It was not surprising, then, that when trouble arose at the Center it was mostly assumed that something must be wrong with the members themselves; that it was because they did not use or handle well Suzuki's pure teaching. There is a whole lineage built on the idea that Kapleau had transmission. After the founding of Dharma Sangha in New Mexico, Baker met with William Irwin Thompson, the founder of the Lindisfarne Association. [2] As the American Dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, Baker assumed abbotship of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) shortly before Suzuki's death in 1971. Zen Center members accepted and internalized most all of Zen's self definitions, history and social forms. And then I went back and basically never left. As in any field, there is a need for experienced and knowledgeable teachers. [10] 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.[11]. 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. But in the 1960s and 70s, American Buddhists needed the foreigners. 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. I think that really helped to put everybody on their best behavior. As the American Dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, Baker assumed abbotship of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) shortly before Suzuki's death in 1971. This is also extremely disempowering which can lead to all sorts of problems, as the SFZC case clearly shows. 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. All of this discontent emerged when it was made public that Baker had allegedly been having an affair with the wife of an influential sangha member. Was his lifestyle less than exemplary? Before long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans mostly beatniks coming to the temple to sit zazen with him in the morning. No one took the opportunity to stand back and view the entire affair from any sort of sociological, anthropological, psychological or religious-historical perspective. Did it not occur to him that Richard had a family, too, as did many of the priests of Zen Center?" 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 was likely prompted by a conversation between Robert Baker Aitken and Baker at San Francisco Zen Center concerning the question of Zen's availability to interested gays, for Dorsey went on to become abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. By Kurt Wolff, Free Press Paperback, 1950 for a discussion of authority, prestige, subordination, and sociability. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Richard Baker is a man who through the ritual of Dharma transmission has been installed in the Soto Zen sect's "authentic" unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha. Examining the work of any of the above-mentioned scholars will greatly reward the interested reader who would like to explore contemporary Zen/Buddhist scholarship. Ask Kelly S about San Francisco Zen Center. 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. Institutional power, authority, hierarchy and order are, hence, accomplished through self-censorship by the members, a more effective method for controlling dissent and questioning than coercion by the leaders. 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. By the seventies he calculates 10-15,000 hours and that by 1987 the most senior practitioners had each meditated some 20- 25,000 hours on the cushion. These days, when we think of predatory clergy, we think of Roman Catholic priests. They believed their way of living and of practicing Zen was the best alternative available in America. [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. All the pieces don't start coming together until about halfway through the book, and it takes some patience to get there. Berkeley, March 17th, 2002. That's what we made of it." I dont know, he said. 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. Downing reveals that by 1969 Suzuki had made it known to Baker and others at the Center that Baker was to be his Dharma heir. In the end, both teacher and student fall prey to these fantasies. One student said that when the senior priests were questioned about some aspects of Baker's behavior, the answer was, "Richard has Transmission." 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 first is grounded in something tangible, concrete, observable: the soldier with his gun, or the scientist with her laboratory results. Ironically, what follows is in many ways a religious text. Ruling year info. He became the leader of the Sanbokyodan school of Zen started by Yasutani. For example, the San Francisco Zen Center, after a scandal involving Suzuki-roshi's dharma heir Richard Baker-roshi, decided to elect its two abbots to four-year terms. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. The only one of the four whose reputation was unblemished, Shunryu Suzuki of the San Francisco Zen Center, gave his sangha over to a man named Richard Baker, who was later embroiled in a sex scandal of his own, resigned from his abbacy, and became the subject of a book with the appropriately suggestive title Shoes Outside the Door. Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over several days to meditate over the corpse. It was almost like a magic theater, where if someone received Dharma transmission, and hence, was a supposed enlightened being, he would become a different person who could do anything he pleased. Eighteen years later, there is still lingering bitterness about his overthrow. 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. Yamada gave Dharma transmission to Robert Aitkin, though Aitkin and his Diamond Sangha later separated from the Sanbokyodan organization after Yamada's death. They weren't so much about about money (Chapter 27, if that's your cup of tea). 13 reviews of San Francisco Zen Center "This place is really awesome! Institutional and personal motives played an important part in the composing of Buddhist biographical collections; this was especially so in earl Chan lineage texts. Richard Baker is an extremely bright and talented person and a born salesman. This relationship between the public and private was easily translated to the needs of the San Francisco Zen Center, with meditation halls and public spaces on the lower levels, and residential areas for practicing students on the upper floors. There are also accounts of people receiving transmission from masters who were dead by the time the supposed transmission took place. The Zen understanding of wisdom imputes Foucault's "single gaze to see everything constantly" to the Master. It is a sanitized description wherein any one roshi is replaceable by any other roshi, which is really no person at all. Thanks to Mr. Oppenheimer's efforts, women have come forward, some even using their names; we think this kind of courage can only embolden other survivors of abuse to speak out. A special note is given to the papers of Heine, Wright, Foulk, McRae, Welter, Schlutter, Michel Mohr and Ishii Shudo. Learn and Practice at San Francisco Zen Center, residential guest student practice opportunities, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. 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. The student who enters the "practice" having read a myth will expect to find the myth, and will think they have found the myth. 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. In this sect, Dharma transmission is commonly a father-son transmission ritual culminating in the son's inheritance of the family temple. Mark Oppenheimeris the author of three other books, includinga memoir of high school debateand atravelogue about crashing bar mitzvahs. 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. Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. Below is the information about san francisco zen center scandal . When Kelly grew frustrated with Shimanos womanizing, he made a proposition. It matters that we keep assenting to the stories. [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. Foulk doubts that the Chan sect existed as a separate sect with its own monastic institutions during the Tang dynasty. 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. In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shih from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir (though Baker disputes this). The bakery supplied Greens Restaurant and some local grocers.[16]. It depends not on miracles or mystical figures or discoveries of secret books, but merely on our willingness to believe, against evidence if need be, that those things were real. Classes and workshops from our Online Programs, resources for beginners, zazen (meditation) and chanting, Dharma talks, and live online practice sessions with teachers. But the Americans didnt know that. They have a daughter, Sofia Baker, born on March 1, 2001, in Alamosa, Colorado. 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 The duo published a book of recipes in 1987 titled The Greens Cookbook. "The years people spent here were not wasted years of being duped. 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 (he also ran a leading Zen center in New Mexico, and his lewdness did not respect state lines). If the past is any indication these present teachers will be referred to as honored patriarchs in the future. He is now a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and in December 2012 I spoke with him by telephone. [21][22][23] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West. [32], These revelations led Baker to resign as abbot in 1984. I am thankful for Michael Downing's work, which is extremely valuable. 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. 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. 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. "[33], In the 1980s Baker ordained Issan Dorsey as a priest. However, I do not mean to imply there is no inner spiritual content to the Zen tradition. Jerry Brown, poet Gary Snyder, Esalen founder Michael Murphy, author Ken Kesey and other leading lights of the Zen intelligentsia on the West Coast. Suzuki planned to give transmission to Bill Kwong but died before his completion. With one or two exceptions, the only views expressed of Baker's errant behavior among the Center's members was in the context of their personal experience. 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. 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. Under the Zen form of legitimization, each Zen roshi is viewed as a saint. In time Suzuki, Baker, Hoitsu, and Unknown will blend into that "history" of immaculate patriarchs. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. 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. And stayed for 10 years.. (It should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) In addition, the few American students of his who went to Japan came back disappointed, which upset Suzuki because he thought these students would then think less ofBuddhism. 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. 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. (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.) Zen Mind? Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. Was Baker's commitment to Zen practice much greater than a number of other of Suzuki's close, very committed senior disciples? While jogging through Golden Gate Park, Anderson deviated from the path to urinate in some bushes. Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'an/Zen Buddhism in America At a meeting of the Board of Directors of Lindisfarne at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, Thompson convinced the board to donate the campus that he had establishedwith its passive solar Lindisfarne Fellows House, Founder's House, and Lindisfarne Chapelto Baker-roshi's Dharma Sangha. Please send to slachs@worldnet.att.net. The bakery was closed altogether in 1999. This would have led any impartial observer to question the spiritual implications of Dharma transmission. But there is another kind of authority, an opposite kind, grounded in the invisible, the faith-based, the fictional. There are some good, and unavoidable, reasons for Americans dependence on Japanese roshis (and, more recently, as Americans have become interested in Tibetan Buddhism, for their dependence on foreign teachers like the Dalai Lama). Hence, roughly 95% of all Soto priests in Japan have Dharma transmission, most receiving it after spending at most three years in a monastery, some with as little as six months. 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. The implications of this authority in some ways far outstrip that bestowed upon the highest secular authorities, since there is the implication that the Zen master is enlightened, a fully attained being. Understandably, Suzuki may not have been able to read across the Japanese-American cultural divide and therefore not see the character flaws of Baker that were obvious to some of his unenlightened American students. One of the earliest texts extant is "Regulations of the Chan Approach" (Ch'an men Kuei-shih, which cannot be dated earlier than 988) that some scholars think was the preface to Pai-chang's Rules. Some of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions. In the 1960s, four major Zen teachers came to the United States from Japan: Shunryu Suzuki, Taizan Maezumi, Joshu Sasaki, and Eido Shimano. "The Apocalypse," as they came to call it, took place in 1983 at a Peace Conference at Tassajara, a retreat center that was the first Buddhist monastery founded outside Asia. 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. 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. 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. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. The senior disciples consistently stressed that Baker's transmission was real; it made him into a "pure vessel of the Dharma," a man of wisdom, far beyond the questioner's obviously limited understanding and suspicion. His first wife contracted tuberculosis and returned to her parents shortly after marriage; his second wife was brutally murdered by an erratic, antisocial monk whom Suzuki had retained as a temple assistant, despite contrary advise from neighbors and colleagues. Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. Without our assent to those stories, the country would not work. 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." Reviewed July 20, 2014 . Greens Restaurant, opened in 1979 in Fort Mason of San Francisco, was another business venture by SFZC under the influence of Baker. Although Baker claimed that his relationship was a love-affair which had not yet been consummated, the outcry surrounding the incident led to accusations of impropriety, including the admissions by several female members of the community that they had had affairs with Baker before or during his tenure as abbot. The latter choice was too painful for many for any number of reasons, including: 1) many believed that the Center was the best place to practice Zen and so leaving meant giving up what made life seem most meaningful, 2) their self-identities as Zen practitioners were connected to the Center, 3) loyalty to Suzuki Roshi, 4) leaving close friendships established through communal living and especially through practicing meditation together, 5) loving the lifestyle and 6) fear of losing one's position in the hierarchy and the possibility for future higher positions culminating in being Dharma transmitted oneself. 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