[2] From 1968 to 1971, he traveled to Japan to practice at the primary St monasteries there, including Antaiji, Eiheiji, and Daitokuji. He also grabbed the land for Green Gulch farm and retreat center, located in a spectacular valley near Muir Beach. Zen Center businesses embodied other Bay Area delights. These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. As long as it was understood that Baker was the only Dharma heir of Suzuki, it was exceedingly difficult for any one to question Baker's behavior and style. (Downing's interviews showed that he did.) (It should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) On May 23, 1959, Shunryu Suzuki (then age 55) came from Japan to San Francisco to serve as head priest of Sokojia Soto Zen temple then located at 1881 Bush Street in Japantown. Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. 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. [21][22][23] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West. Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. 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. 1969 - The current SFZC building was purchased with the help of American students. On one visit he decided to take the revolver home with him. In one well-known collection, the famous Grand Master Yunmen is not recorded at all. For an earlier view of the immediate events surrounding Baker, see Butler, Katy, "Events Are The Teachers", The CoEvolution Quarterly, winter 1983, pp.112-123. When it came to Baker's transmission from Suzuki, virtually all the students interviewed by Downing assumed that it was a "real" transmission. 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." Seeing Through Zen by by John R. McRae book reviews buy this book, Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen, Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'an/Zen Buddhism in America, 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, Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions, Finding Safe Harbor: Buddhist Sexual Ethics in America, Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center, Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki, Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki. Your support is crucial to sustain our practice centers and thriving online community. Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. He writes, " The perfect disciplinary apparatus would make it possible for a single gaze to see everything constantly." [6], San Francisco Zen Center expanded quickly with Baker at the helm. And the teachings in it. In Downing's book we see that much illusion, suffering and pain has been part of Zen in San Francisco, a situation that, unfortunately, has been repeated in most every other part of America over a thirty-five year period. In some of these biographies, people later classified as Chan monks were listed in other categories, such as Master Yantou Huo as an ascetic and Master Xingzhi as a benefactor. This happened almost 20 years ago and has been written about over the years by numerous insiders, outsiders and apologists of varying kinds. 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. 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. With this investment it is understandable that one might not want to question too closely the teacher's behavior. In the future, his name will be used as proof of authenticity for someone else that is also claiming this authentic connection to the Buddha. However, it should be noted, that he let interviewees voice any number of inaccuracies without comment. By saying this, he was emphasizing his guarantee that the essence of the Zen lineage resides in Baker. Explore hundreds of dharma talksby San Francisco Zen Center teachers, practice leaders, and speakers from the wider community. And perhaps most importantly, his authority will be understood with a taken-for-granted quality of being natural. 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. Baker then moved to Crestone, Colorado and Germany to found other practice sites for Dharma Sangha. In this way the teacher was like a deity, a minor god. Tassajara Bakery was a Zen Center venture promoted by Richard Baker as an extension of the baking practices at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. If Suzuki was California's Zen messiah, then Richard Baker was his Apostle Paul. This reminder served an important purpose: the Center's members viewed Suzuki's authority as if it were a divine fiat, so that any dissent or criticism was ended. 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. Students that come to practice at the monastery from September through April must undergo the tradition known as tangaryo. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. One student said that when the senior priests were questioned about some aspects of Baker's behavior, the answer was, "Richard has Transmission." 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. Great Experience with Western Zen Practice. Like whoa, and when you start the practice, the practice I feel isits very profound. Zen is a Chinese invention roughly beginning in the seventh or eighth century of this era. I suspect I probably said something like that, Schnyer said. Downing quotes a prominent older student who expressed it differently, "Dick tried to take over Zen Center again." 22, no.3-4. 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. Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. Sitting meditation (zazen) is available live online Monday through Friday mornings, Saturday mornings, and Monday through Friday evenings. 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. Michael Downing's book, Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center (2001) describes much of the sexual scandal surrounding Richard Baker, as well as financial problems and Baker's generally arrogant behavior. And that gets the juices flowing. I said, I have to come back here. So I did one more semester of school and then dropped out. But there are many lesser-known yet just as randy Zen teachers. 4.5. It is an institutional dream that needs to be analyzed using its own description. 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 had asked Baker to locate a farm in the area for entire families to live a Buddhist life while working together. . After all, the only two previous Dharma transmissions Suzuki gave, to his son Hoitsu and to Unknown, were not based on attainment at all. 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. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. Kai C. Half Moon Bay, California. One member quoted Baker as saying, "I always act from pure motives; I never worry about the world." 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. Some Zen followers believe that Zen is only concerned with enlightenment and is not concerned with personal behavior or with ordinary morality. This story appears to be an example of modern day creation of hagiography that will be repeated in the future. 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 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." This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. Was Baker's commitment to Zen practice much greater than a number of other of Suzuki's close, very committed senior disciples? And that very presentation is the freight of the Zen machine. 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. Yet, I have found that within the Zen community there is little self-examination about Zen as an institution and its self-definitions and what the effects of these are in the world of flesh and blood people. However Zen texts may define the role, Zen masters have not been fully enlightened beings beyond question. In America, it is common in Zen and other communities led by a charismatic teacher to view events that could generate questions such as these not as real life-problems, but as "skillful means" employed to convey the essence of "the teaching." 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. This formulaic collection of qualities of a Zen master, is not neutral. He was what I needed. For an analysis of the inherent power relations in the one-dimensional description of a roshi and how it is taken for being natural, see "Symbolic Violence and Social Reproduction" and "Uses of Language" in, Jenkins, Richard, Pierre Bourdieu, Routledge, 1992, pp.103-110 and pp.152-162 respectively. 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. [9] The building, designed by Julia Morgan, was built as the Emanu-el Residence Club in 1922 for the Emanu-el Sisterhood. Katagiri would go on to establish his own practice centerthe Minnesota Zen Centerin 1972 in Minneapolis. Victoria describes how the most prominent roshis from all sects of Japanese Zen interpreted Zen's teachings to support the imperial and militaristic goals of Japan from the early twentieth century through the end of World War II and beyond. 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. 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