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. With this view in place, the entire spectrum of permissible thought is now caught and limited within Zen's mythological presentation, which was a completed creation by the eleventh century in China. 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. 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. There is a whole lineage built on the idea that Kapleau had transmission. 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). San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), is a network of affiliated St Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. With so many students and so much public attention, some felt Baker became less available to the members of the community. One of the most interesting aspects of the Baker case is that the people at the SFZC did not change their fundamental understanding of the process they had gone through for, in some cases, twenty or more years. He also grabbed the land for Green Gulch farm and retreat center, located in a spectacular valley near Muir Beach. 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. And he was also just a guy, kind of like Bill Clinton was just a guy. 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. The new president, Sylvan Busch, did not open his mouth to show any disapproval of Mr. and Mrs. Shimanos activities. And then there was Schnyer, the youngest board member, who, according to Zournas, defended Shimano by reportedly saying, He hasnt raped anyone yet, has he?. Obedience, subservience, and discipline were well rewarded at a large institution like the San Francisco Zen Center, as Downing's book amply shows. 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. But the percentage of the Zen clergy implicated in sexual misdeeds is many times greater than that of the Catholic clergy. Months later Suzukiwith the help of his American studentspurchased the current (and larger) City Center building, located on 300 Page Street. Zen Center members did not think there was any thought control or propaganda necessary to escape when it came to Zen. A good part of the goal of Buddhism is to reduce illusion and suffering. Did it not occur to him that Richard had a family, too, as did many of the priests of Zen Center?" 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. He occupies an authoritative place in East Asian cultures that have already been imbued with a special level of hierarchy since ancient times. 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 am greatly indebted to the works of the following scholars, among others, whose He was married three times. On one visit he decided to take the revolver home with him. Shoes Outside The Door, p.237. At the time, Schnyer was just 24 years old, yet he had been a Shimano student since he was a teenager. Their sins are far worse than what goes on in Zen circles. [21][22][23] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West. I highly recommend this book, especially the first 101 pages. Baker and Suzuki themselves were rewarded by this system. Until recently, the United States had very few natives who possessed that knowledge. More tellingly, Baker, inserted the very idealized description of qualities and characteristics supposedly of Suzuki Roshi, generalized to all roshi, knowing it would inevitably, indeed shortly, be applied to himself. "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." If youre going to do this, youre going to do it on your own, but Im not going to nurse you. For me he was perfect Somebody looking from the outside could say thats why we stuck with him all the time. 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. Soto temples in Japan often are a family business, handed down from father to son, as Suzuki himself had done with his son Hoitsu. His focus on having the Center grow quickly and on reforming Soto Zen in Japan may also have contributed to the problems. Had he misused confidences given to him in dokusan (a private meeting between teacher and student pertaining to the student's practice, an extremely important element in Zen training) for self-serving reasons? I see how my empowerment to protect and care for the Triple Treasure inflated my sense of personal authority, and thus detracted from and disparaged the Triple Treasure. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. In not clearly explaining the meaning, to his disciples at the SFZC, of his transmission to Baker, while stressing that it was "real;" Suzuki chose to perpetuate a fiction and to dishonor the trust they had given him. More commonly it is bestowed or given by a teacher to some one with limited attainment in order to keep his lineage alive. 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. 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. [5], In 1969, Sokoji's board of directors asked Suzuki to resign his position as the temple's priest, asserting that he was spending more time with his Western students than the Japanese-American congregation. [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. In particular, Berger, Peter,L. 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. Baker was a charismatic leader, brilliant lecturer and dedicated Buddhist. Foulk disagrees with this view. Zen Center businesses embodied other Bay Area delights. Unlike his predecessors, Suzuki was a fluent speaker of English who actually wanted to come to the United States. See Alan Cole, "It's All in the Framing." Suzuki-roshi, as his students called him, died of cancer in 1971. Baker wrote an introduction to Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, an edited collection of Suzuki's talks, in which Baker said (p.17), "During the Second World War he [Suzuki] was the leader of a pacifist group in Japan." There is certainly nothing anti-authoritarian about the notion of unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha. San Francisco Zen Center SFZC Online Welcome to SFZC Online Below you'll find information about our online offerings: 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. (Downing's interviews showed that he did.) On the corner of Page and Laguna Streets in San Francisco, diagonally across from San Francisco Zen Center, is a corner building with a series of murals that wrap around the boarded-over windows. Your support is crucial to sustain our practice centers and thriving online community. In this act lies the first step towards freedom." This would have led any impartial observer to question the spiritual implications of Dharma transmission. 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. We should be affirming that. 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." I am thankful for Michael Downing's work, which is extremely valuable. Latest News. 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 this end, Zen Center is engaged in numerous social and ecological initiatives. For example, Afable might have added that at Chobo-ji, a Zen temple in Seattle, Genki Takabayashi made passes at his female students. 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. (I don't mean to say that Kapleau is any more or less qualified to teach for receiving transmission or not, and in fact he is one of the few major teachers not involved with sexual or other scandal though one of his disciples did have a major scandal.) Upon Suzuki's arrival at Sokoji, the congregation was composed entirely of members of the Japanese-American population. "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. 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. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. This change in demography caused a rift in the Sokoji community. If you're looking for some information that's important to you (such as research for work or learning how to manage your money), then the advice here is to first write down the relevant keywords on a piece of paper to figure out exactly what you want, which will be a lot more efficient. After six months, he returned to his position. Upon his final visit he found the body no longer there, and a fellow priest in whom he had confided showed him a newspaper article covering the apparent suicide. Trust me." In the latter part of the book, Downing points out that the San Francisco Zen Center has beaucratized Dharma transmission so that in order to receive Dharma transmission a person must spend ten or twelve years going through the system. The idea of the enlightened Zen master authenticated through the ritual of dharma transmission and maintained by an unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha is at the heart of the Zen tradition. Read any of these texts of Zen, The Book of Serenity, a Soto sect koan collection, being one prominent example, and this will be abundantly clear. Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions by Robert H. Sharf 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. People interviewed had the luxury of hindsight. In 2003 Paul Haller, who received transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993, was installed as co-abbot with her. And the teachings in it. These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. San Francisco is not mentioned in Newsom's plans, but Supervisor Dean Preston has proposed a similar action. Michel Foucault in "The Means of Correct Training" in Discipline and Punish, Trans. What I mean by the "Zen" institution, for the simple purpose of this conversation, is the organized set of structures that support the standard model of Zen. 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." 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