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Sarasota, Florida. San Francisco Zen Center offers seven charming guest rooms for short-term stays. This is not surprising, being, as it is, a natural result of the customs and environment created by the Zen institution. Though these themes are mentioned a number of times by students, it seems curious that in Downing's interviews, no one ever questioned what this meant, no one mentioned what Suzuki meant, why Baker's transmission was supposedly real or if Suzuki or Baker ever explained the difference between "real" and unreal transmissions. Foulk disagrees with this view. . Analysis or active use of "the discriminating mind" is frowned upon, or worse, it is viewed as a sign of having too large an ego. One of Shimanos greatest advantages has been that he is Japanese. Perhaps tellingly, Baker made this claim at the height of the Vietnam War, when virtually 100% of Zen followers were opposed to the war and hence having an anti-war/anti -government roshi in his lineage was good currency. There is a whole lineage built on the idea that Kapleau had transmission. 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. [6], San Francisco Zen Center expanded quickly with Baker at the helm. 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. Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center and its leader until his death in 1971, was an impressive person, sincerely loved by most all the Center's members. Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. Under the Zen form of legitimization, each Zen roshi is viewed as a saint. I hope this is the case with this paper. For a many sided view of the Zen koan see, The Koan, Ed. Visitors can enjoy the springs, go swimming or on hiking trips, and have the opportunity to arrange for practice with the community living at the monastery for a few days. At the time of the purchase, Baker claimed he needed so expensive a car because of the amount of driving he did. 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. In the past we had a lot of crisesin San Francisco and Los Angeleswith sex scandals and so forth. For more on the Soto Zen institution in Japan see Foulk, T. Griffith, "The Zen Institute in Modern Japan", pp.157-177, Zen, Tradition and Transition, Kenneth Kraft ed., NY, Grove Press, 1988. And as complete neophytes in Buddhism, they were apt to believe most anything a teacher said: The Americans had no competing knowledge, no critical faculties, no grounds to challenge the teacher, no fixed point on which to stand. 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. Zen's highly ritualized activities added a visceral instantiation to the cognitive edifice. We did something great. The deal I cut with him, Kelly told me, was that he stop sleeping with Western women and only sleep with Japanese women, because they dont tell.. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. 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. Your support is crucial to sustain our practice centers and thriving online community. These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. Good bread, fine wine and simple, yet elegant, dining were offered by Tassajara Bakery and by Greens, the gourmet restaurant at Fort Mason that dished out vegetarian cuisine and inspiring views of the bay. [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]. Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. 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. Not only is the book a compelling read; it also, more importantly perhaps, provides raw data for observing Zen mythmaking in action. That little piece of paradise in the Marin County headlands is just a short drive from the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, perfect for a quick retreat. Guests are . 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. 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. One student stated it as, "The one thing that seemed unquestionable was Richard's Transmission." "[12] And Baker, for his part, is quoted as having said in a 1994 interview with Sugata Schneider: I don't think that the gossipy or official versions of what happened are right, but I feel definitely that if I were back in the situation again as the person I am now, it wouldn't have happened. Zen at War by Brian Daizen A. Victoria: a link to varioius book reviews buy this book now 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). Religion occupies a distinctive place in this enterprise." By saying this, he was emphasizing his guarantee that the essence of the Zen lineage resides in Baker. For a view from the political perspective that has application in the religious arena see Edwards, David, "A Chest of Tools for Intellectual Self-Defense" in Burning All Illusions, South End Press, pp.177-224. Finding Safe Harbor: Buddhist Sexual Ethics in America by Stephanie Kaza, Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center by Michael Downing: book review by Vladimir K. buy this book He was what I needed. His focus on having the Center grow quickly and on reforming Soto Zen in Japan may also have contributed to the problems. 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. Downing interviewed roughly eighty people, most of them Baker's students, approximately eighteen years after Baker was forced to resign. But there are many lesser-known yet just as randy Zen teachers. His first wife contracted tuberculosis and returned to her parents shortly after marriage; his second wife was brutally murdered by an erratic, antisocial monk whom Suzuki had retained as a temple assistant, despite contrary advise from neighbors and colleagues. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. He was convincing not just because of his own facility with a story, but because he found Americans who were very receptive to that story. But in the 1960s and 70s, American Buddhists needed the foreigners. I took a course at Rochester, an overview of Eastern religion and Confucianism. In 1989, some six years after Baker was forced to leave, he threatened to take back Zen Center by going to court. Besides Suzuki's chosen heir Baker's questionable behavior, Downing reveals many of the senior people scrambling for positions of authority, power, money and perks. And three of the four, Afable noted when we spoke, have caused major public sex scandals: first Maezumi, and more recently Shimano and Sasaki. Anybody who traveled to Japan, as many American Buddhists would, quickly learned that every monastery there had its own variations on the traditionas with any other religious practice, there is no one true form. 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. Over the past 10 years, San Francisco Zen Center has devoted time and energy to studying the best practices around conflict resolution, difficult conversations, sexual harassment prevention, appropriate teacher/student boundaries, giving and receiving feedback, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, working with trauma, and Right Use of Power trainings. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. This is one reason why we are looking at his case, to see how the system works, how it has always worked. What they really found is another story of flawed human behavior. This article was excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,out now. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. Baker and the senior priests dismissed any questioning of Baker's behavior or activities as a lack of insight into enlightenment on the part of the questioner. Original Dwelling Place by Robert Aitken book review by Robert Goss buy this book now A student was also liable to believe that her teacher was conveying the one true form of Zen Buddhism. . If you counted the blow-ups, youd say just a few [women,] but we think he ran his life like a Japanese businessmanlots of affairs, but most of them discreet. Another error is seen in the statement that Yasutani roshi rescinded the Dharma transmission he gave to Philip Kapleau. 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. The film was directed by veteran filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and executive produced by physician, Shoshana R. 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." All trouble at the Center was internalized and personalized by its members. How San Francisco Zen Center Operates Downing has offered an excellent example in Richard Baker and the SFZC. 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. However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. This is not ancient history. "[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. 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. His death came shortly after the publication of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a collection of lectures translated into numerous languages and considered a classic of contemporary Zen literature. 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." It is clear from Downing's interviews that Zen Center members assumed that there was no ideology to be questioned, i.e., the unreliable history of Zen, the hagiographic picture of the lineage, along with its mythology of Dharma transmission, unbroken lineage, and enlightened Zen masters. They also have a lot of other awesome Saturday morning programs for zen noobs (znoobs!!). In addition, if there were something to reform in Japanese Soto Zen, the automatic Dharma transmission for virtually all priests, often between father and son, would be high on the list. 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. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, Doubleday, 1967, pp. Berkeley, March 17th, 2002. In particular, Suzuki's San Francisco Zen Center lineage continues through his bureaucratic "transmission" to his son Hoitsu. These recordings of zazen instruction feature a variety of teachers offering an introduction to meditation. 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This is the consistent view of the master presented by Zen, the pure, simple, desireless and self-contained roshi, and was accepted unquestioningly by Zen Center members. Baker Sums It Up Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki book review buy this book 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. [5], In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shiho (Dharma Transmission) from Richard Baker. In this regard Mr. Therefore, in the need to remain at the Center, members had a powerful incentive to fully buy into Zen's mythology. The idea and ritual of Dharma transmission rather than the meaning or content of that transmission, becomes the prominent and meaningful fact. The past generations are presented in a saintly and exalted manner, which adds to the prestige of the tradition as a whole, but most importantly, to the prestige of the last name on the lineage chart, the living teacher. 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. While jogging through Golden Gate Park, Anderson deviated from the path to urinate in some bushes. 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? Because the newcomers' indoctrination into Zen ideology was incomplete, their unfortunate reliance on common sense prevented them from viewing Baker's eccentricities as qualities of an enlightened Zen master. [1] Zen Hospice Project was the subject of the Netflix 2018 Academy Award-nominated[24] short documentary End Game,[25] about terminally ill patients in a San Francisco hospital as well as at the Zen Hospice Project house, featuring the work of palliative care physician BJ Miller and other palliative care clinicians. Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki buy this book 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." That's what we made of it." This has a direct bearing on the Baker story and the way mythology continues to be constructed even in the present. [6] Baker also penned the introduction to Suzuki's famous book, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. It was not surprising, then, that when trouble arose at the Center it was mostly assumed that something must be wrong with the members themselves; that it was because they did not use or handle well Suzuki's pure teaching. Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions by Robert H. Sharf However, I do not mean to imply there is no inner spiritual content to the Zen tradition. 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. After six months, he returned to his position. Which means it's basically my fault. The senior disciples consistently stressed that Baker's transmission was real; it made him into a "pure vessel of the Dharma," a man of wisdom, far beyond the questioner's obviously limited understanding and suspicion. 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." 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. Eighteen years later, there is still lingering bitterness about his overthrow. 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. Explore San Francisco Zen Center's newsletters and blogs. Institutional mythology, which created a seamless picture of unbroken lineage along with pure, desireless perfection and attainment housed in the body of the master, was not questioned, and hence, remained intact. 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). It depends not on miracles or mystical figures or discoveries of secret books, but merely on our willingness to believe, against evidence if need be, that those things were real. 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. At times, senior disciples needed to reassure newcomers who questioned Baker's behavior that all was in order. 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. The San Francisco Zen Center "scandal" was not unique in American Zen history. Eighty people, most of them Baker 's students, approximately eighteen years after Baker was to! Rescinded the Dharma transmission rather than the meaning or content of that transmission becomes. The Upper East Side, out now back Zen Center lineage continues through his bureaucratic `` transmission to., pp or content of that transmission, becomes the prominent and meaningful fact contributed to the cognitive edifice in... Really found is another story of flawed human behavior story of flawed human behavior, Ed meaning content! To sustain our practice centers and thriving online community, its like whoa ritualized... Remain at the time of the Zen form of legitimization, each Zen roshi is viewed as a saint 's... 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