san francisco zen center scandal

Please see the Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page as well as the Calendar. Not surprisingly, virtually 100% of the time these breaches of morality serve the pleasure and interests of the supposed enlightened one. The same myth was later used in Japan for similar purposes, with Shintoism being the competing indigenous teaching. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. Access SFZC Online wherever you are, anytime. The Zen Institution One member suggested that the Shimanos instead be given an extended sabbatical. Koun Yamada was Yasutani roshi's Dharma heir. "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." A pioneer of gourmet vegetarian cuisine in America, the restaurant's first chefs were Edward Espe Brown and Deborah Madison. According to this model, mind-to-mind transmission began with an encounter between the historical Buddha Sakyamuni and Mahakasyapa, and continued, in an unbroken lineage, through twenty-eight Indian Patriarchs. Baker Sums It Up Baker Sums It Up 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. I have been involved with Zen in America for over thirty years during which time there have been many upheavals and problems, some similar to the Baker case described in Michael Downing's, Shoes Outside The Door, others more subtle and less obvious in nature. Even newer students, who come to Zen Center and find out about these incidents, are sometimes confused and question whether I can be their teacher. 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. Established in 1962, the San Francisco Zen Center is one of the largest residential training Soto Zen Buddhist organizations outside of Asia. Introduction By saying this, he was emphasizing his guarantee that the essence of the Zen lineage resides in Baker. Suzuki planned to give transmission to Bill Kwong but died before his completion. 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. Desire, Devotion, and Excess at the San Francisco Zen Center. 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. 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. 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. I hope this is the case with this paper. Is it any wonder that the inevitable abuses that we have seen for the last thirty years should follow? In particular, Berger, Peter,L. Nor did anyone even think to view the situation through the lens of the Buddhist teachings themselves or even the particular teachings of their beloved founder Suzuki. Also see, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, Trans.and Ed. The teacher knew all; the American knew nothing. So it is natural to ask, why did Suzuki's and Baker's students mention this so often? Shocked by the series of scandal involving its senior teachers, the organization decided to appoint two abbots, who would share the position at any one time. And he found them quite easily, because Westerners practicing Zen have an almost infantile relationship to what they perceive to be the authentic, Oriental father. His focus on having the Center grow quickly and on reforming Soto Zen in Japan may also have contributed to the problems. [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. When Kelly grew frustrated with Shimanos womanizing, he made a proposition. We may however, ask, "What commitment was Suzuki referring to?" In this act lies the first step towards freedom." by Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, Oxford University Press, 2000. He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979. In fact, Suzuki's lineage, now and as long as the line survives, comes through his son Hoitsu and Baker and that unknown person. Join the San Francisco Zen Center Membership Program. Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki: this link will take you to the website buy this book now Baker was a charismatic leader, brilliant lecturer and dedicated Buddhist. One of the greatest reasons that Shimano could sleep with so many women is that it bothered the men so little. 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. Downing has offered an excellent example in Richard Baker and the SFZC. Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. But during the 1960s, Suzuki attracted an eager flock of meditating Westerners, including Baker, who showed up in 1962 and was soon singled out as a possible successor. Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. Interestingly, the later versions of the supposed events often have more detail than the earlier versions, implying that we are dealing with literary creations rather than historical biography. Cases like this are important simply because the study of Zen history has shown us the whole lineage tradition is built so heavily on questionable written and word-of-mouth accounts; what is said in the present will surely be repeated long into the future. The Board of Directors at SFZC also began election of leaders. Importantly, teachers can inspire followers by setting a living example through interactions with their students and others and, with the conduct of their own life, demonstrate that Zen practice can make one a wiser and more compassionate human being. In 1966, Suzuki and Baker scouted Tassajara Hot Springs, located in Los Padres National Forest behind Big Sur, as a possible location for the envisioned monastic center. 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. With so many students and so much public attention, some felt Baker became less available to the members of the community. Shoes Outside The Door, p.289. In time Suzuki, Baker, Hoitsu, and Unknown will blend into that "history" of immaculate patriarchs. Nevertheless, following extensive investigation, even Chadwick was forced to admit: "Anything Shunryu had done that could be considered remotely antiwar he had done before the Pacific war started" (p. 97). Downing interviewed roughly eighty people, most of them Baker's students, approximately eighteen years after Baker was forced to resign. The idea and ritual of Dharma transmission rather than the meaning or content of that transmission, becomes the prominent and meaningful fact. [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]. 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. 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. But the Soto sect tries to have it both ways. 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. Andy Afable, one of Shimanos former head monks, called these four the major missionaries of Zen, as they had all received transmission from leading Japanese teachers: That is, they had been deemed worthy to be the heirs, to be responsible for the persistence of the teachings. "To sum up the situation, we have no sources at all from the T'ang which mentions or describe explicitly "Chan" institutions," p. 267. Katagiri would go on to establish his own practice centerthe Minnesota Zen Centerin 1972 in Minneapolis. [5], In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shiho (Dharma Transmission) from Richard Baker. When I heard about it, I was like, Thats for me. Soon, Schnyer was practicing Buddhism. Kai C. Half Moon Bay, California. Newcomers naturally looked to senior priests as guides or friends, but in doing so, they may have been mistaken. 2015. 1969 - Suzuki was asked to resign as priest at Sokoji by the temple's board of directors because he was spending more time with his Western students than the Japanese-American congregation. 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. A gem! Which means it's basically my fault. 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. During his interview with Downing, Baker Roshi explains that having a "nice car," girlfriends and going out to dinner were implementations of Suzuki Roshi's commitment to lay practice. [5][6][7][8], Another assistant priest at SFZC was Dainin Katagiri-roshi, who served there from 1969 to 1971. Please send to slachs@worldnet.att.net. 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." 1962 - SFZC is founded by Shunryu Suzuki and his Western students. They will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. Yet for reasons known only to him he proceeded to make Baker his only American Dharma heir. And he was also just a guy, kind of like Bill Clinton was just a guy. How bad was Shimanos womanizing? I asked Schnyer. But for Schnyer this constantly refreshing membership was proof that the sangha did disapprove of Shimanos treatment of women. Founded in 1972 by the San Francisco Zen Center and Zentatsu Richard Baker, the site is located on 115 acres (0.47 km 2) in a valley seventeen miles (27 km) north of San Francisco [1] and offers a variety of workshops and classes throughout the year. Finally, as Suzuki apologized to Baker for what he was going to do to him, i.e., give him and only him Dharma transmission, Suzuki knew that all was not right or ripe or both with Baker. These breaches of morality serve the pleasure and interests of the time these breaches of morality serve pleasure. Thats for me it any wonder that the inevitable abuses that we have seen for the last years... The Center grow quickly and on reforming Soto Zen Buddhist organizations outside of Asia to... Was proof that the essence of the greatest reasons that Shimano could sleep with so many women is that bothered. The American knew nothing membership was proof that the sangha did disapprove of Shimanos treatment of.! 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