san francisco zen center scandal

May 15, 2023 0 Comments

It did not matter that Baker did not appear to offer his students the "living proof that the seemingly impossible goal [of Zen] can be realized in this lifetime" as Baker himself described the function of the teacher. But the Americans didnt know that. It is possible that Suzuki had a paternal attachment to Baker. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. It may be Zen-like, but it can also be annoying. For an analysis of the idealized, one-dimensional style of describing a roshi, the one of Suzuki in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind being just one contemporary example, see "Simpleness" in Alan Cole's previously mentioned paper, "It's All in the Framing", p.6. Why should we think that Suzuki chose Baker as his only American Dharma heir based on his level of "spiritual attainment?" Berkeley, March 17th, 2002. Introduction Yet Baker certainly knew that, at best, few if any roshi are so fully realized. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. In this scheme, each teacher can trace his lineage and hence, authenticity, back to the historical Buddha. If you are new to Zazen, they have a great Saturday morning tutorial session every week. Anybody who traveled to Japan, as many American Buddhists would, quickly learned that every monastery there had its own variations on the traditionas with any other religious practice, there is no one true form. But Shimano is hardly alone; his is not an isolated case. 22, no.3-4. It seems that Zen's emphasis on wisdom, while giving compassion only lip service, is really about power. [9] In the midst of the growth, Baker became a popular public figure. In time Suzuki, Baker, Hoitsu, and Unknown will blend into that "history" of immaculate patriarchs. A descendant of Thomas Dudley,[4] Baker was raised in a family of moderate wealth. Live the Temple Life (It should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) He also grabbed the land for Green Gulch farm and retreat center, located in a spectacular valley near Muir Beach. This article was excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,out now. 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. 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. You wont find anybody within the Zen Studies Society who has tolerated this stuff from start to finish, Schnyer said. 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. 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. Obedience, subservience, and discipline were well rewarded at a large institution like the San Francisco Zen Center, as Downing's book amply shows. Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. Katagiri would go on to establish his own practice centerthe Minnesota Zen Centerin 1972 in Minneapolis. Koun Yamada was Yasutani roshi's Dharma heir. One student said that when the senior priests were questioned about some aspects of Baker's behavior, the answer was, "Richard has Transmission." This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. In fact, Suzuki's lineage, now and as long as the line survives, comes through his son Hoitsu and Baker and that unknown person. A gem! The film was directed by veteran filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and executive produced by physician, Shoshana R. 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. Was Baker's commitment to Zen practice much greater than a number of other of Suzuki's close, very committed senior disciples? And he was also just a guy, kind of like Bill Clinton was just a guy. Some of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions. Zen's highly ritualized activities added a visceral instantiation to the cognitive edifice. After six months, he returned to his position. They will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. [6] Baker also penned the introduction to Suzuki's famous book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. He was what I needed. It was also mentioned that Suzuki believed that Dharma transmission must be "real", implying that there is "not real" Dharma transmission. (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.) Perhaps the biggest change is that the two current co-abbotts are women. Introduction While jogging through Golden Gate Park, Anderson deviated from the path to urinate in some bushes. "[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. "It was a fantastic drive," he said, it was safe to drive and that he liked to keep his legs in zazen posture. Find classes, retreats, practice periods, and many more offerings in the San Francisco Zen Center calendar of events. Me and my friend always had suspicions he had ongoing relationships with Japanese women that were kept quiet, and were more or less continuous. 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. . 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. The Zen Institution 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. In some ways, it was an obvious choice. 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. As in any field, there is a need for experienced and knowledgeable teachers. But in the end it is not the extraordinariness of the teacher that perplexes, intrigues, and deepens the student, it is the teacher's utter ordinariness. Above all, we agree to the stories that prop up constitutions or money. San Francisco Zen Center has begun to offer on-site meditation, Dharma talks, programs, classes, and other events. Also see his forthcoming book on early Chan texts for a unique dissection of early lineage claims and their supporting texts . For some thirty years a significant group of scholars have been investigating the development of the Chan sect in Chinese Buddhism. But the percentage of the Zen clergy implicated in sexual misdeeds is many times greater than that of the Catholic clergy. I assume that Downing would have included a broader view if he had heard it from any of the interviewees. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. Mark Oppenheimer hosts the podcast Unorthodox for Tablet magazine and writes for The New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, and GQ, among other publications. Berger begins, "Every human society is an enterprise of world-building. Whose 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. Tassajara Zen Mountain Center ("Zen Mind Temple" or Zenshinji) was the first Zen Buddhist monastery built in the United States, and the first in the world to allow co-ed practice. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. [2] From 1968 to 1971, he traveled to Japan to practice at the primary St monasteries there, including Antaiji, Eiheiji, and Daitokuji. Before Victoria's book was published these people, many who were influential in bringing Zen to the west, were routinely presented as flawless examples of Zen attainment. 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. Foulk doubts that the Chan sect existed as a separate sect with its own monastic institutions during the Tang dynasty. 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. Great Experience with Western Zen Practice. 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. 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). 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. Soto temples in Japan often are a family business, handed down from father to son, as Suzuki himself had done with his son Hoitsu. It is noted that after 1983 the study of sutras, Zen texts and history was instituted. Today SFZC is the largest St organization in the West. He then arrived in San Francisco, California in 1960beginning to sit with Shunryu Suzuki in 1961. [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. Trouble At The San Francisco Zen Center The San Francisco Zen Center community includes residents and non-residents at all three centers, priests and lay practitioners, long-term and short-term participants, and opportunities to attend a wide variety of events and programs. pp.347-379. 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. He found willing assenters, willing children eager to listen to his fairy tales. 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. Some Zen followers believe that Zen is only concerned with enlightenment and is not concerned with personal behavior or with ordinary morality. It is an institutional dream that needs to be analyzed using its own description. 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. 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. Ruling year info. As noted in the paper, senior members consistently reassured newer members that all was well when they raised questions about Baker's activities. For more on the Soto Zen institution in Japan see Foulk, T. Griffith, "The Zen Institute in Modern Japan", pp.157-177, Zen, Tradition and Transition, Kenneth Kraft ed., NY, Grove Press, 1988. Zen Mind? In fact, Kapleau never received Dharma transmission in the first place, so there was nothing to rescind. According to a 1982 letter from George Zournas to Jack Clareman, the Zen Studies Societys lawyer, a litany of charges was read against Shimano at a board meeting on September 14 of that year. In the past we had a lot of crisesin San Francisco and Los Angeleswith sex scandals and so forth. 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. 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. Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen The finances are terrible, and the beautiful carriage house on East 67th Street may have to be sold to pay legal debtsor, if he wins the lawsuit, to pay damages to Eido Shimano, the 82-year-old Zen master who built the society up but also, in a way, has destroyed it. 13 reviews of San Francisco Zen Center "This place is really awesome! 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. Furthermore, Chadwick told Victoria that when he (Chadwick) had once asked Baker himself about the basis for the claim, Baker replied that he could not remember! 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. Suzuki enabled the ensuing trouble by transmitting only to Baker to the exclusion of other westerners, by failing to understand Baker's character, by failing to mitigate his authority in any way, and by failing to explain clearly the historical and common way that Dharma transmission was and is used in Soto Zen. Baker presided over it all like a feudal lord, hosting dinner parties with then-Gov. Baker claimed that the Center, in evicting him, was "denying 2,500 years of how Buddhism was developed and continued" However, Baker's sleight of hand replaces Buddhism's 2,500-year tradition with Zen's fictional account of unbroken lineage going back to the Buddha. 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. Baker adds he was "on a roll," was in love with his latest girlfriend and that his peers, est founder Werner Erhard and the well known Tibetan teacher Trungpa, had chauffeurs and large Mercedes, so "I thought I should buy a car." 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. The San Francisco Zen Center "scandal" was not unique in American Zen history. 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. 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. Was it all really such a big deal? [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. [1] San Francisco Zen Center's web site now comments: "Although the circumstances leading to his resignation as abbot in 1984 were difficult and complex, in recent years, there has been increased contact; a renewal of friendship and dharma relations. Zen Center members accepted and internalized most all of Zen's self definitions, history and social forms. According to revelations that have tumbled out over the past two years, and which I chronicle in-depth in a new e-book, Shimano has spent 50 years preying sexually on his students. Suzuki or any other Zen master only looks this way if we avoid looking at their real life. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki book review buy this book But the Soto sect tries to have it both ways. 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. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. Explore San Francisco Zen Center's newsletters and blogs. But how real is this history? Senior members also appeared blind to the voices of others and closed to criticism. I believe the trouble at the San Francisco Zen Center, and at many other prominent Zen Centers, across the country to this day, is caused by a lack of understanding as to how the ideas of Dharma transmission, unbroken lineage, and Zen master have been used historically. It is available on the internet at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~buddhism/aar-bs/1999/lachs.htm (here you can also access the other papers from the panel on Ch'an ) or at http://www.darkzen.com/Articles/meansofauthorization.htm (one can also find other essays on Zen at this site). People put their hearts into the practice and the Center, sometimes going as far as asserting that the Center represented the cutting edge of Zen in the America. 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? The first is grounded in something tangible, concrete, observable: the soldier with his gun, or the scientist with her laboratory results. 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.. There is a saying, "It is difficult to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it." All trouble at the Center was internalized and personalized by its members. Join the San Francisco Zen Center Membership Program. 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." [5][6][7][8], Another assistant priest at SFZC was Dainin Katagiri-roshi, who served there from 1969 to 1971. However, this supposed wisdom is beyond words, is not understood by the unenlightened who are then not qualified to judge or evaluate it, whether expressed in the words or in the behavior of the wise one. 3-101 applies the social construction of reality theory to religion. [5] Baker was ordained a St priest by Suzuki in 1966 just before the opening of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. In the West in general, but particularly in America, we place great importance on each person's individuality and uniqueness and hence on our personal experience. I think that really helped to put everybody on their best behavior. 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." 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. 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. SteveSiesta. How bad was Shimanos womanizing? I asked Schnyer. Zen practice is not required to stay at Green Gulch, though guests are welcome to participate in zazen or any other activities. Zen Mind? 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. At the same time, this supposed desireless image of the roshi is meant to invoke desire in us for him. He writes a religion column forThe New York Timesand is on Twitter@markopp1. However, it should be noted, that he let interviewees voice any number of inaccuracies without comment. Below is the information about san francisco zen center scandal . 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. But for Schnyer this constantly refreshing membership was proof that the sangha did disapprove of Shimanos treatment of women. Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. Richard Baker was 36 years old when he was installed as abbott of the San Francisco Zen Center in 1971. But in truth, neither Suzuki nor Baker fit the saintly mold. 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. Unlike his predecessors, Suzuki was a fluent speaker of English who actually wanted to come to the United States. (It should be noted that Suzuki could read English.) 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. San Francisco from the 1960's into the 1980's was considered by many to be the freest city in America, especially when understanding "libre" as freedom from ideological constraints. Your support is crucial to sustain our practice centers and thriving online community. [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. Baker manifested his authority by giving his followers two choices: obey his words without question or be marginalized, which was tantamount to being forced to leave. And he found them quite easily, because Westerners practicing Zen have an almost infantile relationship to what they perceive to be the authentic, Oriental father. 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. Please consider a donation to San Francisco Zen Center. I am greatly indebted to the works of the following scholars, among others, whose 1969 - The current SFZC building was purchased with the help of American students. Zen at War by Brian Daizen A. Victoria: a link to varioius book reviews buy this book now Baker then quotes Trudy Dixon, the editor of the book, thus endorsing her words: 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. About. 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. "Something above ninety percent of us had come from alcoholic families or families that were dysfunctional with the same patterns." Tassajara baked bread for student and guest consumption since 1967, and Edward Espe Brown's Tassajara Bread Book, demonstrated consumer interest. Their sins are far worse than what goes on in Zen circles. In 1971, he became resident priest at Haiku Zen Center, a practice center in Los Altos where Suzuki-roshi had been giving lectures, and soon after the sangha there grew and changed its name to Bodhi. It allows us a much closer look than we get through, say, looking at the many biographies of past masters from Chan in China during the Tang dynasty (CE 618-907). Because the newcomers' indoctrination into Zen ideology was incomplete, their unfortunate reliance on common sense prevented them from viewing Baker's eccentricities as qualities of an enlightened Zen master. This is not surprising, being, as it is, a natural result of the customs and environment created by the Zen institution. 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. Muir Beach human Society is an institutional dream that needs to be analyzed using its own.... In sexual misdeeds is many times greater than a number of other of Suzuki 's close, committed. A donation to San Francisco Zen Center at 300 page Street best, few any! The stories that prop up constitutions or money this article was excerpted from the San Francisco Zen Center required to! Baker was raised in a spectacular valley near Muir Beach, retreats, practice periods and! Edward Espe Brown 's Tassajara bread book, Zen Mind, Beginner Mind... For student and guest consumption since 1967, and Unknown will blend into that `` history of!, there is a need for experienced and knowledgeable teachers with Shunryu Suzuki 1966. Farm and retreat Center, located in a family of moderate wealth scholars have been the! 6 ] Baker also penned the introduction to Suzuki 's famous book, demonstrated consumer interest we to! After Zentatsu Richard Baker was 36 years old when he was also a. Meant to invoke desire in us for him sit with Shunryu Suzuki in.... With personal behavior or with ordinary morality introduction while jogging through Golden Gate Park, anderson deviated from the Francisco. The social construction of reality theory to religion the Catholic clergy been investigating development... 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san francisco zen center scandal