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[Note: This section offers background mostly not covered in Downing's book.] He is now a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and in December 2012 I spoke with him by telephone. Practitioners are given the ultimate encouragement of knowing that real people "attained enlightenment" and therefore so can we. One member suggested that the Shimanos instead be given an extended sabbatical. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. Michel Foucault in "The Means of Correct Training" in Discipline and Punish, Trans. It was a spiritual scandal starring the usual suspects -- sex, money and the abuse of religious authority. Many women and others in the Zen community have suffered as a result, and we regret and apologize for our collective failure to stop this harm. This article is not saying that there is no place for a Zen teacher. 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. It was not mentioned in the interviews that Suzuki himself might be partially responsible for the ensuing trouble. He writes a religion column forThe New York Timesand is on Twitter@markopp1. Political authority can function in this second way. (It should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) For example, the San Francisco Zen Center, after a scandal involving Suzuki-roshi's dharma heir Richard Baker-roshi, decided to elect its two abbots to four-year terms. Members had not the slightest inkling that their view of Zen was controlled. These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. 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). That Kapleau never received Dharma transmission was exposed in a public letter from Yamada roshi dated,1/16/86. The Zen Studies Society was marked by frequent turnover. Above all, we agree to the stories that prop up constitutions or money. I am greatly indebted to the works of the following scholars, among others, whose 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. 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." Branching Streams is a network of affiliate Dharma centers and Sanghas in the Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. At the time of the purchase, Baker claimed he needed so expensive a car because of the amount of driving he did. "Something above ninety percent of us had come from alcoholic families or families that were dysfunctional with the same patterns." Baker is the sole western heir of Suzuki Roshi, a Japanese Zen teacher who founded the SFZC and its mountain training center, Tassajara established in 1967. Interestingly, one of the oldest members of Zen Center, a psychologist, did an "informal poll" of people who had been at Zen Center for more than eight years. 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. A vibrant community in an urban temple in the heart of San Francisco. The volunteer project's founding director was Frank Ostaseski, who served until 2004. Great Experience with Western Zen Practice. I dont know, he said. 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. But the Americans didnt know that. Shocked by the series of scandals involving its senior teachers, the organization decided to appoint two abbots, who would share the position at any one time. In this sect, Dharma transmission is commonly a father-son transmission ritual culminating in the son's inheritance of the family temple. 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. Also see, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, Trans.and Ed. "[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. Reviewed July 20, 2014 . To this end, Zen Center is engaged in numerous social and ecological initiatives. Downing shows that even in their every day negotiations for used restaurant equipment when they were opening Green's Restaurant, they held a disproportionate sense of their own importance in the wider community. 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." 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. Why should we think that Suzuki chose Baker as his only American Dharma heir based on his level of "spiritual attainment?" 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. 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. In reality it means, "don't question, don't look!" Trouble At the San Francisco Zen Center This new Buddha is also alive and homegrown and hence more immediate and real. For an outstanding article on Sanbokyodan Zen, a Zen sect important in the West see, Sharf, Robert, "Sanbokyodan, Zen and the Way of New Religions", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Fall 1995, Vol. Downing has offered an excellent example in Richard Baker and the SFZC. And that gets the juices flowing. 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. Also see his forthcoming book on early Chan texts for a unique dissection of early lineage claims and their supporting texts . (Downing's interviews showed that he did.) You can see how much more potent it is to have a teacher presented as a living Buddha or at least Buddha-like, who, instead of simply interpreting and explaining the words of the Buddha, actually speaks with the same voice as the Buddha. They will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. [8] Within a very short period of time Baker broadened the scope of SFZC, starting first with the acquisition of Green Gulch Farm in southern Marin county, in 1972. A descendant of Thomas Dudley,[4] Baker was raised in a family of moderate wealth. However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. According to revelations that have tumbled out over the past two years, and which I chronicle in-depth in a new e-book, Shimano has spent 50 years preying sexually on his students. His focus on having the Center grow quickly and on reforming Soto Zen in Japan may also have contributed to the problems. 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. What they really found is another story of flawed human behavior. It is important to remember now that the interviews Downing conducted in 1998-2000 were long after the events at the SFZC took place. This is also extremely disempowering which can lead to all sorts of problems, as the SFZC case clearly shows. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. [The teacher] had been in a Zen monastery for a year in Japan. At that time, Baker also became the official leader of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC). This is hagiography, which is necessary for Chan's self-legitimating claims of mind-to-mind transmission and unbroken lineage. In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shih from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir (though Baker disputes this). Introduction On one visit he decided to take the revolver home with him. [1][15], In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shih from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir (though Baker disputes this). 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. pp.347-379. What unites the several panels is a stream of monarch butterflies, often seen in spring at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, one of SFZC's three temples. These and any number of other questions, complaints, hurts or criticisms harbored by his disciples, were not raised. 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.. 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. In 1989, some six years after Baker was forced to leave, he threatened to take back Zen Center by going to court. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. In addition, as there are other practitioners around the teacher, it is helpful to be part of a community of fellow practitioners. "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. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. [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. In fact, it was often not based on spiritual attainment at all, most especially so in Japanese Soto Zen, which is the sect of Suzuki, Baker and the San Francisco Zen Center. Suzuki's arrival came at the tail end of the Beat movement and just prior to the social movements of the 1960s, both of which had major roots in San Francisco. The results of this in terms of the quality of his life are extraordinary-buoyancy, vigor, straightforwardness, simplicity, humility, security, joyousness, uncanny perspicacity and unfathomable compassion. In time Suzuki, Baker, Hoitsu, and Unknown will blend into that "history" of immaculate patriarchs. I am also thankful to Mark Baldwin, Sandra Eisenstein, Simeon Gallu, Grace Luddy, Kevin Matthews, Bruce Rickenbacher and Marlene Swartz for many hours of discussion, helpful suggestions, and editorial assistance. Surely others felt the same way, but only Schnyer and Kelly have been so bold or articulate, have made clear the amorality, and the misogyny, that can infect Zen practice and enable its malefactors. Spiritual authority is that second kind of authority. It all came tumbling down in a 1983 event known in Zen Center circles as "the Apocalypse." It was a spiritual scandal starring the usual suspects -- sex, money and the abuse of religious. From 1986 to 1988 he served as abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, and from 1988 to 1995 he served there as co-abbot with Sojun Mel Weitsman. A gem! 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. People put their hearts into the practice and the Center, sometimes going as far as asserting that the Center represented the cutting edge of Zen in the America. Look, theres a certain type of person that is looking for something else in another culture, said Ed Glassing, the former resident monk at both Zen Studies Society locations, whom Shimano maligned as a homosexual. Sort of like, something they dont have, so its mysterious, exotic, its like whoa. Before long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans mostly beatniks coming to the temple to sit zazen with him in the morning. Stuart Lachs, October 2002 It seems that Zen's emphasis on wisdom, while giving compassion only lip service, is really about power. Established in 1962, the San Francisco Zen Center is one of the largest residential training Soto Zen Buddhist organizations outside of Asia. He also grabbed the land for Green Gulch farm and retreat center, located in a spectacular valley near Muir Beach. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Baker Sums It Up Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over several days to meditate over the corpse. My first reaction to the book was, "Why?" It is available on the internet at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~buddhism/aar-bs/1999/lachs.htm (here you can also access the other papers from the panel on Ch'an ) or at http://www.darkzen.com/Articles/meansofauthorization.htm (one can also find other essays on Zen at this site). The suit cost the SFZC $35,000 to $40,000 in legal fees at a time when it was under financial pressure. 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. I highly recommend this book, especially the first 101 pages. Original Dwelling Place by Robert Aitken book review by Robert Goss buy this book now Suzuki surely knew that his fellow Japanese Soto roshi and priests would hardly accept Americans as examples for the reform of Zen, especially in Japan. Eighteen years later, there is still lingering bitterness about his overthrow. It acquired property worth around $20 million and built up a network of affiliated businesses staffed by Zen Center students, which included the vegetarian Greens Restaurant in Fort Mason, a bakery, and a grocery store. Yet, after Tatsugami Roshi, one of the important training teachers from Eiheji, one of the two main Soto Zen training monasteries in Japan, conducted only one training period at Tassajara, Zen Center's monastery in California, Suzuki "arranged" for him not to return because his American students were so dissatisfied. 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. [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. 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