san francisco zen center scandal

Examining the work of any of the above-mentioned scholars will greatly reward the interested reader who would like to explore contemporary Zen/Buddhist scholarship. Americans needed somebody to teach them the rituals. 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). Katagiri would go on to establish his own practice centerthe Minnesota Zen Centerin 1972 in Minneapolis. The volunteer project's founding director was Frank Ostaseski, who served until 2004. In this regard Mr. 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. Sitting meditation (zazen) is available live online Monday through Friday mornings, Saturday mornings, and Monday through Friday evenings. In one well-known collection, the famous Grand Master Yunmen is not recorded at all. I have copies of these letters. Until recently, the United States had very few natives who possessed that knowledge. The bakery was closed altogether in 1999. Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'an/Zen Buddhism in America 1969 - The current SFZC building was purchased with the help of American students. Despite the controversy connected with his resignation, Baker was instrumental in helping the San Francisco Zen Center to become one of the most successful Zen institutions in the United States. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Learn and Practice at San Francisco Zen Center, residential guest student practice opportunities, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. After six months, he returned to his position. Foulk disagrees with this view. 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. Richard Baker also survived. The Zen Institution There are also accounts of people receiving transmission from masters who were dead by the time the supposed transmission took place. 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. 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. By Kurt Wolff, Free Press Paperback, 1950 for a discussion of authority, prestige, subordination, and sociability. The Board of Directors at SFZC also began election of leaders. SteveSiesta. I am thankful for Michael Downing's work, which is extremely valuable. Unfortunately, this issue is not raised or considered by any of the Zen Center members interviewed in the book. 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. But it always seemed as though the real story and the real scandal were about something else. Thanks to Mr. Oppenheimer's efforts, women have come forward, some even using their names; we think this kind of courage can only embolden other survivors of abuse to speak out. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. Zen Center survived, reorganizing in a manner that made it more democratic, but also more bureaucratic. Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen 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." Public opinion shows that while parishioners are, of course, disturbed by priests' abuse of children and young teens, they are more upset by the institutional cover up and denial of that behavior. 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. 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. Yet we all know that no human is like this. 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. Baker then moved to Crestone, Colorado and Germany to found other practice sites for Dharma Sangha. [9], Although Baker claimed that his relationship with the woman was a love-affair which had not yet been consummated, the outcry surrounding the incident led to a series of accusations of impropriety on Baker's part, including the admissions by several female members of the community that they had had affairs with Baker before or during his tenure as abbot. How bad was Shimanos womanizing? I asked Schnyer. This is a mythology of Zen, a pure fiction. Your support is crucial to sustain our practice centers and thriving online community. 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. 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. For Suzuki Roshi's edited words see the well-known Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Weatherhill, 1970. A gem! In 1989, some six years after Baker was forced to leave, he threatened to take back Zen Center by going to court. is the head teacher at the Dharma Field Meditation and Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This reminder served an important purpose: the Center's members viewed Suzuki's authority as if it were a divine fiat, so that any dissent or criticism was ended. But in the 1960s and 70s, American Buddhists needed the foreigners. In this way the teacher was like a deity, a minor god. Baker himself was quick to remind his flock that he was the only American to receive Dharma transmission from Suzuki Roshi. 13 reviews of San Francisco Zen Center "This place is really awesome! Located atop a bumpy 10-mile (16km) road which is difficult for some vehicles to climb, Tassajara offers shuttles to and from the retreat for those inclined to forgo trying to make the trek on their own. Ask Kai C about San Francisco Zen Center. 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. And that gets the juices flowing. Not surprisingly, virtually 100% of the time these breaches of morality serve the pleasure and interests of the supposed enlightened one. Please send to slachs@worldnet.att.net. These days, when we think of predatory clergy, we think of Roman Catholic priests. I had a kind of insecurity and self-importance, which I didn't see for a long time, that was a bad dynamic in the community. If you are new to Zazen, they have a great Saturday morning tutorial session every week. 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. Established in 1962, the San Francisco Zen Center is one of the largest residential training Soto Zen Buddhist organizations outside of Asia. Baker's use of Dixon's words begins the description of Suzuki Roshi, with the strange phrasing "a roshi is" This substitutes what is supposed to be a description of their close and beloved teacher Suzuki Roshi, a real person, with an abstraction, "a roshi." Zen elevates its leaders to super-human status, then emphasizes that we should be obedient and subservient to a powerful and supremely accomplished authority figure, precisely because he is powerful and supremely accomplished. Please keep it in mind. 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. San Francisco Zen Center's purpose is to make the teachings and practice of Soto Zen Buddhism widely available, to train teachers, and to help cultivate mindfulness and compassion in the world. However, it should be noted, that he let interviewees voice any number of inaccuracies without comment. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. 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.. It is mentioned often enough that Downing, interestingly calculates the hours that individual senior members had meditated. There is a saying, "It is difficult to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it." Trouble At The San Francisco Zen Center We can begin to approach an answer by thinking about the nature of authority. 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. by Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, Oxford University Press, 2000. He does not sit zazen and only chants when he has a service to do for someone." He attended Harvard University, where he studied architecture and history. 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. 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. 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. It is an institutional dream that needs to be analyzed using its own description. Another error is seen in the statement that Yasutani roshi rescinded the Dharma transmission he gave to Philip Kapleau. I remember many heated arguments, he told me, and no doubt one of my many arguments was: this is personal behavior, not illegal behavior., Denis Kelly, a former Dai Bosatsu vice abbot, and himself no model of sexual continencehe too has had affairs, he told me, including one that almost broke up his current sanghashared Schnyers understanding of the proper hierarchical relationship between the Zen master and his female students. The student who enters the "practice" having read a myth will expect to find the myth, and will think they have found the myth. 145 41. He writes a religion column forThe New York Timesand is on Twitter@markopp1. Introduction It is clear that the senior members of Zen Center surrounding Baker were well-indoctrinated vessels of Zen ideology. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. The Zen Master in America: Dressing the Donkey with Bells and Scarves, Holding the Lotus to the Rock: reflections on the future of the Zen sangha in the West by James Ishmael Ford 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. A monastery and retreat center in a remote mountain valley in the Ventana Wilderness SFZC Online Resources for beginners, zazen (meditation) and chanting, Dharma talks, live online practice sessions with teachers, as well as classes and workshops from our Online Programs. My first reaction to the book was, "Why?" 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." He was leader of the largest Zen center in the United States and founder of Tassajara, the first Zen monastery in America; he sent a number of American disciples to study in Japan and was surrounded, as was Baker, by hundreds of devoted, unquestioning, often young and energetic followers. When Kelly grew frustrated with Shimanos womanizing, he made a proposition. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. Hence, a number of questions were never openly raised: Was he acting in an arrogant fashion? If Suzuki was California's Zen messiah, then Richard Baker was his Apostle Paul. Zen Center members accepted and internalized most all of Zen's self definitions, history and social forms. Baker's case took place within a certain context, and to understand what happened it is helpful to look not only at Baker, but also at Zen institutional self-definitions and the patterns of social life they have engendered in the United States. We may however, ask, "What commitment was Suzuki referring to?" Some of the most senior members appeared afraid to raise difficult questions with Baker perhaps for fear of losing their own privileged positions. Was his lifestyle less than exemplary? Despite hesitance of some members of SFZC due to the size of 80 acres (320,000m2), Baker felt that acquiring Green Gulch Farm was very important for Buddhism in America. See Alan Cole, "It's All in the Framing." However, I do not mean to imply there is no inner spiritual content to the Zen tradition. When one member was about to leave (after the Baker scandal), rather than receiving well wishes or a word of advice from his teacher-who happened to be the new abbot after Baker, he was smugly told that he would be back in a year. This is not a new idea nor is it unique to Chan/Zen. As in any field, there is a need for experienced and knowledgeable teachers. Money, too, is worth something because we believe it iswe give the $20 bill the magical properties of being worth more than the $1 bill, even though the paper and ink are identical. He worked for me, and if he didnt work for other people, then I just wanted them to go, and often hoped theyd go more quietly than they did., Quietly or not, many people did leave. If someone attempted to question some aspect of Baker's behavior, both Baker and senior disciples reminded them that Baker was the only American Dharma heir of Suzuki. 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. However, there is no surviving text of Pai-chang's Rules. This was likely prompted by a conversation between Robert Baker Aitken and Baker at San Francisco Zen Center concerning the question of Zen's availability to interested gays, for Dorsey went on to become abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center. This happened almost 20 years ago and has been written about over the years by numerous insiders, outsiders and apologists of varying kinds. Is it any wonder that the inevitable abuses that we have seen for the last thirty years should follow? At that time, Baker also became the official leader of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC). [34], Following Baker's resignation, Dainin Katagiri led the community until 1985. In fact, Kapleau never received Dharma transmission in the first place, so there was nothing to rescind. 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. 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. Having wisdom, in the Zen view, is based on Dharma transmission, which implies that the person is an enlightened being. 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. [Note: This section offers background mostly not covered in Downing's book.] 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. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. [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. A theme repeated throughout Downing's book is Suzuki's injunction to "just sit," which means to do seated meditation. I said, I have to come back here. So I did one more semester of school and then dropped out. 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). Yet Baker certainly knew that, at best, few if any roshi are so fully realized. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. I have seen such a view expressed in four other major Zen communities as well as in a Tibetan community. Also became the official leader of the time these breaches of morality serve the pleasure and interests the... Resignation, Dainin katagiri led the community until 1985 is an institutional dream needs. Was the only American to receive Dharma transmission he gave to Philip Kapleau do not mean to imply there no. Baker were well-indoctrinated vessels of Zen ideology six years after Baker was forced to leave, made. Just sit, '' which means to do seated meditation their own privileged.... 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