[9] The building, designed by Julia Morgan, was built as the Emanu-el Residence Club in 1922 for the Emanu-el Sisterhood. But for the [Zen Studies Society,] my gullibility, spiritual gullibilityI didnt realize that it was a borderline cult. At first, I had trouble with Downing's refusal to bend to the dictates of chronology and a quirky writing style that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. 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. 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 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. "It was a fantastic drive," he said, it was safe to drive and that he liked to keep his legs in zazen posture. 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. Within a couple of years, Suzuki considered founding a monastery to host more intensive practice for those students who were interested. 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. 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. Access SFZC Online wherever you are, anytime. Shimanos Japanese ways suited Schnyer. Zen's highly ritualized activities added a visceral instantiation to the cognitive edifice. I assume that Downing would have included a broader view if he had heard it from any of the interviewees. The Zen institution requires the master because he is supposedly a living example of the ideal of Zen and, as such, represents all of its legitimacy and authority. Furthermore this creation has to be ongoing. Please visit the Calendar page for more details or sign up for our weekly Sangha News email to receive notices of upcoming events. You wont find anybody within the Zen Studies Society who has tolerated this stuff from start to finish, Schnyer said. 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. 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. Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over several days to meditate over the corpse. They should take credit for the fact that we did it for many years. He convinced the American Zen community that he was, in effect, the Second Coming of Suzukibut even better, because he was here to stay. Also available are practice sessions with SF Zen Center teachers. 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). What passes for "knowledge" in society is built on the foundation of language. Like whoa, and when you start the practice, the practice I feel isits very profound. He then arrived in San Francisco, California in 1960beginning to sit with Shunryu Suzuki in 1961. It all came tumbling down in a 1983 event known in Zen Center circles as "the Apocalypse." Explore San Francisco Zen Center's newsletters and blogs. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. But that is the way that Suzuki or Baker or any roshi is presented. 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. Most people think of Zen as being iconoclastic, anti-authoritarian, simple, direct, and unattached. The situation is now reversing, as the Japanese, in particular, abandon Buddhism as an old relic, while it continues to find adherents in the West. The land was purchased from one of the founders of Polaroid, George Wheelwright. [34], Following Baker's resignation, Dainin Katagiri led the community until 1985. These and any number of other questions, complaints, hurts or criticisms harbored by his disciples, were not raised. In addition, as there are other practitioners around the teacher, it is helpful to be part of a community of fellow practitioners. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and a group of his American students in 1962. It allows us a much closer look than we get through, say, looking at the many biographies of past masters from Chan in China during the Tang dynasty (CE 618-907). Remember the senior student who quoted Suzuki as saying, " Dick's commitment is at another level, so the rest of us simply were not in a position to criticize him." There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Original Dwelling Place by Robert Aitken book review by Robert Goss buy this book now We did something great. Baker himself was quick to remind his flock that he was the only American to receive Dharma transmission from Suzuki Roshi. Trouble At The San Francisco Zen Center We seem to forget that we live with other humans and that society is a human product that we act upon and that acts upon us and in a sense produces us. Also see, Brown, Edward Espe, Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen, Harper Collins, 2002, Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai, Ed. Suzuki's prestige grew enormously. Ask Kelly S about San Francisco Zen Center. [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. How San Francisco Zen Center Operates "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. Koun Yamada was Yasutani roshi's Dharma heir. [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. In the 1960s, four major Zen teachers came to the United States from Japan: Shunryu Suzuki, Taizan Maezumi, Joshu Sasaki, and Eido Shimano. To legitimize the various family lines within Zen, Zen's self-definition necessitates establishing a continuing unbroken lineage of transmitted masters connected to the historical Buddha. Zen Center Members 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 its iconoclastic image, Zen has in actuality been a remarkably conservative institution throughout its history, almost always tied to and controlled by the state and elite elements of society. 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. 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. Foulk disagrees with this view. 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. 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. Shoes Outside The Door, p.237. "The years people spent here were not wasted years of being duped. One justification sometimes heard, glib to my ear, is that enlightenment is not about morality. Some of these students began calling their group City Center, and they incorporated in 1962 as the San Francisco Zen Center.[1][2][3][4][5]. Zen Center businesses embodied other Bay Area delights. 3. If Suzuki was California's Zen messiah, then Richard Baker was his Apostle Paul. Kobun was resident teacher at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center until 1970. Hence, roughly 95% of all Soto priests in Japan have Dharma transmission, most receiving it after spending at most three years in a monastery, some with as little as six months. Under the Zen approach, the Chan masters are clearly more potent than the monastics of other Buddhist sects, who merely explicate the Dharma through texts, often texts that are further distanced from their authoritative origins by the act of translation. It was also mentioned that Suzuki believed that Dharma transmission must be "real", implying that there is "not real" Dharma transmission. Bibliographical Notes But the Soto sect tries to have it both ways. Kwong's transmission was later completed by Suzuki's son, Hoitsu.[1][11][12]. I have seen such a view expressed in four other major Zen communities as well as in a Tibetan community. It is a performance meant to confirm and display the current master's significance, authority and attainment. Students in their early 30s, even younger, could find themselves among the senior monks at Dai Bosatsu, in a tradition that is supposed to be ungraspable even after a whole lifetime of study. Was Baker's commitment to Zen practice much greater than a number of other of Suzuki's close, very committed senior disciples? However, for an in depth review of early Chan monastic codes and how early Chan viewed and supposedly treated errant behavior by monks see Foulk, T. Griffith, "The "Ch'an School" and Its Place In the Buddhist Monastic Tradition," Diss. [6] One student who followed him to his new community was the priest Philip Whalen (ordained by Baker as a priest in 1973), who became tanto (head monk) of the new center. The focus itself is on the master. Suzuki-roshi, as his students called him, died of cancer in 1971. These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. [5][16][17][18][19], In 2000 Jiko Linda Cutts was appointed Abbess, having received Dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1996. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Suzuki, in so many ways an admirable person, had a large hand in the problems that followed his death. For an in-depth look at three special projects happening at SFZC, check out our new Impact Report. For a most interesting examination of early Chan lineage and truth claims read from a critical textual analysis rather than reading them "for information about Truth and Practice" or about "historical claims to own truth", see Cole, Alan, "It's All in the Framing", a paper given at U.C. 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. Baker then quotes Trudy Dixon, the editor of the book, thus endorsing her words: But how real is this history? 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. Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen San Francisco Zen Center offers seven charming guest rooms for short-term stays. 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. At the time, Schnyer was just 24 years old, yet he had been a Shimano student since he was a teenager. The question is: How do so many Zen Buddhist teachers get away with it, and for so long? However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. 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. My first reaction to the book was, "Why?" Foulk, T. Griffith, "The Zen Institute in Modern Japan", pp.157-177. Maezumi, affiliated with another West Coast zendo, the Zen Center of Los Angeles, was a philanderer and an alcoholic, as the scholar Dale S. Wright has detailed at length. 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. An interesting debate between Victoria and members of the Deshimaru group (A.Z.I.) And three of the four, Afable noted when we spoke, have caused major public sex scandals: first Maezumi, and more recently Shimano and Sasaki. Former students have said that he was addicted to power, abusive of his position, extravagant in his personal spending, and inappropriate in his love life. 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. There's too much court intrigue and "monastic" gossip, and not enough effort to put the Zen Center and its scandal in the larger story of American Buddhism and the spiritual supermarket's never-ending list of gurus-gone-bad. It seems that Zen's emphasis on wisdom, while giving compassion only lip service, is really about power. He was married three times. 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]. [2] From 1968 to 1971, he traveled to Japan to practice at the primary St monasteries there, including Antaiji, Eiheiji, and Daitokuji. Zen ascribes to Pai-chang (died 814) its earliest monastic code that supposedly set Chan apart as a separate sect in the Tang dynasty. 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. For a many sided view of the Zen koan see, The Koan, Ed. Green Gulch Farm ("Green Dragon Temple", or Soryuji), located in Sausalito, California in a valley on the Pacific Ocean, was acquired by SFZC in 1972. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, Doubleday, 1967, pp. It was not mentioned in the interviews that Suzuki himself might be partially responsible for the ensuing trouble. Steve Hagen. They will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. This is a very interesting piece of "history" which is no doubt destined to be repeated. 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. He also ran a temple virtually under the control of Japan's repressive fascist era government. It was almost like a magic theater, where if someone received Dharma transmission, and hence, was a supposed enlightened being, he would become a different person who could do anything he pleased. "[36], SFZC is connected, in an unofficial capacity, to the following Zen Centers:[1], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}374626N 1222534W / 37.774009N 122.426075W / 37.774009; -122.426075. We may however, ask, "What commitment was Suzuki referring to?" In some ways, it was an obvious choice. "Zen Dharma transmission between master and disciple could occur whether or not the disciple had realized enlightenment, just so long as the ritual of personal initiation had been performed." Religion occupies a distinctive place in this enterprise." But in truth, neither Suzuki nor Baker fit the saintly mold. These revelations led to community-wide pandemonium, and in 1984 Baker was forced to resign as abbot. 2002: 8-11. 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). Which means it's basically my fault. University of Michigan, 1987. He was neither. There was a widespread conceit in their thinking that they were the center or "cutting edge" of Zen in America, not cognizant that many other Zen groups were forming city/country Centers and also experimenting with the ideas of setting up monasteries, group practice, communal living and forming a sangha. I dont remember saying that., Schnyer maintains a tidy understanding of his personal Zen galaxy, in which Shimano is the sun, hot and dangerous but necessary. 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.. He writes, " The perfect disciplinary apparatus would make it possible for a single gaze to see everything constantly." 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