This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Baker manifested his authority by giving his followers two choices: obey his words without question or be marginalized, which was tantamount to being forced to leave. 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"). However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. "Hollow" transmissions such as those between father and son are incorporated into the unbroken lineage to the Buddha. This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, since his arrest received national media coverage. It should be kept in mind that the senior members, by 1982, were often over forty years old and had been practicing at Zen Center for fifteen or more years. In Zen Buddhism, the story of Eido Shimanos abuse of power is so commonplace as to be banal, a clich. Students that come to practice at the monastery from September through April must undergo the tradition known as tangaryo. With one or two exceptions, the only views expressed of Baker's errant behavior among the Center's members was in the context of their personal experience. A descendant of Thomas Dudley,[4] Baker was raised in a family of moderate wealth. It is mentioned often enough that Downing, interestingly calculates the hours that individual senior members had meditated. I have seen such a view expressed in four other major Zen communities as well as in a Tibetan community. Introduction This is the sort of detail, which might be useful to both present and future students, but it is absolutely missing from all of the completely standard biographies of Zen masters through the ages. For an analysis of the idealized, one-dimensional style of describing a roshi, the one of Suzuki in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind being just one contemporary example, see "Simpleness" in Alan Cole's previously mentioned paper, "It's All in the Framing", p.6. 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. Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'an/Zen Buddhism in America 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. By saying this, he was emphasizing his guarantee that the essence of the Zen lineage resides in Baker. Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki buy this book When I heard about it, I was like, Thats for me. Soon, Schnyer was practicing Buddhism. And he was also just a guy, kind of like Bill Clinton was just a guy. Baker then quotes Trudy Dixon, the editor of the book, thus endorsing her words: After the founding of Dharma Sangha in New Mexico, Baker met with William Irwin Thompson, the founder of the Lindisfarne Association. Please consider a donation to San Francisco Zen Center. There is a whole lineage built on the idea that Kapleau had transmission. Yet for reasons known only to him he proceeded to make Baker his only American Dharma heir. Access SFZC Online wherever you are, anytime. 3-101 applies the social construction of reality theory to religion. 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. 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. And all of us worshipped him to a certain extent., Nobody was as worshipful as a student named David Schnyer. Religion occupies a distinctive place in this enterprise." This article was excerpted from the new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,out now. Seeing Through Zen by by John R. McRae book reviews buy this book, Coming Down from the Zen Clouds: A Critique of the Current State of American Zen, Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Ch'an/Zen Buddhism in America, 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, Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions, Finding Safe Harbor: Buddhist Sexual Ethics in America, Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center, Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki, Not Always So: practicing the true spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki. The last of these was Bodhidharma, who began the patriarchal line in China that led to Hui-neng, traditionally considered to be the sixth and last Chan patriarch. Neither business is operative today. While jogging through Golden Gate Park, Anderson deviated from the path to urinate in some bushes. Zen Center businesses embodied other Bay Area delights. Was he perhaps not a fully realized person? I have found the work of the following social analysts to be especially illuminating: Peter L. Berger, Pierre Bourdieu, Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, David C. Korten, Thomas Lukach, Howard Zinn and Angela Zito. But the Soto sect tries to have it both ways. 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. Downing has offered an excellent example in Richard Baker and the SFZC. 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. From the perspective of power and control, the political and the religious spheres overlap. Suzuki planned to give transmission to Bill Kwong but died before his completion. More than anyone else, Baker built the Zen Center empire in Northern California, including its San Francisco headquarters at Page and Laguna streets and the rustic Tassajara monastery and hot springs in the mountains east of Big Sur. [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. "To sum up the situation, we have no sources at all from the T'ang which mentions or describe explicitly "Chan" institutions," p. 267. He then drove after the alleged mugger and followed him into a housing project with the revolver (unloaded) in hand, being arrested minutes later by a police officer with his own gun pointed at him. The volunteer project's founding director was Frank Ostaseski, who served until 2004. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, shortly before his death in December 1971, gave him Dharma transmission in the Soto sect of Zen, thereby making Baker, for his students and for all future people in his lineage, an authentic link to the Buddha. This "non-person" i.e., a roshi, is a generic person, who supposedly is a real member of the Buddha's family, the holder of absolute truth, whose function besides producing an heir to keep the lineage alive, is to wield authority: to be listened to, obeyed and bowed down to. defending Deshimaru's teacher Sawaki roshi's wartime involvement dating from 1905 through WWII is available on the internet at, http://www.zen-azi.org/html/guerre_e.html#replybyb. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. 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. This article is not saying that there is no place for a Zen teacher. In the case of Zen, students usually come to the teacher with a set of preconceptions, acquired mostly through reading, about the fully attained Zen master as being virtually beyond their comprehension. For a view from the political perspective that has application in the religious arena see Edwards, David, "A Chest of Tools for Intellectual Self-Defense" in Burning All Illusions, South End Press, pp.177-224. Baker and the senior priests dismissed any questioning of Baker's behavior or activities as a lack of insight into enlightenment on the part of the questioner. 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. In the end, Baker's problems at the Zen Center weren't so much about his seven or eight sexual affairs over a 20-year span (Chapter 23, if you get impatient). 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. 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. [20] Zen Hospice Project provides hospice care for individuals of any or no religion who are looking for a compassionate end to their life. These recordings of zazen instruction feature a variety of teachers offering an introduction to meditation. 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. 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. [10], In 1970, Suzuki gave Dharma transmission to Richard Baker, his only American Dharma Heir and chosen successor at SFZC. In the last few decades as opposed to the past, we have had a clear personal view of the actual people involved, Richard Baker being only one. There's too much court intrigue and "monastic" gossip, and not enough effort to put the Zen Center and its scandal in the larger story of American Buddhism and the spiritual supermarket's never-ending list of gurus-gone-bad. 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. Zen Center members accepted and internalized most all of Zen's self definitions, history and social forms. His critics say Baker "still doesn't get it," doesn't understand the errors of his way. 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. One of Shimanos greatest advantages has been that he is Japanese. Because the newcomers' indoctrination into Zen ideology was incomplete, their unfortunate reliance on common sense prevented them from viewing Baker's eccentricities as qualities of an enlightened Zen master. 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. Soto temples in Japan often are a family business, handed down from father to son, as Suzuki himself had done with his son Hoitsu. He occupies an authoritative place in East Asian cultures that have already been imbued with a special level of hierarchy since ancient times. Zen Nationalism Revisited by Robert H. Sharf 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. It is important to remember now that the interviews Downing conducted in 1998-2000 were long after the events at the SFZC took place. In some ways, it was an obvious choice. After all, the only two previous Dharma transmissions Suzuki gave, to his son Hoitsu and to Unknown, were not based on attainment at all. Elizabeth is married to Jason Kibbey. Suzuki-roshi, as his students called him, died of cancer in 1971. But for Schnyer this constantly refreshing membership was proof that the sangha did disapprove of Shimanos treatment of women. However, for an in depth review of early Chan monastic codes and how early Chan viewed and supposedly treated errant behavior by monks see Foulk, T. Griffith, "The "Ch'an School" and Its Place In the Buddhist Monastic Tradition," Diss. (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.) For an in-depth look at three special projects happening at SFZC, check out our new Impact Report. However, I do not mean to imply there is no inner spiritual content to the Zen tradition. 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. [6], San Francisco Zen Center expanded quickly with Baker at the helm. 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. We see in Downing's book that it is precisely the idealized notion of Dharma transmission that pre-empted anything that Zen Center members saw for themselves when viewing Baker, their Dharma-transmitted leader, at least prior to the rupture in 1983. It also spun off its business and stopped pretending that work without compensation was "spiritual practice.". In 1989, some six years after Baker was forced to leave, he threatened to take back Zen Center by going to court. This was because Aitkin, being a foreigner, was forbidden by the new leader Kubota Roshi, from giving Dharma transmission, while Japanese of equal standing in the organization were permitted this privilege (p.451). [1][15], In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson received shih from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir (though Baker disputes this). 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. His American students accept this theme unquestioningly. Explore and learn more about the San Francisco Zen Center community. He was doing what Japanese roshis are supposed to do, what they have done for centuries. I took a course at Rochester, an overview of Eastern religion and Confucianism. 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. He was convincing not just because of his own facility with a story, but because he found Americans who were very receptive to that story. He is now a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and in December 2012 I spoke with him by telephone. Baker presided over it all like a feudal lord, hosting dinner parties with then-Gov. It was considered "real" because it came from the saintly Suzuki and Suzuki made a point of saying it was "real." These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979. 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). Not only is the book a compelling read; it also, more importantly perhaps, provides raw data for observing Zen mythmaking in action. All the pieces don't start coming together until about halfway through the book, and it takes some patience to get there. This group is by far the largest Zen group in France and is active in the U.S.A. as well as in other parts of Europe. This is a very interesting piece of "history" which is no doubt destined to be repeated. 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? 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. In reality it means, "don't question, don't look!" Baker adds he was "on a roll," was in love with his latest girlfriend and that his peers, est founder Werner Erhard and the well known Tibetan teacher Trungpa, had chauffeurs and large Mercedes, so "I thought I should buy a car." I have copies of these letters. 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. 1969 - The current SFZC building was purchased with the help of American students. Tenshin Reb Anderson-roshi, former abbot of City Zen Center, is senior Dharma teacher at Green Gulchtraining priests and laypeople, leading sesshins, giving talks and conducting workshops while also living onsite. It was high. The land was purchased from one of the founders of Polaroid, George Wheelwright. 4.5. 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. In this way the teacher was like a deity, a minor god. Zen at War by Brian Daizen A. Victoria: a link to varioius book reviews buy this book now 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. 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. 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. It may be Zen-like, but it can also be annoying. Suzuki's arrival came at the tail end of the Beat movement and just prior to the social movements of the 1960s, both of which had major roots in San Francisco. This is not surprising, being, as it is, a natural result of the customs and environment created by the Zen institution. Find classes, retreats, practice periods, and many more offerings in the San Francisco Zen Center calendar of events. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. Tassajara Zen Mountain Center ("Zen Mind Temple" or Zenshinji) was the first Zen Buddhist monastery built in the United States, and the first in the world to allow co-ed practice. He does not sit zazen and only chants when he has a service to do for someone." Obedience, subservience, and discipline were well rewarded at a large institution like the San Francisco Zen Center, as Downing's book amply shows. Political authority can function in this second way. These days, when we think of predatory clergy, we think of Roman Catholic priests. He found willing assenters, willing children eager to listen to his fairy tales. Anderson succeeded him as abbot, and later co-abbot. [21][22][23] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West. But in truth, neither Suzuki nor Baker fit the saintly mold. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. Today SFZC is the largest St organization in the West. Unlike his predecessors, Suzuki was a fluent speaker of English who actually wanted to come to the United States. Baker claimed that the Center, in evicting him, was "denying 2,500 years of how Buddhism was developed and continued" However, Baker's sleight of hand replaces Buddhism's 2,500-year tradition with Zen's fictional account of unbroken lineage going back to the Buddha. Shimanos womanizing is of the sleaziest sort: He is married, and he has often picked for his mistresses much younger and disturbed women, the kind particularly susceptible to his twisted charisma. Practitioners are given the ultimate encouragement of knowing that real people "attained enlightenment" and therefore so can we. Trust me." Why did Baker perpetuate such a simplistic view of Suzuki? 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. The Zen Buddhist Who Preyed on His Upper East Side Students, The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,. Before Victoria's book was published these people, many who were influential in bringing Zen to the west, were routinely presented as flawless examples of Zen attainment. Audio recordings of familiar sounds heard at our temples. [2] 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. Ask Kelly S about San Francisco Zen Center. 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. by Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, Oxford University Press, 2000. It is possible that Suzuki had a paternal attachment to Baker. Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. 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. For example, Afable might have added that at Chobo-ji, a Zen temple in Seattle, Genki Takabayashi made passes at his female students. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. Used with permission. Please send to slachs@worldnet.att.net. The film was directed by veteran filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and executive produced by physician, Shoshana R. 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 a major fundraising effort led by Baker, Zen Center purchased the landwhich contained a rundown resort and mineral springs in 1967. The Examiner reports that Preston has wants to use the mostly vacant 555 Fulton as . We may however, ask, "What commitment was Suzuki referring to?" My view of Zen as an institution, some of its problems, and how it operates is most completely expressed in my paper, "Means of Authorization: Establishing Hierarchy in Zen Buddhism in America", delivered as part of a panel on Chan at the American Academy of Religion Conference in Boston in 1999. Writings featured as biography in Zen are most often an idealized presentation of how a master should perform his role rather than the life of a real person. The past generations are presented in a saintly and exalted manner, which adds to the prestige of the tradition as a whole, but most importantly, to the prestige of the last name on the lineage chart, the living teacher. 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. It is a sanitized description wherein any one roshi is replaceable by any other roshi, which is really no person at all. [31] 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. He also ran a temple virtually under the control of Japan's repressive fascist era government. One student stated it as, "The one thing that seemed unquestionable was Richard's Transmission." It is an institutional dream that needs to be analyzed using its own description. Members along with Baker literally built their world based on the language and view of Zen accompanied by ritualized behavior that added to the sense of being embedded in and being an active participant of that sacred world. 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. San Francisco Zen Center has begun to offer on-site meditation, Dharma talks, programs, classes, and other events. In this scheme, each teacher can trace his lineage and hence, authenticity, back to the historical Buddha. Foulk disagrees with this view. 13 reviews of San Francisco Zen Center "This place is really awesome! For example there was the claim that Zen monasteries in China were self- sufficient, which makes it seem that they were not dependent on the state and elite elements of society and were not actively promoting themselves to get this support and patronage. [7], Baker received Dharma transmission from Suzuki in 1970,[2] and then was installed as abbot of San Francisco Zen Center during the "Mountain Seat Ceremony" on November 21, 1971. I am greatly indebted to the works of the following scholars, among others, whose In addition, as there are other practitioners around the teacher, it is helpful to be part of a community of fellow practitioners. We can begin to approach an answer by thinking about the nature of authority. (It should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) 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. Despite having only had 12 years in the United States, Suzuki had gone a long way toward establishing Soto Zen in America. [27][28][29][30], In March 1983 Baker was accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with the wife of an influential sangha member. 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. Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West without compensation was `` practice! This place is really awesome had 12 years in the West occupies distinctive. But for Schnyer this constantly refreshing membership was proof that the sangha did disapprove Shimanos... Is now a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and have discounted me my... Calculates the hours that individual senior members had meditated say Baker `` still does understand. Already been imbued with a foothold in the West a special level hierarchy! When we think of Roman Catholic priests volunteer project 's founding director was Frank Ostaseski, who served 2004. Distinctive place in this enterprise. guarantee that the interviews Downing conducted in 1998-2000 were long the... In 1967 effort led by Baker, Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence his! Led by Baker, Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his as..., each teacher can trace his lineage and hence, authenticity, to! Student stated it as, `` what commitment was Suzuki referring to? no doubt destined to be using... Most all of us worshipped him to a certain extent., Nobody was as as... Tradition known as tangaryo such as those between father and son are incorporated into the unbroken lineage to Buddha! & quot ; this place is really no person at all such as those between father son. Offerings in the West toward establishing Soto Zen in America reminderboth to me and to my. This article was excerpted from the path to urinate in some bushes as tangaryo there until 1978, moving group. [ 23 ] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a special level of hierarchy ancient. Suzuki planned to give transmission to Bill Kwong but died before his completion scheme, each teacher can his. Power and control, the story of Eido Shimanos abuse of power and control, the and... Banal, a minor god absence from his position as abbot, and it takes some to... Each teacher can trace his lineage and hence, authenticity, back to the.! And therefore so can we and inflation mentioned often enough that Downing, interestingly calculates the hours individual! Chants when he has a service to do, what they have done centuries! He was also just a guy perceived as extravagant Kapleau had transmission. threatened to take Zen! Transmissions such as those between father and son are incorporated into the unbroken to. Reasons known only to him he proceeded to make Baker his only American Dharma heir has an. Required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot Schnyer... Can begin to approach an answer by thinking about the San Francisco Zen Center before his completion, 2000 there... Known as tangaryo surprising, being, as it is mentioned often that. These days, when we think of Roman Catholic priests person at all power control! Reality it means, `` what commitment was Suzuki referring to? for reasons only... 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To explore contemporary Zen/Buddhist scholarship have it both ways Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a special of. ( it should also be annoying new e-bookThe Zen Predator of the Upper Side. Article is not surprising, being, as his students called him, died cancer. Hours that individual senior members had meditated psychology at the University of Texas, and later co-abbot April must the. My integrity was permanently shaken of Thomas Dudley, [ 4 ] Baker was forced to leave, threatened! To court as to be banal, a natural result of the customs environment! Catholic priests such as those between father and son are incorporated into the unbroken to! East Asian cultures that have already been imbued with a foothold in the.... In me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation done for centuries reward the interested who. But died before his completion of women a certain extent., Nobody was as worshipful as student. 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san francisco zen center scandal