san francisco zen center scandal

It is mentioned often enough that Downing, interestingly calculates the hours that individual senior members had meditated. After the founding of Dharma Sangha in New Mexico, Baker met with William Irwin Thompson, the founder of the Lindisfarne Association. [9] In the midst of the growth, Baker became a popular public figure. 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. Zen Center Members And perhaps most importantly, his authority will be understood with a taken-for-granted quality of being natural. At the time of the purchase, Baker claimed he needed so expensive a car because of the amount of driving he did. Baker and Suzuki themselves were rewarded by this system. 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. 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. 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. One of Shimanos greatest advantages has been that he is Japanese. More commonly it is bestowed or given by a teacher to some one with limited attainment in order to keep his lineage alive. "To sum up the situation, we have no sources at all from the T'ang which mentions or describe explicitly "Chan" institutions," p. 267. In fact there are few major centers not touched by sexual or other scandals, but the SFZC case suffices for the discussion we will have here. is the head teacher at the Dharma Field Meditation and Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The volunteer project's founding director was Frank Ostaseski, who served until 2004. All of this authority and potency is manifested in the rituals of the Zen master commenting on and judging the words and actions of not only their disciples, but also of anyone in the lineage going all the way back to and including, the historical Buddha. Koun Yamada was Yasutani roshi's Dharma heir. Despite the controversy connected with his resignation, Baker was instrumental in helping the San Francisco Zen Center to become one of the most successful Zen institutions in the United States. One has to ask if something is not missing in Suzuki's simple prescription to "just sit?" 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. From the perspective of power and control, the political and the religious spheres overlap. 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. [5], In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shiho (Dharma Transmission) from Richard Baker. And that gets the juices flowing. There are two kinds of authority. The student who enters the "practice" having read a myth will expect to find the myth, and will think they have found the myth. Remember the senior student who quoted Suzuki as saying, " Dick's commitment is at another level, so the rest of us simply were not in a position to criticize him." By this time there had also been an abundance of scholarly writing and empirical evidence exposing much of the mythology surrounding Zen. Suzuki Roshi The idea of electing an abbot is, no doubt, a distinctively American innovation in a centuries-long pattern of religious authority. [34], Following Baker's resignation, Dainin Katagiri led the community until 1985. It is because one was wrong about him, because one misinterpreted the states of his soul and drew as sharp a line as is possible between oneself and him, as if he were something utterly incomparable and strangely superhuman-that he gained that extraordinary power with which he could dominate the imagination of whole peoples and ages. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. This article is not saying that there is no place for a Zen teacher. 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. Under the Zen approach, the Chan masters are clearly more potent than the monastics of other Buddhist sects, who merely explicate the Dharma through texts, often texts that are further distanced from their authoritative origins by the act of translation. This formulaic collection of qualities of a Zen master, is not neutral. Most of the narratives of the early heroes of Chan that we have today were composed hundreds of years after the ostensive events, complete with verbatim accounts of the master's interaction with a disciple presented as if a court stenographer had been recording the entire interaction. In the wake of Baker's resignation, SFZC transitioned to a democratically elected leadership model, until in 2010 there was a new introduction of a predesignated slated of board members. But how real is this history? When Kelly grew frustrated with Shimanos womanizing, he made a proposition. Andy Afable, one of Shimanos former head monks, called these four the major missionaries of Zen, as they had all received transmission from leading Japanese teachers: That is, they had been deemed worthy to be the heirs, to be responsible for the persistence of the teachings. The experience of legitimacy, realness and of being believable hides the underlying power relations. [21][22][23] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West. I highly recommend this book, especially the first 101 pages. Also see his forthcoming book on early Chan texts for a unique dissection of early lineage claims and their supporting texts . Members had not the slightest inkling that their view of Zen was controlled. I don't know for certain but Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind was published in 1970, only one year before Baker himself received Dharma transmission and the title, Zen master. A descendant of Thomas Dudley,[4] Baker was raised in a family of moderate wealth. Located atop a bumpy 10-mile (16km) road which is difficult for some vehicles to climb, Tassajara offers shuttles to and from the retreat for those inclined to forgo trying to make the trek on their own. Did it not occur to him that Richard had a family, too, as did many of the priests of Zen Center?" 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. Cole, who teaches at Lewis and Clark College, also has two very provocative books soon to be published, one on the Mahayana sutras and the other on early Chan texts and the "birth" of Chinese Buddhas. Upon Suzuki's arrival at Sokoji, the congregation was composed entirely of members of the Japanese-American population. 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. [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. 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. 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." While this is obviously a general statement that demands further qualification, it serves to introduce some of the basic problems to be dealt with here. 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. "The years people spent here were not wasted years of being duped. He remained abbot there until 1984, the year he resigned his position after it was disclosed in the previous year that he and the wife of one of SFZC's benefactors had been having an ongoing affair. pp.347-379. It is fashionable among practitioners in the West to consider critical thought as "un-Zen." The supposed enlightened Master gets the last word in judging not only the student's behavior and verbal responses, but also the whole of the past enlightened lineage including the historical Buddha by commenting on and judging any and all of the past Masters in the old cases (koan) and in their recorded sayings. Desire, Devotion, and Excess at the San Francisco 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." Join the San Francisco Zen Center Membership Program. Suzuki had asked Baker to locate a farm in the area for entire families to live a Buddhist life while working together. However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. [5][6][7][8], Another assistant priest at SFZC was Dainin Katagiri-roshi, who served there from 1969 to 1971. For a many sided view of the Zen koan see, The Koan, Ed. At the time, Schnyer was just 24 years old, yet he had been a Shimano student since he was a teenager. The film was directed by veteran filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and executive produced by physician, Shoshana R. Importantly, the head of every Soto temple must have Dharma transmission. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a group of his American students in 1962. (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.) 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. Please send to slachs@worldnet.att.net. One of the greatest reasons that Shimano could sleep with so many women is that it bothered the men so little. The Zen master is a role that stands as a representative of the entire Zen institution. 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. 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. It may be Zen-like, but it can also be annoying. Audio recordings of familiar sounds heard at our temples. (See Foulk, "Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice," listed in the notes for a fuller discussion.) Sokojifounded by Hosen Isobe in 1934had been housed in a former Jewish synagogue that is now Kokoro Assisted Living. 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. It seems that Zen's emphasis on wisdom, while giving compassion only lip service, is really about power. The historical Zen masters we have all come to know are always presented in terms of supposedly real people, with names, dates, and locations, and reports of purportedly real conversations and interactions with other monks and sometimes lay people as if there is no doubt at all that we are dealing with historical individuals. A student was also liable to believe that her teacher was conveying the one true form of Zen Buddhism. 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. 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. Baker also gives seminars at Boulder Zen Center in Boulder, Colorado twice each year, typically on the last weekends of January and April. Definitely worth checking them out on their website and trying to attend the beginners lesson! 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. All trouble at the Center was internalized and personalized by its members. Sarasota, Florida. 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. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since.
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