[3] He has two daughters, Sally and Elizabeth, from a prior marriage to Virginia Baker. And perhaps most importantly, his authority will be understood with a taken-for-granted quality of being natural. 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 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. A student was also liable to believe that her teacher was conveying the one true form of Zen Buddhism. A special note is given to the papers of Heine, Wright, Foulk, McRae, Welter, Schlutter, Michel Mohr and Ishii Shudo. SteveSiesta. Zen Mind? Until one begins to view religious institutions as institutions that function in a particular context, subject to the same problematic power relationships as secular institutions, problems such as those that arose at the San Francisco Zen Center and Buddhist organizations across the West will be almost inevitable. I have seen such a view expressed in four other major Zen communities as well as in a Tibetan community. Guests are . At the same time, this supposed desireless image of the roshi is meant to invoke desire in us for him. The number of practitioners at SFZC grew rapidly in the mid-sixties. 1962 - SFZC is founded by Shunryu Suzuki and his Western students. One component of Buddhism is to recognize cause and effect. [2] From 1968 to 1971, he traveled to Japan to practice at the primary St monasteries there, including Antaiji, Eiheiji, and Daitokuji. Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over several days to meditate over the corpse. Had he misused confidences given to him in dokusan (a private meeting between teacher and student pertaining to the student's practice, an extremely important element in Zen training) for self-serving reasons? After six months, he returned to his position. Explore San Francisco Zen Center's newsletters and blogs. 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. 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. See Alan Cole, "It's All in the Framing." There was an article and follow up piece by Brian Victoria discussing anti-Semitic remarks made by Yasutani roshi in Tricycle magazine (Fall and Winter 1999). 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). [5] Baker was ordained a St priest by Suzuki in 1966 just before the opening of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. Brian Victoria was so interested in the possibility of a public pacifist/anti-war Soto monk that he contacted Suzuki's son Hoitsu who told him: "I don't know where all of this antiwar talk comes from, but my father and the rest of the family supported Japan's war effort just like everyone else." Richard Baker is an extremely bright and talented person and a born salesman. (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.) Why did Baker perpetuate such a simplistic view of Suzuki? 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.[36]. 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. But, given that no one interviewed in the book expressed any view outside of the standard Zen model, one may ask, was the Zen history taught at the Zen Center just more of Zen legend? Suzuki-roshi, as his students called him, died of cancer in 1971. Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. It is this idealized version of Dharma transmission that claims the master is an enlightened being that is the source of the Zen master's extraordinary claim to authority. Baker also claimed that he was trying "to protect Suzuki Roshi's legacy and lineage." And the teachings in it. However Zen texts may define the role, Zen masters have not been fully enlightened beings beyond question. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. Zen Center survived, reorganizing in a manner that made it more democratic, but also more bureaucratic. 2015. But in truth, neither Suzuki nor Baker fit the saintly mold. Please see the Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page as well as the Calendar. . 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. If Suzuki was California's Zen messiah, then Richard Baker was his Apostle Paul. What passes for "knowledge" in society is built on the foundation of language. Some of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions. In this act lies the first step towards freedom." [10] The Residence combined residential rooms that could house 70 women on the upper floors, with public spaces for spiritual, recreational, and educational uses on the ground floor and basement. The bakery was closed altogether in 1999. Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. (It should be noted that Suzuki could read English.) This has a direct bearing on the Baker story and the way mythology continues to be constructed even in the present. 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. David Hume said in his Of the First principles of Government (1758) that "Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers." Yamada gave Dharma transmission to Robert Aitkin, though Aitkin and his Diamond Sangha later separated from the Sanbokyodan organization after Yamada's death. Therefore, in the need to remain at the Center, members had a powerful incentive to fully buy into Zen's mythology. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. The Board of Directors at SFZC also began election of leaders. Great Experience with Western Zen Practice. It is clear that the senior members of Zen Center surrounding Baker were well-indoctrinated vessels of Zen ideology. Hence, questioning and dissent became a shortcoming of the person expressing such a view. Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki buy this book At that time, Baker also became the official leader of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC). It is a performance meant to confirm and display the current master's significance, authority and attainment. 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. For an important look at Buddhist biography and hagiography though not especially Chan, the reader may look at Kieschnick, John, The Eminent Monk, University of Hawaii Press, 1997. [27][28][29][30], In March 1983 Baker was accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with the wife of an influential sangha member. 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. 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. Zen is a Chinese invention roughly beginning in the seventh or eighth century of this era. His focus on having the Center grow quickly and on reforming Soto Zen in Japan may also have contributed to the problems. This "history" has added weight because it is presented as biographical fact. In Northern California, Zen chic peaked in the early 1980s, and its rise and fall has much to do with the stories of two lives -- another Japanese man named Suzuki and another Westerner with a brilliant mind and roving eye. 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. 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. In fact, a number of older students who had known Baker for years left the Zen Center when he was installed as both abbot and roshi of SFZC. 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. Money, too, is worth something because we believe it iswe give the $20 bill the magical properties of being worth more than the $1 bill, even though the paper and ink are identical. 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. An interesting debate between Victoria and members of the Deshimaru group (A.Z.I.) Access SFZC Online wherever you are, anytime. [15], In the twenty-five years since leaving San Francisco Zen Center, Baker has continued his career as a Zen teacher, founding and developing two practice centers. Ask Kai C about San Francisco Zen Center. This recommended class series offers listeners an overview of the fundamentals of Buddhism and Zen. Our personal experience is socially constructed in dialogue with society and with ourselves. Baker claimed the Center was "denying 2,500 years of how Buddhism was developed and continued" He made a number of other historically inaccurate claims, and finally dropped the suit saying that he was pressured to institute the threat by a lawyer student of his: "There was a lawyer who kept bugging me." In 1995 Zoketsu Norman Fischer was installed as Abbot at SFZC, and in 1996 Zenkai Blanche Hartman was appointed as co-Abbot with him (becoming the first female Abbot in SFZC history). He was a very traditional Rinzai master: stern when he needed to be, very rarely encouraging. It matters that we keep assenting to the stories. Its waves of people who say, Im done with this, I got what I can out of it and then a new group comes in.. He may have slept with dozens; I personally have identified over a dozen, and spoken to many of them. [5], In 1969, Sokoji's board of directors asked Suzuki to resign his position as the temple's priest, asserting that he was spending more time with his Western students than the Japanese-American congregation. Why should we think that Suzuki chose Baker as his only American Dharma heir based on his level of "spiritual attainment?" [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]. At the time of the purchase, Baker claimed he needed so expensive a car because of the amount of driving he did. 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. 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. 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