861973), One does not arrest Voltaire.Charles De Gaulle (18901970). 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." In some ways, it was an obvious choice. The social contract and national constitutions count because we believe them to count, because we will them into reality. San Francisco Zen Center has begun to offer on-site meditation, Dharma talks, programs, classes, and other events. Mark Oppenheimer hosts the podcast Unorthodox for Tablet magazine and writes for The New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, and GQ, among other publications. In fact, it was often not based on spiritual attainment at all, most especially so in Japanese Soto Zen, which is the sect of Suzuki, Baker and the San Francisco Zen Center. 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. Definitely worth checking them out on their website and trying to attend the beginners lesson! There was a widespread conceit in their thinking that they were the center or "cutting edge" of Zen in America, not cognizant that many other Zen groups were forming city/country Centers and also experimenting with the ideas of setting up monasteries, group practice, communal living and forming a sangha. . 1962 - SFZC is founded by Shunryu Suzuki and his Western students. Suzuki planned to give transmission to Bill Kwong but died before his completion. For students of the San Francisco Zen Center, one of America's oldest and most prestigious Buddhist institutions, the world has already ended. But for the [Zen Studies Society,] my gullibility, spiritual gullibilityI didnt realize that it was a borderline cult. On one visit he decided to take the revolver home with him. He exists freely in the fullness of his whole being. Which means it's basically my fault. 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. Suzuki's prescription to "just sit" as a kind of medicine to answer all questions and problems apparently did not apply to his Dharma transmitted son Hoitsu. Members along with Baker literally built their world based on the language and view of Zen accompanied by ritualized behavior that added to the sense of being embedded in and being an active participant of that sacred world. Before our eyes we have a living person becoming a faceless, a-historical person. Baker also claimed that he was trying "to protect Suzuki Roshi's legacy and lineage." 1967 also saw the arrival of Kobun Chino Otogawa of Eiheiji, who served as assistant to Suzuki. 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. "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. 22, no.3-4. Reviewed December 27, 2012 . For Suzuki Roshi's edited words see the well-known Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Weatherhill, 1970. "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. Ungerleider.[26]. This story appears to be an example of modern day creation of hagiography that will be repeated in the future. The Zen Buddhist Who Preyed on His Upper East Side Students, The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,. 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 should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979. Interestingly, Suzuki did not mention "spiritual attainment," but rather commitment. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. He also grabbed the land for Green Gulch farm and retreat center, located in a spectacular valley near Muir Beach. By this time there had also been an abundance of scholarly writing and empirical evidence exposing much of the mythology surrounding Zen. Richard Dudley Baker (born March 30, 1936) is an American Soto Zen master (or roshi), the founder and guiding teacher of Dharma Sanghawhich consists of Crestone Mountain Zen Center located in Crestone, Colorado and the Buddhistisches Studienzentrum[1] (Johanneshof) in Germany's Black Forest. For an analysis of the inherent power relations in the one-dimensional description of a roshi and how it is taken for being natural, see "Symbolic Violence and Social Reproduction" and "Uses of Language" in, Jenkins, Richard, Pierre Bourdieu, Routledge, 1992, pp.103-110 and pp.152-162 respectively. The monastery is closed to outsiders from the months of September through April, then opens to the public by reservation from May through August - offering retreats, seminars, and workshops. 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. 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. Nor did anyone even think to view the situation through the lens of the Buddhist teachings themselves or even the particular teachings of their beloved founder Suzuki. This is the sort of detail, which might be useful to both present and future students, but it is absolutely missing from all of the completely standard biographies of Zen masters through the ages. Live the Temple Life Having wisdom, in the Zen view, is based on Dharma transmission, which implies that the person is an enlightened being. But that is the way that Suzuki or Baker or any roshi is presented. Berkeley, March 17th, 2002. 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. Excellent. 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. Zen priest Mel Weitsman served with Anderson as a co-abbot during the remainder of his term, and the tradition of two sitting Abbots continued for the next few decades. Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'an/Zen Buddhism in America He worked for me, and if he didnt work for other people, then I just wanted them to go, and often hoped theyd go more quietly than they did., Quietly or not, many people did leave. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. 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 This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. 3-101 applies the social construction of reality theory to religion. And as complete neophytes in Buddhism, they were apt to believe most anything a teacher said: The Americans had no competing knowledge, no critical faculties, no grounds to challenge the teacher, no fixed point on which to stand. 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. "It was a fantastic drive," he said, it was safe to drive and that he liked to keep his legs in zazen posture. The first is grounded in something tangible, concrete, observable: the soldier with his gun, or the scientist with her laboratory results. 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. The idea and ritual of Dharma transmission rather than the meaning or content of that transmission, becomes the prominent and meaningful fact. Zen elevates its leaders to super-human status, then emphasizes that we should be obedient and subservient to a powerful and supremely accomplished authority figure, precisely because he is powerful and supremely accomplished. Mind-to-mind transmission implies that the student has attained an understanding equal to his Zen master/roshi and so on backwards, hence being equal to the original, unmediated wordless understanding that supposedly passed between Sakyamuni and Mahakasyapa. [3] He has two daughters, Sally and Elizabeth, from a prior marriage to Virginia Baker. That "something else" is what Michael Downing tries to find in "Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion and Excess at the San Francisco Zen Center. " 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. In fact, Kapleau never received Dharma transmission in the first place, so there was nothing to rescind. 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. The bakery supplied Greens Restaurant and some local grocers.[16]. And three of the four, Afable noted when we spoke, have caused major public sex scandals: first Maezumi, and more recently Shimano and Sasaki. [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. The focus itself is on the master. Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki: this link will take you to the website buy this book now In reality it means, "don't question, don't look!" 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. I suspect I probably said something like that, Schnyer said. But for Schnyer this constantly refreshing membership was proof that the sangha did disapprove of Shimanos treatment of women. He was doing what Japanese roshis are supposed to do, what they have done for centuries. There is a saying, "It is difficult to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it." Five years later (in 1988), roughly fifteen months after Anderson had become abbot of the San Francisco, Anderson was arrested for brandishing this same firearm in public. Soon these Westerners participated in regular services, and new non-Asian students came to outnumber the Japanese-American congregation. Zen ascribes to Pai-chang (died 814) its earliest monastic code that supposedly set Chan apart as a separate sect in the Tang dynasty. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. 2015. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. Berger begins, "Every human society is an enterprise of world-building. Is it any wonder that the inevitable abuses that we have seen for the last thirty years should follow? "[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. He found willing assenters, willing children eager to listen to his fairy tales. Baker presided over it all like a feudal lord, hosting dinner parties with then-Gov. San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), is a network of affiliated St Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. While jogging through Golden Gate Park, Anderson deviated from the path to urinate in some bushes. Explore hundreds of dharma talksby San Francisco Zen Center teachers, practice leaders, and speakers from the wider community. 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. What unites the several panels is a stream of monarch butterflies, often seen in spring at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, one of SFZC's three temples. And all of us worshipped him to a certain extent., Nobody was as worshipful as a student named David Schnyer. Baker then moved to Crestone, Colorado and Germany to found other practice sites for Dharma Sangha. Therefore, in the need to remain at the Center, members had a powerful incentive to fully buy into Zen's mythology. "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. As noted in the paper, senior members consistently reassured newer members that all was well when they raised questions about Baker's activities. 4 Thank Kai C . But how real is this history? is co-abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center. But during the 1960s, Suzuki attracted an eager flock of meditating Westerners, including Baker, who showed up in 1962 and was soon singled out as a possible successor. ---Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878) He does not sit zazen and only chants when he has a service to do for someone." I don't know for certain but Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind was published in 1970, only one year before Baker himself received Dharma transmission and the title, Zen master. This is also extremely disempowering which can lead to all sorts of problems, as the SFZC case clearly shows. 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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. It means, "Don't ask. In particular, Berger, Peter,L. 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. Suzuki died of cancer on December 4, 1971. His youngest daughter, Omi, committed suicide after spending nine years in a mental hospital; he gave Dharma transmission to his son Hoitsu, who did not study with him or even get on with him, but who inherited his temple (this is standard Soto Zen procedure); he gave, as a favor to a friend, Dharma transmission to someone he did not know or have any contact with. Foulk doubts that the Chan sect existed as a separate sect with its own monastic institutions during the Tang dynasty. Practitioners are given the ultimate encouragement of knowing that real people "attained enlightenment" and therefore so can we. Finding Safe Harbor: Buddhist Sexual Ethics in America by Stephanie Kaza, Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center by Michael Downing: book review by Vladimir K. buy this book Shoes Outside The Door, p.289. 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. 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. Stay connected. These revelations led to community-wide pandemonium, and in 1984 Baker was forced to resign as abbot. I see how my empowerment to protect and care for the Triple Treasure inflated my sense of personal authority, and thus detracted from and disparaged the Triple Treasure. A gem! 2 Thank Kelly S . This is not surprising if we remember that in Soto Zen "spiritual attainment" is rarely a criterion for Dharma transmission. However, there is no surviving text of Pai-chang's Rules. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. 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. Not only the work of Zen writers, but political analysts, social critics, sociologists, and my involvement with the practice have informed my thinking about the state of contemporary Zen in the West. I too was a member of a Zen center where we also felt that our group and style of practice were in some ways unique. Desire, Devotion, and Excess at the San Francisco Zen Center. [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. (See Foulk, "Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice," listed in the notes for a fuller discussion.) It is possible that Suzuki had a paternal attachment to Baker. Five years later (in 1988), roughly fifteen months after Anderson had become abbot of the San Francisco, Anderson was arrested for brandishing this same firearm in public. He occupies an authoritative place in East Asian cultures that have already been imbued with a special level of hierarchy since ancient times. Why did Baker perpetuate such a simplistic view of Suzuki? He then arrived in San Francisco, California in 1960beginning to sit with Shunryu Suzuki in 1961. Ruling year info. He writes a religion column forThe New York Timesand is on Twitter@markopp1. Sarasota, Florida. 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. I took a course at Rochester, an overview of Eastern religion and Confucianism. One was to make the state consider Chan the primary sect of Buddhism. Learn about the latest news from affiliate sanghas with Tova's newsettes and other timely articles. [9] In the midst of the growth, Baker became a popular public figure. Kwong's transmission was later completed by Suzuki's son, Hoitsu.[1][11][12]. 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. It has three practice places which offer daily meditation, regular monastic retreats and practice periods, classes, lectures and workshops throughout the Bay Area. They have shown us clearly that much of what has been presented by the tradition as "history," is really a myth created with two purposes. However, for an in depth review of early Chan monastic codes and how early Chan viewed and supposedly treated errant behavior by monks see Foulk, T. Griffith, "The "Ch'an School" and Its Place In the Buddhist Monastic Tradition," Diss. Newcomers naturally looked to senior priests as guides or friends, but in doing so, they may have been mistaken. I dont know, he said. Perhaps tellingly, Baker made this claim at the height of the Vietnam War, when virtually 100% of Zen followers were opposed to the war and hence having an anti-war/anti -government roshi in his lineage was good currency. Please keep it in mind. The meaning of these terms evolved as a means of self-definition for the Zen sect to differentiate itself from other Buddhist sects in a way that particularly matched the Chinese social system based on genealogy and to gain legitimization and authenticity from the imperial powers that always maintained tight control over Buddhism. This group is by far the largest Zen group in France and is active in the U.S.A. as well as in other parts of Europe. In Downing's book we see that much illusion, suffering and pain has been part of Zen in San Francisco, a situation that, unfortunately, has been repeated in most every other part of America over a thirty-five year period. Or any Roshi is presented to senior priests as guides or friends, but in doing,. 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