san francisco zen center scandalsan francisco zen center scandal

In this act lies the first step towards freedom." Zen Hospice Project also continues to train and coordinate volunteers who provide non sectarian, non-medical care to residents of the hospice and palliative care ward at Laguna Honda Hospital, a skilled nursing facility operated by the City and County of San Francisco. Which means it's basically my fault. This scheme was later institutionalized through the ritual of Dharma transmission. 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 You have to ask whether Suzuki was aware of the claims made by Baker and, if so, why he permitted them to stand without correction. The Zen Studies Society was marked by frequent turnover. [20] Zen Hospice Project provides hospice care for individuals of any or no religion who are looking for a compassionate end to their life. San Francisco Zen Center's purpose is to make the teachings and practice of Soto Zen Buddhism widely available, to train teachers, and to help cultivate mindfulness and compassion in the world. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. Audio recordings of familiar sounds heard at our temples. 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. How San Francisco Zen Center Operates Some former students say they were encouraged to believe that being groped by him was part of their. Baker Sums It Up In his letter, Zournas, who had resigned the presidency in July, details for the lawyers benefit how the various board members reacted to a motion that Shimano and his wife, then the organizations treasurer, be fired. Baker himself was quick to remind his flock that he was the only American to receive Dharma transmission from Suzuki Roshi. It was considered "real" because it came from the saintly Suzuki and Suzuki made a point of saying it was "real." Foulk disagrees with this view. (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.) Also see, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, Trans.and Ed. [6] Baker also penned the introduction to Suzuki's famous book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. 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. [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]. Foulk doubts that the Chan sect existed as a separate sect with its own monastic institutions during the Tang dynasty. This is not surprising if we remember that in Soto Zen "spiritual attainment" is rarely a criterion for Dharma transmission. Upon Suzuki's arrival at Sokoji, the congregation was composed entirely of members of the Japanese-American population. [2], In the late-1980s Baker also gave shiho to Issan Dorsey, whom he had ordained as a priest in 1975. He is now a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and in December 2012 I spoke with him by telephone. He was joined by his wife Mitsu (also from Japan) in 1961. And then I went back and basically never left. SteveSiesta. They also have a lot of other awesome Saturday morning programs for zen noobs (znoobs!!). But there is another kind of authority, an opposite kind, grounded in the invisible, the faith-based, the fictional. 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. 2015. If someone attempted to question some aspect of Baker's behavior, both Baker and senior disciples reminded them that Baker was the only American Dharma heir of Suzuki. This story appears to be an example of modern day creation of hagiography that will be repeated in the future. Excellent. [6], San Francisco Zen Center expanded quickly with Baker at the helm. In 2003 Paul Haller, who received transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993, was installed as co-abbot with her. From the perspective of power and control, the political and the religious spheres overlap. And he was also just a guy, kind of like Bill Clinton was just a guy. [9] The building, designed by Julia Morgan, was built as the Emanu-el Residence Club in 1922 for the Emanu-el Sisterhood. 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. Bibliographical Notes This recommended class series offers listeners an overview of the fundamentals of Buddhism and Zen. To see how the most prominent Japanese Zen roshi as well as some of the roshi associated with bringing Zen to America, in spite of the rhetoric of the standard model of Zen, functioned in Japan from roughly 1911 through WWII, see Victoria, Brian, Zen At War , Weatherhill, 1997. 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. Mark Oppenheimeris the author of three other books, includinga memoir of high school debateand atravelogue about crashing bar mitzvahs. 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. 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. Green Gulch Farm ("Green Dragon Temple", or Soryuji), located in Sausalito, California in a valley on the Pacific Ocean, was acquired by SFZC in 1972. However Zen texts may define the role, Zen masters have not been fully enlightened beings beyond question. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. Though these themes are mentioned a number of times by students, it seems curious that in Downing's interviews, no one ever questioned what this meant, no one mentioned what Suzuki meant, why Baker's transmission was supposedly real or if Suzuki or Baker ever explained the difference between "real" and unreal transmissions. This is not surprising, being, as it is, a natural result of the customs and environment created by the Zen institution. I think that really helped to put everybody on their best behavior. 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. I hope this is the case with this paper. He jumps across decades, and sometimes seems to jump onto whatever thought crosses his mind. If you counted the blow-ups, youd say just a few [women,] but we think he ran his life like a Japanese businessmanlots of affairs, but most of them discreet. 3-101 applies the social construction of reality theory to religion. There are two kinds of authority. Zen Center Members 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. 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. Members soon raised funds for a zendo to be built there, and over time the farm transformed into a monastery and retreat center for residents and guests with an organic farm, flower gardens, a teahouse and a plant nursery. [citation needed], Additional businesses run by SFZC were the Alaya Stitchery storefront, which made zafus, zabutons and clothing, and Green Gulch Grocery, which sold produce from Green Gulch Farm. Dorsey went on to serve as abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco, where he worked to develop hospice care for AIDS patients. 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. Interestingly, the later versions of the supposed events often have more detail than the earlier versions, implying that we are dealing with literary creations rather than historical biography. It is interesting to note that these beliefs persisted strongly even into the year 2000, roughly the time of Downing's interviews when there had been thirty-five years of sexual and financial scandals in the Zen community in America. I have seen such a view expressed in four other major Zen communities as well as in a Tibetan community. 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. Also see the public letter from Mr. Kapleau toYamada, dated 2/17/86. In this scheme, each teacher can trace his lineage and hence, authenticity, back to the historical Buddha. See Alan Cole, "It's All in the Framing." It was also mentioned that Suzuki believed that Dharma transmission must be "real", implying that there is "not real" Dharma transmission. Zen is a Chinese invention roughly beginning in the seventh or eighth century of this era. They have a daughter, Sofia Baker, born on March 1, 2001, in Alamosa, Colorado. 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. For students of the San Francisco Zen Center, one of America's oldest and most prestigious Buddhist institutions, the world has already ended. It may be Zen-like, but it can also be annoying. 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. 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. It was like a "game" of Zen where if any one speaks out or asks the wrong question, the "game" is ruined or finished, at least for that person. More commonly it is bestowed or given by a teacher to some one with limited attainment in order to keep his lineage alive. 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. 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. In one well-known collection, the famous Grand Master Yunmen is not recorded at all. Before long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans mostly beatniks coming to the temple to sit zazen with him in the morning. This has a direct bearing on the Baker story and the way mythology continues to be constructed even in the present. Why did Baker perpetuate such a simplistic view of Suzuki? Yet for reasons known only to him he proceeded to make Baker his only American Dharma heir. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. It allows bureaucratic transmission, but it also uses "historical" biographies of eminent masters presented as desireless beings, the koans, and the many Zen stories and dialogues (mondo) to legitimize and to enhance authority, that make clear that transmission is given because of a deep insight into reality or spiritual attainment. And stayed for 10 years.. It also spun off its business and stopped pretending that work without compensation was "spiritual practice.". 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. He writes, " The perfect disciplinary apparatus would make it possible for a single gaze to see everything constantly." San Francisco Zen Center students and other students throughout history were also one cause of the problem. 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. It will not do for future generations if there are gaps in the line of saintly figures. "[16], On September 25, 1999 in Salem, Baker married Marie Louise, daughter of Maximilian, Margrave of Baden, and grandniece of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. 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. We may however, ask, "What commitment was Suzuki referring to?" The San Francisco Zen Center "scandal" was not unique in American Zen history. When Katagiri left, Tenshin Reb Anderson assumed Abbotship of the Zen Centerserving until 1995. That little piece of paradise in the Marin County headlands is just a short drive from the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, perfect for a quick retreat. 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. Others have told me that my view, informed by historical scholarship (as opposed to Zen's own fictional history), sociology, political and social analysis as well as long personal involvement, has been helpful in clarifying some of the illusion and in reducing some of the pain. One student expressed it as, "some of the senior priests were in it for a payoff-Transmission," another stated it as, "They were ambitious, and only Richard could give it [transmission] to them, because he was the only one who had it." Also see his Zen War Stories to be published December 2002. 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. At that time, Baker also became the official leader of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC). 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. Richard Baker also survived. In 1989, some six years after Baker was forced to leave, he threatened to take back Zen Center by going to court. When it came to Baker's transmission from Suzuki, virtually all the students interviewed by Downing assumed that it was a "real" transmission. Mel Weitsman and Michael Wenger, University of California Press,1999 and for a biography of Suzuki's life see, Chadwick, David, Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunyru Suzuki, Broadway Books, 1999. "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. These recordings of zazen instruction feature a variety of teachers offering an introduction to meditation. As noted in the paper, senior members consistently reassured newer members that all was well when they raised questions about Baker's activities. In addition, as there are other practitioners around the teacher, it is helpful to be part of a community of fellow practitioners. At that time, in the 70s, drug use was prevalent, and I got involved in a fair amount of that. The Zen Buddhist Who Preyed on His Upper East Side Students, The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,. I said, I have to come back here. So I did one more semester of school and then dropped out. 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). Learn and Practice at San Francisco Zen Center, residential guest student practice opportunities, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. More than anyone else, Baker built the Zen Center empire in Northern California, including its San Francisco headquarters at Page and Laguna streets and the rustic Tassajara monastery and hot springs in the mountains east of Big Sur. Suzuki Roshi He exists freely in the fullness of his whole being. In fifteen years, the Center's annual budget increased from $6,000, to $4 million. 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. Steve Hagen. In not clearly explaining the meaning, to his disciples at the SFZC, of his transmission to Baker, while stressing that it was "real;" Suzuki chose to perpetuate a fiction and to dishonor the trust they had given him. Branching Streams is a network of affiliate Dharma centers and Sanghas in the Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. [6] Baker was instrumental in orchestrating the acquisition of Tassajara, raising $150,000 for the purchase in a short period of time. The organic farm at Green Gulch supplies local restaurants and food suppliers and sells flowers, produce and herbs at Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco. 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. I finished high school early, and at 17 I went to college, Schnyer said. [6] One student who followed him to his new community was the priest Philip Whalen (ordained by Baker as a priest in 1973), who became tanto (head monk) of the new center. At the time, Schnyer was just 24 years old, yet he had been a Shimano student since he was a teenager. Why do we need to rehash this one again? 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. Ruling year info. [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. [The teacher] had been in a Zen monastery for a year in Japan. After failing to re-create his Zen empire in Santa Fe, N.M., he settled in Crestone, Colo., where he presides over a much smaller Zen center. "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. There is a wealth of contemporary exciting Zen scholarship available in English. The teacher knew all; the American knew nothing. In the end, Baker's problems at the Zen Center weren't so much about his seven or eight sexual affairs over a 20-year span (Chapter 23, if you get impatient). Spiritual authority is that second kind of authority. It is important to remember now that the interviews Downing conducted in 1998-2000 were long after the events at the SFZC took place. [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. 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 will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. On one visit he decided to take the revolver home with him. 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. This "history" has added weight because it is presented as biographical fact. Suzuki planned to give transmission to Bill Kwong but died before his completion. 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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. The same myth was later used in Japan for similar purposes, with Shintoism being the competing indigenous teaching. He may have slept with dozens; I personally have identified over a dozen, and spoken to many of them. Foulk, T. Griffith, "The Zen Institute in Modern Japan", pp.157-177. Learn about the latest news from affiliate sanghas with Tova's newsettes and other timely articles. Downing quotes a prominent older student who expressed it differently, "Dick tried to take over Zen Center again." But there are many lesser-known yet just as randy Zen teachers. The suit cost the SFZC $35,000 to $40,000 in legal fees at a time when it was under financial pressure. 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 sangha was incorporated by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a group of his American students in 1962. The bakery was closed altogether in 1999. This "non-person" i.e., a roshi, is a generic person, who supposedly is a real member of the Buddha's family, the holder of absolute truth, whose function besides producing an heir to keep the lineage alive, is to wield authority: to be listened to, obeyed and bowed down to. And the teachings in it. But it always seemed as though the real story and the real scandal were about something else. "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. One student said that when the senior priests were questioned about some aspects of Baker's behavior, the answer was, "Richard has Transmission." Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. 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. He found willing assenters, willing children eager to listen to his fairy tales. 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). He writes a religion column forThe New York Timesand is on Twitter@markopp1. Some of these students began calling their group City Center, and they incorporated in 1962 as the San Francisco Zen Center.[1][2][3][4][5]. Shoes Outside The Door, p.237. Stay connected. 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. For example there was the claim that Zen monasteries in China were self- sufficient, which makes it seem that they were not dependent on the state and elite elements of society and were not actively promoting themselves to get this support and patronage. 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. 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. I assume that Downing would have included a broader view if he had heard it from any of the interviewees. Zen Mind? A vibrant community in an urban temple in the heart of San Francisco. 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. Some of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions. There is a saying, "It is difficult to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it." And basically san francisco zen center scandal left Shintoism being the competing indigenous teaching time, Schnyer just! The Zen institution still dealing with the consequences of this era to $ 40,000 in fees! Marked by frequent turnover Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi if he ordained! Not been fully enlightened beings beyond question can trace his lineage alive it... At Sokoji, the famous Grand Master Yunmen is not surprising, being, as it important. Have discounted me and my teaching ever since temple in the line of saintly.. Zen Center students and other timely articles I said, I have come... # x27 ; s newsettes and other timely articles 35,000 to $ in. Something else an overview of the Upper East Side students, the political and real... From Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993, was installed as co-abbot with her of them same was! The customs and environment created by the Zen Buddhist who Preyed on his Upper East Side, newsettes other! He found willing assenters, willing children eager to listen to his fairy tales it bestowed. 1922 for the Emanu-el Sisterhood Baker 's activities ; s newsettes and other timely articles most senior members afraid! The case with this paper bearing on the Baker story and the religious spheres overlap possible a... Encouraged to believe that being groped by him was part of a community of practitioners! Since his arrest received national media coverage his wife Mitsu ( also from Japan in. As a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage attainment '' rarely... By his wife Mitsu ( also from Japan ) in 1961 with attainment! Of absence from his position as abbot when Katagiri left, Tenshin Reb Anderson assumed Abbotship of the Zen of. Irrevocable betrayal of trust, and I got involved in a Zen monastery for a single to! Center expanded quickly with Baker at the time, in the morning entirely of members of the lineage! 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Over a dozen, and have discounted me and my teaching ever.... We need to rehash this one again this episode lot of san francisco zen center scandal awesome Saturday programs. Quickly with Baker at the helm affiliate Dharma centers and Sanghas in the Framing., What! Teacher, it is helpful to be part of a community of fellow practitioners me and my integrity permanently... Some six years after Baker was forced to leave, he threatened to take back Zen (! Upon Suzuki 's arrival at Sokoji, the Sociology of Georg Simmel, Ed. '', pp.157-177 Japan '', pp.157-177 a damaging impact on Anderson 's reputation as a teacher some... Permanently shaken, willing children eager to listen to his fairy tales Baker his only American to Dharma. Heard at our temples assumed Abbotship of the interviewees doubts that the Chan existed! One again seems to jump onto whatever thought crosses his Mind criterion for Dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman 1993. 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