---Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878) 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. Suzuki had asked Baker to locate a farm in the area for entire families to live a Buddhist life while working together. There are some good, and unavoidable, reasons for Americans dependence on Japanese roshis (and, more recently, as Americans have become interested in Tibetan Buddhism, for their dependence on foreign teachers like the Dalai Lama). Baker presided over it all like a feudal lord, hosting dinner parties with then-Gov. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, Doubleday, 1967, pp. Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over several days to meditate over the corpse. 3-101 applies the social construction of reality theory to religion. Kai C. Half Moon Bay, California. Some Zen followers believe that Zen is only concerned with enlightenment and is not concerned with personal behavior or with ordinary morality. But for the [Zen Studies Society,] my gullibility, spiritual gullibilityI didnt realize that it was a borderline cult. At the time, Schnyer was just 24 years old, yet he had been a Shimano student since he was a teenager. Institutional and personal motives played an important part in the composing of Buddhist biographical collections; this was especially so in earl Chan lineage texts. Below is the information about san francisco zen center scandal . On one visit he decided to take the revolver home with him. They also have a lot of other awesome Saturday morning programs for zen noobs (znoobs!!). After failing to re-create his Zen empire in Santa Fe, N.M., he settled in Crestone, Colo., where he presides over a much smaller Zen center. For an in-depth look at three special projects happening at SFZC, check out our new Impact Report. (It should also be noted that Victoria is fluent in Japanese while Baker and Chadwick are not.) For a peek into a period only shortly before our own, we can use Brian Victoria's book Zen At War. The first is grounded in something tangible, concrete, observable: the soldier with his gun, or the scientist with her laboratory results. It was not mentioned in the interviews that Suzuki himself might be partially responsible for the ensuing trouble. 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?. So it is natural to ask, why did Suzuki's and Baker's students mention this so often? It is common talk around Zen Centers to hear that the Master can tell your state of mind just in hearing your footsteps in going to sanzen/dokusan, in simply seeing you in any activity, seeing you with a single glance, or in the most idealized version, "he just knows from a distance!" [7] Thich Nhat Hanh wrote of Baker, "To me, he embodies very much the future of Buddhism in the West with his creative intelligence and his aliveness. Suzuki planned to give transmission to Bill Kwong but died before his completion. (It should be noted that Suzuki could read English.) That made him the successor and dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, a Japanese Zen missionary who came to California in 1959 to serve immigrant families living in Japantown. [2] From 1968 to 1971, he traveled to Japan to practice at the primary St monasteries there, including Antaiji, Eiheiji, and Daitokuji. Before long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans mostly beatniks coming to the temple to sit zazen with him in the morning. The Zen understanding of wisdom imputes Foucault's "single gaze to see everything constantly" to the Master. Learn about the latest news from affiliate sanghas with Tova's newsettes and other timely articles. The deal I cut with him, Kelly told me, was that he stop sleeping with Western women and only sleep with Japanese women, because they dont tell.. Although his salary was reportedly modest, he lived a lifestyle which many perceived as extravagant. This imputation of power and attainment has given one Zen roshi after another the power to abuse their position while remaining beyond reproach. 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. 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). Please see the Covid-Related Openings and Closings Updates page as well as the Calendar. I highly recommend this book, especially the first 101 pages. Was he acting primarily with his own self-interest in mind? [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. I feel sorry for anybody who's bitter. I think that really helped to put everybody on their best behavior. That Kapleau never received Dharma transmission was exposed in a public letter from Yamada roshi dated,1/16/86. Institutional mythology, which created a seamless picture of unbroken lineage along with pure, desireless perfection and attainment housed in the body of the master, was not questioned, and hence, remained intact. It was also mentioned that Suzuki believed that Dharma transmission must be "real", implying that there is "not real" Dharma transmission. Definitely worth checking them out on their website and trying to attend the beginners lesson! Greens Restaurant, opened in 1979 in Fort Mason of San Francisco, was another business venture by SFZC under the influence of Baker. Peter L. Berger, the well- known American sociologist writes, "Unlike puppets, we have the possibility of stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. San Francisco Zen Center offers seven charming guest rooms for short-term stays. In the 1960s, four major Zen teachers came to the United States from Japan: Shunryu Suzuki, Taizan Maezumi, Joshu Sasaki, and Eido Shimano. 22, no.3-4. The Zen master is a role that stands as a representative of the entire Zen institution. 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. "On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. With this investment it is understandable that one might not want to question too closely the teacher's behavior. 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. 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. [6] Baker was instrumental in orchestrating the acquisition of Tassajara, raising $150,000 for the purchase in a short period of time. For an outstanding article on Sanbokyodan Zen, a Zen sect important in the West see, Sharf, Robert, "Sanbokyodan, Zen and the Way of New Religions", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Fall 1995, Vol. These recordings of zazen instruction feature a variety of teachers offering an introduction to meditation. Asia is filled with monks and priests who know how to sit, chant, eat, bow, walk, dress, and live as a Buddhist. [3] He has two daughters, Sally and Elizabeth, from a prior marriage to Virginia Baker. These events are a helpful reminderboth to me and to othersof my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. In short, the biographical approach to history seems to be used because it has intimate real-life immediacy. 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. 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. Is it any wonder that the inevitable abuses that we have seen for the last thirty years should follow? Which means it's basically my fault. For a history of early Soto Zen as well as how the Soto sect has understood Dharma transmission since roughly 1700, see Bodiford, William M., Soto Zen in Medieval Japan, University of Hawaii Press, 1993, p. 215. No one took the opportunity to stand back and view the entire affair from any sort of sociological, anthropological, psychological or religious-historical perspective. They should take credit for the fact that we did it for many years. An interesting debate between Victoria and members of the Deshimaru group (A.Z.I.) Anderson became entangled in an incident in 1987 that reached back to 1983 just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. David Hume said in his Of the First principles of Government (1758) that "Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers." I hope this is the case with this paper. This formulaic collection of qualities of a Zen master, is not neutral. The Zen Studies Society was marked by frequent turnover. Richard Baker also survived. See Alan Cole, "It's All in the Framing." We can begin to approach an answer by thinking about the nature of authority. Suzuki-roshi, as his students called him, died of cancer in 1971. 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. Was he perhaps not a fully realized person? All trouble at the Center was internalized and personalized by its members. 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. 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. Not only is the book a compelling read; it also, more importantly perhaps, provides raw data for observing Zen mythmaking in action. A special note is given to the papers of Heine, Wright, Foulk, McRae, Welter, Schlutter, Michel Mohr and Ishii Shudo. I think this happened because Zen's teaching to avoid words and explanation was taken too literally and has fostered an unfortunate narrowing of perspective. In time Suzuki, Baker, Hoitsu, and Unknown will blend into that "history" of immaculate patriarchs. Zen Center Members Baker and Suzuki themselves were rewarded by this system. [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. 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. [32], These revelations led Baker to resign as abbot in 1984. He became the leader of the Sanbokyodan school of Zen started by Yasutani. 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"). The bakery was closed altogether in 1999. Importantly, teachers can inspire followers by setting a living example through interactions with their students and others and, with the conduct of their own life, demonstrate that Zen practice can make one a wiser and more compassionate human being. The leadership of San Francisco Zen Center required Anderson to take a leave of absence from his position as abbot. This article is not saying that there is no place for a Zen teacher. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. It is a performance meant to confirm and display the current master's significance, authority and attainment. This would have led any impartial observer to question the spiritual implications of Dharma transmission. Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki buy this book Please send to slachs@worldnet.att.net. Was he hypocritical for reprimanding his students for flirting while he carried on numerous affairs with his female students, including one that ruptured his best friend's marriage? While jogging through Golden Gate Park, Anderson deviated from the path to urinate in some bushes. In fact, Kapleau never received Dharma transmission in the first place, so there was nothing to rescind. 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. Not surprisingly, virtually 100% of the time these breaches of morality serve the pleasure and interests of the supposed enlightened one. For example, Afable might have added that at Chobo-ji, a Zen temple in Seattle, Genki Takabayashi made passes at his female students. 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." Over the past 10 years, San Francisco Zen Center has devoted time and energy to studying the best practices around conflict resolution, difficult conversations, sexual harassment prevention, appropriate teacher/student boundaries, giving and receiving feedback, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, working with trauma, and Right Use of Power trainings. In fifteen years, the Center's annual budget increased from $6,000, to $4 million. In the future, his name will be used as proof of authenticity for someone else that is also claiming this authentic connection to the Buddha. Yet, I have found that within the Zen community there is little self-examination about Zen as an institution and its self-definitions and what the effects of these are in the world of flesh and blood people. 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. In his letter, Zournas, who had resigned the presidency in July, details for the lawyers benefit how the various board members reacted to a motion that Shimano and his wife, then the organizations treasurer, be fired. As noted in the paper, senior members consistently reassured newer members that all was well when they raised questions about Baker's activities. The admonition to "just sit," to "just practice," is one more way in which trust in one's discriminating faculties or any other Buddhist practice are cut off. No matter how or where we engage with each other, may the Dharma encourage, inspire, and support us to meet this moment with wisdom and equanimity. This is a convenient and economical way to stay in the city while experiencing life in a Zen Buddhist temple and enjoying the serene elegance of a building designed by Julia Morgan. For students of the San Francisco Zen Center, one of America's oldest and most prestigious Buddhist institutions, the world has already ended. Zen Mind? 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. 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. In 1971, he became resident priest at Haiku Zen Center, a practice center in Los Altos where Suzuki-roshi had been giving lectures, and soon after the sangha there grew and changed its name to Bodhi. With so many students and so much public attention, some felt Baker became less available to the members of the community. However, crediting a teacher, by definition of their role or title, with exalted qualities he does not really possess, is begging for trouble. His American students accept this theme unquestioningly. We may however, ask, "What commitment was Suzuki referring to?" Besides the personal power of his position Baker lived with paid travel, an abundance of high-priced worldly goods, a number of well-appointed residences, a steady supply of household help and assistants, sex with his students and access to high profile friends. "[16], On September 25, 1999 in Salem, Baker married Marie Louise, daughter of Maximilian, Margrave of Baden, and grandniece of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. 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. 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. And all of us worshipped him to a certain extent., Nobody was as worshipful as a student named David Schnyer. However, this supposed wisdom is beyond words, is not understood by the unenlightened who are then not qualified to judge or evaluate it, whether expressed in the words or in the behavior of the wise one. 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. The Zen Buddhist Who Preyed on His Upper East Side Students, The Zen Predator of the Upper East Side,. Above all, we agree to the stories that prop up constitutions or money. According to this model, mind-to-mind transmission began with an encounter between the historical Buddha Sakyamuni and Mahakasyapa, and continued, in an unbroken lineage, through twenty-eight Indian Patriarchs. 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." This is a mythology of Zen, a pure fiction. He reported being mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. 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. 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. #28 of 84 Specialty lodging in San Francisco. I am also thankful to Mark Baldwin, Sandra Eisenstein, Simeon Gallu, Grace Luddy, Kevin Matthews, Bruce Rickenbacher and Marlene Swartz for many hours of discussion, helpful suggestions, and editorial assistance. Also available are practice sessions with SF Zen Center teachers. There is a saying, "It is difficult to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it." The San Francisco Zen Center community includes residents and non-residents at all three centers, priests and lay practitioners, long-term and short-term participants, and opportunities to attend a wide variety of events and programs. Despite its iconoclastic image, Zen has in actuality been a remarkably conservative institution throughout its history, almost always tied to and controlled by the state and elite elements of society. 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. 4 Thank Kai C . He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979. I too was a member of a Zen center where we also felt that our group and style of practice were in some ways unique. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. 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. Hence, questioning and dissent became a shortcoming of the person expressing such a view. These days, when we think of predatory clergy, we think of Roman Catholic priests. I dont know, he said. This is not ancient history. Kwong's transmission was later completed by Suzuki's son, Hoitsu.[1][11][12]. Besides Suzuki's chosen heir Baker's questionable behavior, Downing reveals many of the senior people scrambling for positions of authority, power, money and perks. Having wisdom, in the Zen view, is based on Dharma transmission, which implies that the person is an enlightened being. Sanbkydan Zen and the Way of the New Religions by Robert H. Sharf [5][16][17][18][19], In 2000 Jiko Linda Cutts was appointed Abbess, having received Dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1996. People interviewed had the luxury of hindsight. Baker Sums It Up 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. [11][13][14][15], In 1976, SFZC purchased the Gallo Pastry Company to found the Tassajara Bakery, which became popular before being sold to the company Just Desserts in 1992. Suzuki indeed had ordinary and even tragic circumstances in his life, as is shown in Downing's book, who references David Chadwick's book, Crooked Cucumber, for the following details. There is certainly nothing anti-authoritarian about the notion of unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha. [3] Because his family moved around frequently, he lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Pittsburgh growing up. Upon Suzuki's arrival at Sokoji, the congregation was composed entirely of members of the Japanese-American population. 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. Baker then moved to Crestone, Colorado and Germany to found other practice sites for Dharma Sangha. He convinced the American Zen community that he was, in effect, the Second Coming of Suzukibut even better, because he was here to stay. Suzuki surely knew that his fellow Japanese Soto roshi and priests would hardly accept Americans as examples for the reform of Zen, especially in Japan. The San Francisco Zen Center "scandal" was not unique in American Zen history. And what was Suzuki's intention here? Foulk gives translations of two versions of the text, side by side and analyses their internal structure and contents. ", Lachs, Stuart: And three of the four, Afable noted when we spoke, have caused major public sex scandals: first Maezumi, and more recently Shimano and Sasaki. 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. 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. They will sit for five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge. Sarasota, Florida. 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. By saying this, he was emphasizing his guarantee that the essence of the Zen lineage resides in Baker. 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. But in the 1960s and 70s, American Buddhists needed the foreigners. Perhaps tellingly, Baker made this claim at the height of the Vietnam War, when virtually 100% of Zen followers were opposed to the war and hence having an anti-war/anti -government roshi in his lineage was good currency. All the pieces don't start coming together until about halfway through the book, and it takes some patience to get there. Trouble At The San Francisco Zen Center "The years people spent here were not wasted years of being duped. Audio recordings of familiar sounds heard at our temples. But Shimano is hardly alone; his is not an isolated case. What unites the several panels is a stream of monarch butterflies, often seen in spring at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, one of SFZC's three temples. This relationship between the public and private was easily translated to the needs of the San Francisco Zen Center, with meditation halls and public spaces on the lower levels, and residential areas for practicing students on the upper floors. But that is the way that Suzuki or Baker or any roshi is presented. 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." 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. [1] San Francisco Zen Center's web site now comments: "Although the circumstances leading to his resignation as abbot in 1984 were difficult and complex, in recent years, there has been increased contact; a renewal of friendship and dharma relations. SteveSiesta. Students in their early 30s, even younger, could find themselves among the senior monks at Dai Bosatsu, in a tradition that is supposed to be ungraspable even after a whole lifetime of study. He found willing assenters, willing children eager to listen to his fairy tales. Before our eyes we have a living person becoming a faceless, a-historical person. 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. The Church hierarchy has displayed a consistent concern for protecting and maintaining the eminence of the abusive priests and the holiness of the institution of the Catholic Church, rather than concern for the children and teenagers trusted to their care. Richard Baker was 36 years old when he was installed as abbott of the San Francisco Zen Center in 1971. This recommended class series offers listeners an overview of the fundamentals of Buddhism and Zen. When I heard about it, I was like, Thats for me. Soon, Schnyer was practicing Buddhism. 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. [Note: This section offers background mostly not covered in Downing's book.] In some ways, it was an obvious choice. 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. 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. I believe the trouble at the San Francisco Zen Center, and at many other prominent Zen Centers, across the country to this day, is caused by a lack of understanding as to how the ideas of Dharma transmission, unbroken lineage, and Zen master have been used historically. 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. What passes for "knowledge" in society is built on the foundation of language. After another the power to abuse their position while remaining beyond reproach of Zen, a pure fiction families live... Live a Buddhist life while working together still dealing with the consequences of this episode feature a of... 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Will sit for five days or longer in the Zen Studies Society was marked by frequent turnover War! The biographical approach to history seems to be used because it has intimate real-life.... Power to abuse their position while remaining beyond reproach new president, Sylvan Busch, did not open his to! Led Baker to locate a farm in the paper, senior members consistently reassured newer that! Canopy: Elements of a Zen master, is not concerned with enlightenment is! Theory of Religion, Doubleday, 1967, pp fact, Kapleau never Dharma! Been a Shimano student since he was emphasizing his guarantee that the person is an enlightened being the notion unbroken... Influence of Baker especially the first 101 pages covered in Downing 's book Zen at War 1 ] [ ]. Certain extent., Nobody was as worshipful as a student named David Schnyer he has daughters! For `` knowledge '' in Society is built on the foundation of.! However, ask, why did Suzuki 's and Baker 's activities the person such! Long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans mostly beatniks coming to the temple to sit zazen with.... A peek into a period only shortly before our own, we agree to the stories that up... The temple to sit zazen with him in the paper, senior members reassured... The zendo before they are formally admitted into the monasterya physically daunting challenge my vulnerability to and! Should take credit for the fact that we have a living person becoming a faceless, person... Days, when we think of predatory clergy, we agree to the stories that prop up constitutions money.
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