SteveSiesta. Ask Kelly S about San Francisco Zen Center. Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'an/Zen Buddhism in America Having wisdom, in the Zen view, is based on Dharma transmission, which implies that the person is an enlightened being. Within a couple of years, Suzuki considered founding a monastery to host more intensive practice for those students who were interested. Yamada gave Dharma transmission to Robert Aitkin, though Aitkin and his Diamond Sangha later separated from the Sanbokyodan organization after Yamada's death. In fifteen years, the Center's annual budget increased from $6,000, to $4 million. 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. At times, senior disciples needed to reassure newcomers who questioned Baker's behavior that all was in order. He does not sit zazen and only chants when he has a service to do for someone." Writings featured as biography in Zen are most often an idealized presentation of how a master should perform his role rather than the life of a real person. For example, Afable might have added that at Chobo-ji, a Zen temple in Seattle, Genki Takabayashi made passes at his female students. Elizabeth is married to Jason Kibbey. [6] Baker was instrumental in orchestrating the acquisition of Tassajara, raising $150,000 for the purchase in a short period of time. Suzuki Roshi [20] Zen Hospice Project provides hospice care for individuals of any or no religion who are looking for a compassionate end to their life. A good part of the goal of Buddhism is to reduce illusion and suffering. [34], Following Baker's resignation, Dainin Katagiri led the community until 1985. 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. All of this is in the context of Suzuki, the Zen master, being a man whose quality of life is described as: "buoyancy, vigor, straightforwardness, simplicity, humility, security, joyousness, uncanny perspicacity and unfathomable compassion." Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. His focus on having the Center grow quickly and on reforming Soto Zen in Japan may also have contributed to the problems. Religion occupies a distinctive place in this enterprise." 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." He occupies an authoritative place in East Asian cultures that have already been imbued with a special level of hierarchy since ancient times. Access to movies showing San Francisco Zen Center's founder, who died in 1971. They should take credit for the fact that we did it for many years. Upon Suzuki's arrival at Sokoji, the congregation was composed entirely of members of the Japanese-American population. If some one would like copies, please email me at: slachs@worldnet.att.net . In one well-known collection, the famous Grand Master Yunmen is not recorded at all. In this scheme, each teacher can trace his lineage and hence, authenticity, back to the historical Buddha. 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. 3. At a meeting of the Board of Directors of Lindisfarne at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, Thompson convinced the board to donate the campus that he had establishedwith its passive solar Lindisfarne Fellows House, Founder's House, and Lindisfarne Chapelto Baker-roshi's Dharma Sangha. In this way the teacher was like a deity, a minor god. [11][13][14][15], In 1976, SFZC purchased the Gallo Pastry Company to found the Tassajara Bakery, which became popular before being sold to the company Just Desserts in 1992. Baker's introduction to Suzuki's edited words in the well known book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind gives a description of Suzuki as the ideal of a fully realized Zen master. Despite having only had 12 years in the United States, Suzuki had gone a long way toward establishing Soto Zen in America. 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. [17], Last edited on 21 December 2022, at 18:50, Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States, "The Long Learning Curve: An Interview With Richard Baker Roshi", Zentatsu Richard Baker page on the Crestone Mountain Zen Center website, Richard Baker and the Myth of the Zen Roshi, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Baker_(Zen_teacher)&oldid=1128738434, This page was last edited on 21 December 2022, at 18:50. Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen Stay connected. 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. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. There is nothing in the description that allows someone in the future to distinguish Suzuki, Hoitsu or any of their heirs from any of thousands of hallowed ancestors. 1962 - SFZC is founded by Shunryu Suzuki and his Western students. But how real is this history? At the time of the purchase, Baker claimed he needed so expensive a car because of the amount of driving he did. At the time, Schnyer was just 24 years old, yet he had been a Shimano student since he was a teenager. 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. Ask Kai C about San Francisco Zen Center. But the Americans didnt know that. The teacher knew all; the American knew nothing. [21][22][23] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West. Definitely worth checking them out on their website and trying to attend the beginners lesson! Some of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions. 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. Please keep it in mind. People interviewed had the luxury of hindsight. 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. That's what we made of it." Steve Hagen. The tension was alleviated when Suzuki's Western students began gathering for separate services, albeit still at Sokoji, in 1961. This is a very interesting piece of "history" which is no doubt destined to be repeated. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Despite extraordinary personal shortcomings, Eido Shimano continued to wield spiritual authority throughout his time at the Zen Studies Society. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. A large institution like Zen requires hundreds of such living role players. 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. But in truth, neither Suzuki nor Baker fit the saintly mold. This would have led any impartial observer to question the spiritual implications of Dharma transmission. [5][16][17][18][19], In 2000 Jiko Linda Cutts was appointed Abbess, having received Dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1996. Richard Baker also survived. 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. Why should we think that Suzuki chose Baker as his only American Dharma heir based on his level of "spiritual attainment?" I approached it with a searching spirituality aspect, reading Huxley and Timothy Leary, and that leads you down the road to the Beat generation and Zen. This is not ancient history. Shoes Outside The Door, p.289. ", Lachs, Stuart: 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? This dissertation also asks whether the Chan sect existed at all as a separate and distinct sect in the Tang dynasty, the supposed "golden age of Chan"). 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. [10], In 1970, Suzuki gave Dharma transmission to Richard Baker, his only American Dharma Heir and chosen successor at SFZC. critical insights into Zen/Buddhism have strongly influenced my views: Robert Buswell, Alan Cole, Bernard Faure, T. Griffith Foulk, Robert M. Gimello, Peter N. Gregory, John Kieschnick, John R. McRae, A. Charles Muller, Mario Poceski, Robert H. Sharf, Morten Schlutter, Gregory Schopen, Brian Victoria, Albert Welter and Dale Wright. defending Deshimaru's teacher Sawaki roshi's wartime involvement dating from 1905 through WWII is available on the internet at, http://www.zen-azi.org/html/guerre_e.html#replybyb. While traveling back to school after a vacation, he stopped with a friend at Dai Bosatsuthe Zen Studies Society's monastery in the Catskillsand was impressed immediately. Berkeley, March 17th, 2002. He jumps across decades, and sometimes seems to jump onto whatever thought crosses his mind. As is common among members of new religions, they viewed themselves as special. Zen ascribes to Pai-chang (died 814) its earliest monastic code that supposedly set Chan apart as a separate sect in the Tang dynasty. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. 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. 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. In 1987 SFZC started the Zen Hospice Project, a volunteer hospice program run out of a guest house on Page Street with five residential beds. It is fashionable among practitioners in the West to consider critical thought as "un-Zen." 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. While we remain committed to the health and safety of our residential and wider sangha, we deeply value the importance of gathering in person and sharing the Dharma in proximity with others. 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. Trouble At The San Francisco Zen Center This article was excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,out now. Baker Sums It Up At the same time, this supposed desireless image of the roshi is meant to invoke desire in us for him. 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." In the 1960's and 70's, San Francisco Zen Center students, like most other Zen students in the U.S.A., thoroughly accepted (among a range of glaring historical inaccuracies) the idealistic Zen rhetoric, including the notion that Dharma transmission is only about spiritual attainment, that all roshis are essentially equal, and that Zen institutions in East Asia are apolitical and divorced from the state. 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. It is a performance meant to confirm and display the current master's significance, authority and attainment. Please send to slachs@worldnet.att.net. 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. Trust me." There appeared to be a vast cultural divide between the Zen Center students of Suzuki and Japanese Zen monks that showed itself both in America and in Japan. 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. Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki book review buy this book On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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." 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. 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. On one visit he decided to take the revolver home with him. The fact is that almost everything about Zen's presentation, practice, and rituals is aimed at producing people who give up their good sense with the promise of a greater gain in the future. Please see the Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page as well as the Calendar. For a look at how religious fantasies may cause trouble, especially with leaders, see "Religion and Alienation" in Berger, Peter L., The Sacred Canopy, pp, 81-101. 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A theme repeated in Downing's interviews is Suzuki's seemingly quirky idea of reforming Soto Zen in Japan by having his American students go there as living examples of reform. The Zen Institution I am thankful for Michael Downing's work, which is extremely valuable. Baker was a charismatic leader, brilliant lecturer and dedicated Buddhist. Please visit the Calendar page for more details or sign up for our weekly Sangha News email to receive notices of upcoming events. Branching Streams is a network of affiliate Dharma centers and Sanghas in the Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. 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. He was married three times. Before our eyes we have a living person becoming a faceless, a-historical person. 2002: 8-11. But the Soto sect tries to have it both ways. City Center A vibrant community in an urban temple in the heart of San Francisco. 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. 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.
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