san francisco zen center scandal

Posted on 14 april 2023 by dr challoner's high school fees

[5][6][7][8], Another assistant priest at SFZC was Dainin Katagiri-roshi, who served there from 1969 to 1971. 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I suspect I probably said something like that, Schnyer said. Shocked by the series of scandals involving its senior teachers, the organization decided to appoint two abbots, who would share the position at any one time. Mel Weitsman and Michael Wenger, University of California Press,1999 and for a biography of Suzuki's life see, Chadwick, David, Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunyru Suzuki, Broadway Books, 1999. Berkeley, March 17th, 2002. The Zen Institution Under Baker's leadership, it appears that the Center functioned as a dysfunctional family, denying that anything was wrong or problematic. For a very fine book review of Shoes Outside the Door, see Crews, Frederick, "Zen & the Art of Success," The New York Review of Books, 28 Mar. Latest News. Did it not occur to him that Richard had a family, too, as did many of the priests of Zen Center?" It simply means that a power structure has evolved that will perpetuate itself even if it means imputing "attainment" to people who don't really have it. While jogging through Golden Gate Park, Anderson deviated from the path to urinate in some bushes. When Kelly grew frustrated with Shimanos womanizing, he made a proposition. A good place to begin to examine the scholarly view of early Chan history and development is Foulk, T. Griffith, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Ch'an Buddhism in, Religion and Society in T'ang and Sung China, Ed by Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory, University of Hawaii Press, 1993, pp147-205. What passes for "knowledge" in society is built on the foundation of language. And perhaps most importantly, his authority will be understood with a taken-for-granted quality of being natural. Used with permission. You have to ask whether Suzuki was aware of the claims made by Baker and, if so, why he permitted them to stand without correction. [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. Institutional and personal motives played an important part in the composing of Buddhist biographical collections; this was especially so in earl Chan lineage texts. 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. 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. Why should we think that Suzuki chose Baker as his only American Dharma heir based on his level of "spiritual attainment?" Most people think of Zen as being iconoclastic, anti-authoritarian, simple, direct, and unattached. From the perspective of power and control, the political and the religious spheres overlap. 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. In this act lies the first step towards freedom." 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. It may be Zen-like, but it can also be annoying. Please see the Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page as well as the Calendar. This is not a new idea nor is it unique to Chan/Zen. 2002: 8-11. According to the dust jacket, Downing spent three years interviewing 80 people at the center of the Zen Center scandal. [35] 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. Their sins are far worse than what goes on in Zen circles. Religion occupies a distinctive place in this enterprise." Mark Oppenheimer hosts the podcast Unorthodox for Tablet magazine and writes for The New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, and GQ, among other publications. Learn about the latest news from affiliate sanghas with Tova's newsettes and other timely articles. We did something great. 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. (It should be noted that Suzuki could read English.) Your support is crucial to sustain our practice centers and thriving online community. For a many sided view of the Zen koan see, The Koan, Ed. I have seen such a view expressed in four other major Zen communities as well as in a Tibetan community. These and any number of other questions, complaints, hurts or criticisms harbored by his disciples, were not raised. Live the Temple Life [8] Within a very short period of time Baker broadened the scope of SFZC, starting first with the acquisition of Green Gulch Farm in southern Marin county, in 1972. "It is, basically, a description of a number of monastic procedures implicitly attributed to Pai-chang, set in a quasi-historical context, and presented with the authors own explanation and laudatory remarks. The deeper you go into practice, the deeper you find your teacher's mind is, until you finally realize that your mind and his mind are Buddha's mind. It matters that we keep assenting to the stories. 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. San Francisco Zen Center has begun to offer on-site meditation, Dharma talks, programs, classes, and other events. This new Buddha is also alive and homegrown and hence more immediate and real. However, there is no surviving text of Pai-chang's Rules. Trouble At The San Francisco Zen Center Institutional power, authority, hierarchy and order are, hence, accomplished through self-censorship by the members, a more effective method for controlling dissent and questioning than coercion by the leaders. This is a person without a defect, showing no self-interest, desire, interior calculation, or a shortcoming. 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. Sokojifounded by Hosen Isobe in 1934had been housed in a former Jewish synagogue that is now Kokoro Assisted Living. Even when Dharma transmission does reflect some level of something we may call spiritual attainment, it is not based on the idealized version proffered by the Zen institution: a mystical meeting of minds between teacher and disciple sharing a timeless truth that unvaryingly matches the minds of all teachers going back in the lineage, through the six Chan Patriarchs in China, and the twenty eight generations of the supposed Indian lineage going back to the historical Buddha, and beyond. Its raison d'etre is to produce people who possess a fundamental insight into life, people who are not fooled by appearances or ideas. 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. "Hollow" transmissions such as those between father and son are incorporated into the unbroken lineage to the Buddha. 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. Also available are practice sessions with SF Zen Center teachers. These recordings of zazen instruction feature a variety of teachers offering an introduction to meditation. 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." Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. In addition, the few American students of his who went to Japan came back disappointed, which upset Suzuki because he thought these students would then think less ofBuddhism. One was to make the state consider Chan the primary sect of Buddhism. 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. You can quarrel with their authority, but if the gun works, or if the experiment was well designed and conclusive, you are likely to lose the argument. Eighteen years later, there is still lingering bitterness about his overthrow. Why did Baker perpetuate such a simplistic view of Suzuki? 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). This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. "The Apocalypse," as they came to call it, took place in 1983 at a Peace Conference at Tassajara, a retreat center that was the first Buddhist monastery founded outside Asia. Not only the work of Zen writers, but political analysts, social critics, sociologists, and my involvement with the practice have informed my thinking about the state of contemporary Zen in the West. 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. Zen Nationalism Revisited by Robert H. Sharf Jerry Brown, poet Gary Snyder, Esalen founder Michael Murphy, author Ken Kesey and other leading lights of the Zen intelligentsia on the West Coast. In time Suzuki, Baker, Hoitsu, and Unknown will blend into that "history" of immaculate patriarchs. Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict, Complaint, and Ethical Review Processes. This dissertation also asks whether the Chan sect existed at all as a separate and distinct sect in the Tang dynasty, the supposed "golden age of Chan"). A Zen teacher can certainly assist his students in their practice, can encourage the students to be diligent, guide their meditation practice in both public and private meetings, offer aid in difficult times, talk about Zen texts to enrich the student's sense of the tradition and explicate Buddhist and Zen ideas. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. 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. 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. Available are practice sessions with SF Zen Center scandal to meditation the Calendar did Baker perpetuate such a view! Will blend into that `` history '' of immaculate patriarchs, Inclusion and Accessibility, Conflict,,! See the Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page as well as the Calendar of any the. Noted that Suzuki could read English. is crucial to sustain our practice centers and thriving online community produce. Of zazen instruction feature a variety of teachers offering an introduction to meditation, Equity, Inclusion Accessibility! 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