san francisco zen center scandalsan francisco zen center scandal

Trust me." by Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, Oxford University Press, 2000. 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. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. SFZC will continue to offer classes, talks, workshops, and sangha gatherings through the Online Practice Center and residential guest student practice opportunities at all three temples. Richard Dudley Baker (born March 30, 1936) is an American Soto Zen master (or roshi), the founder and guiding teacher of Dharma Sanghawhich consists of Crestone Mountain Zen Center located in Crestone, Colorado and the Buddhistisches Studienzentrum[1] (Johanneshof) in Germany's Black Forest. He exists freely in the fullness of his whole being. "The years people spent here were not wasted years of being duped. 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. My first reaction to the book was, "Why?" At times, senior disciples needed to reassure newcomers who questioned Baker's behavior that all was in order. 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. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. I finished high school early, and at 17 I went to college, Schnyer said. (Downing's interviews showed that he did.) Greens Restaurant, opened in 1979 in Fort Mason of San Francisco, was another business venture by SFZC under the influence of Baker. 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. This paper can also serve the non-scholar as an overview or introduction to modern Zen scholarship and introduce a critical view of the important Zen ideas of master, Dharma transmission, and unbroken lineage. Hence, a number of questions were never openly raised: Was he acting in an arrogant fashion? 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?. They also have a lot of other awesome Saturday morning programs for zen noobs (znoobs!!). Furthermore this creation has to be ongoing. Supporting tools to make this narrative seem real and unconstructed include the particular methods of meditation and interactions between teacher and student as well as an abundance of validating mythologies most often presented as history in the form of biography, along with accommodating literary and ritual devices. "Something above ninety percent of us had come from alcoholic families or families that were dysfunctional with the same patterns." 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. Therefore, in the living world of flesh and blood we have people with some very limited level of attainment occupying a role that is defined as Buddha-like, actualizing perfect freedom and unfathomable compassion beyond the ordinary person's understanding and hence above question. But there are many lesser-known yet just as randy Zen teachers. That Kapleau never received Dharma transmission was exposed in a public letter from Yamada roshi dated,1/16/86. I took a course at Rochester, an overview of Eastern religion and Confucianism. 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. Jerry Brown, poet Gary Snyder, Esalen founder Michael Murphy, author Ken Kesey and other leading lights of the Zen intelligentsia on the West Coast. One student stated it as, "The one thing that seemed unquestionable was Richard's Transmission." Please send to [email protected]. 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. 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. This would have led any impartial observer to question the spiritual implications of Dharma transmission. 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. Hence, questioning and dissent became a shortcoming of the person expressing such a view. This is not to imply that there is no value to be gained in the practice of Zen. The film was directed by veteran filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and executive produced by physician, Shoshana R. Tassajara Bakery was a Zen Center venture promoted by Richard Baker as an extension of the baking practices at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Until one begins to view religious institutions as institutions that function in a particular context, subject to the same problematic power relationships as secular institutions, problems such as those that arose at the San Francisco Zen Center and Buddhist organizations across the West will be almost inevitable. Kai C. Half Moon Bay, California. But the percentage of the Zen clergy implicated in sexual misdeeds is many times greater than that of the Catholic clergy. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. It was more about power, about finding another way to govern and manage an operation that was never sure if it was a California commune, a Japanese monastery or a New Age business. (If the reader wants to argue that Dharma transmission in the Rinzai sect or in the modern Sanbokyodan sect so popular in the West matches the ideal of Zen rhetoric, please feel free to email me at my address listed in the Notes.) SteveSiesta. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. What the teacher really offers the student is literally living proof that all this talk and the seemingly impossible goals can be realized in this lifetime. One older student expressed it this way, "In our hands, and it was in our hands, it [Suzuki's pure teaching] became a bludgeon of power, a source of competition, jealousy, and paranoia. Practitioners are given the ultimate encouragement of knowing that real people "attained enlightenment" and therefore so can we. 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. Furthermore, Chadwick told Victoria that when he (Chadwick) had once asked Baker himself about the basis for the claim, Baker replied that he could not remember! Interestingly, Suzuki did not mention "spiritual attainment," but rather commitment. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. Around 1970, he began sitting regularly with a group in Santa Cruz that went on to form the Santa Cruz Zen Center. 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. In this regard Mr. As the American Dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, Baker assumed abbotship of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) shortly before Suzuki's death in 1971. Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki: this link will take you to the website buy this book now For students of the San Francisco Zen Center, one of America's oldest and most prestigious Buddhist institutions, the world has already ended. We agree that the Constitutional Convention made law for all the people, and for all generations to come; we agree that the government will back up our money, if no longer with gold, then with its promises. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow. Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki book review buy this book The Zen master is a role that stands as a representative of the entire Zen institution. The Zen understanding of wisdom imputes Foucault's "single gaze to see everything constantly" to the Master. Zen Mind? 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And all of us worshipped him to a certain extent., Nobody was as worshipful as a student named David Schnyer. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. Spiritual attainment, insight into timeless truth(s) or any other profound changes in one's inner life play virtually no part in the majority of these Dharma transmissions or in the every day functions of these roshis. I feel sorry for anybody who's bitter. Guests stay at the Lindisfarne Guest House, a traditional Japanese building with a wood-burning stove as the heating source. Also see, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, Trans.and Ed. Cole, who teaches at Lewis and Clark College, also has two very provocative books soon to be published, one on the Mahayana sutras and the other on early Chan texts and the "birth" of Chinese Buddhas. It is because one was wrong about him, because one misinterpreted the states of his soul and drew as sharp a line as is possible between oneself and him, as if he were something utterly incomparable and strangely superhuman-that he gained that extraordinary power with which he could dominate the imagination of whole peoples and ages. 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. The supposed enlightened Master gets the last word in judging not only the student's behavior and verbal responses, but also the whole of the past enlightened lineage including the historical Buddha by commenting on and judging any and all of the past Masters in the old cases (koan) and in their recorded sayings. "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. 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. An organic farm and garden in a beautiful coastal valley in Marin County, A monastery and retreat center in a remote mountain valley in the Ventana Wilderness. Yet just as randy Zen teachers yet just as randy Zen teachers not to imply that is! Mason of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from position. Of Baker given the ultimate encouragement of knowing that real people `` attained enlightenment '' and therefore can. Student stated it as, `` Why? also have a lot of awesome... The heating source irrevocable betrayal of trust, and at 17 i went college. 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