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San Francisco Zen Center
San Francisco Zen Center
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Country	United States
Website
	www.sfzc.org

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San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), aka "Zen Center" or Beginner's Mind Temple, is a network of affiliated Soto Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprised of the city center, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and Green Gulch Farm. The sangha was incorporated by Shunryu Suzuki-roshi and a group of his American students in 1962. Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West. The center has gained significant media coverage concerning the 1984 resignation of then abbot Zentatsu Richard Baker, who was ousted after it was discovered he had been having an affair with the wife of a prominent Zen Center member. Today the center elects abbots democratically so as to avoid the danger of an autocratic leadership taking hold. In addition to their main center located at 300 Page Street, the SFZC also owns and operates Green Gulch Farm Zen Center and Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

History

On May 23, 1959, Shunryu Suzuki (then age 57) came from Japan to San Francisco to serve as head priest of Sokoji—a Soto Zen temple then located at 1881 Bush Street in Japantown. He was later joined by his wife Mitsu (also from Japan) in 1961. Sokoji—founded by Hosen Isobe in 1934—had been housed in a former Jewish synagogue that is now Kokoro Assisted Living. Upon Suzuki’s arrival at Sokoji, the congregation there was comprised entirely of members from the Japanese-American population. Unlike his predecessors, Suzuki was a fluent speaker of English that actually wanted to come to the United States. Suzuki had arrived at the dawn of the hippie movement of the early 1960s, which San Francisco was then very much a part of. Before long, Sokoji had non-Japanese Americans—comprised mostly of beatniks—coming to the temple to sit zazen with him in the morning. Soon these Westerners began to participate in the regular services, and the number of new non-Asian students came to outnumber the Japanese-American congregation. This fluctuation in numbers caused a rift among the Sokoji community, which was only alleviated when Suzuki’s Western students began gathering for separate services there in 1961. Some of these students began calling their group City Center, incorporated in 1962 as the San Francisco Zen Center.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

In 1967 Kobun Chino Otagowa of Eiheiji came to California to serve as an assistant to Suzuki, with members at Haiku Zendo hopeful that he would become their Abbot. But, that year Zen Center had just launched Tassajara Hot Springs and—since help was desperately needed there—Kobun served as resident teacher at the new monastery until 1970. In 1971 he did become resident priest at Haiku Zen Center, however, and soon after their sangha grew and changed their name to Bodhi. He served as Abbot there until 1978, moving the group to Jikoji in Los Gatos, California in 1979.^[5][1][2][3]

Tassajara Hot Springs (Zen Mind Temple, Zenshinji or Tassajara Zen Mountain Center), located in Los Padres National Forest behind Big Sur, was scouted out by Shunryu Suzuki and Richard Baker in 1966 as a site to build a monastery. Zen Center then purchased the land—which contained a rundown resort and mineral springs—that following year. Tassajara was the first Zen Buddhist monastery built in the United States, and the first in the world to admit women among its ranks. It is located atop a bumpy 10-mile (16 km) 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. Visitors can enjoy the springs, go swimming or on hiking trips, and have the opportunity to arrange for practice with the community living at the monastery for a few days. The monastery is closed to outsiders from the months of September through April, then opens to the public by reservation from May through August offering retreats, seminars, and workshops. Students that come to practice at the monastery from September through April must undergo the tradition known as tangaryo. They will sit for a period of five days or longer in the zendo before they are formally admitted into the monastery—a physically daunting challenge that is difficult for some to make it through.^[6]^[7]^[1]^[8]^[9]The following is an account by author Roberta Swan about adjusting to life at Tassajara, page 184 from her book Hope and Healing in a Troubled World, "I finally ran out of excuses, and I went to Tassajara. It took about a year for me to arrive there psychologically. I had to cut all of the various attachments that I had with friends. They're still my friends. But to be at Tassajara, I needed to actually let go of the maintenance of those relationships for a while. It took a year for me to do that, to actually be in that valley with those people doing those things that we did."

Suzuki was asked to resign as priest at Sokoji in 1969 by the temple's board of directors, who thought he was spending more time with his Western students than the Japanese-American congregation. Months later he—with the help of his American students—purchased the current (and larger) building on Page Street.^[10] From 1969 until his death in 1971, Suzuki had an assistant priest at SFZC named Dainin Katagiri-roshi. Katagiri had established his own zendo—the Minnesota Zen Center—in 1972 in Minneapolis.^[5] In 1970, Shunryu Suzuki-roshi gave Dharma transmission to Richard Baker. Suzuki died at age 77 in the early morning on December 4, 1971 of cancer, not long after his famous compilation of works had been published in the best-selling Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. A year before his death Suzuki gave teachings on the Sandokai, of which he remarked that Soto Zen teachers often give lectures on the Sandokai toward the end of their life; it were as if he knew that his death was imminent. Shortly before dying, he instructed Richard Baker to take over as his successor at SFZC. Suzuki had also been planning to give transmission to Bill Kwong as well at the time, but died before completion.^[1]^[11]^[12]

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. The land was purchased from one of the founders of Polaroid, George Wheelwright. Before dying Shunryu Suzuki had asked Richard Baker to locate a farm in the area for entire families to live a Buddhist life while working together. Despite hesitance on the part of some members of SFZC—because of the sheer size of the place (80+ acres)—Baker felt that acquiring Green Gulch Farm was very important for Buddhism in America. Members soon raised funding for a zendo to be built there, and over time the farm transformed into a monastery and retreat center for residents and guests with an organic farm, flower gardens, a teahouse and a plant nursery.^[13]^[14]^[11]^[8]

The organic farm at Green Gulch supplies local restaurants and food suppliers with their product, and they also sell their flowers, produce and herbs at Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco on Saturdays. Guests stay at the Lindisfarne Guest House, a traditional Japanese building with a wood burning stove as the heating source. Zen practice is not required to stay at Green Gulch, though guests are welcome to participate in zazen or any other activities that they so choose. Tenshin Reb Anderson-roshi is senior Dharma teacher at Green Gulch—former abbot of City Zen Center—training priests, laypeople, leading sesshins, giving talks and conducting workshops while also living onsite.^[15]^[16]^[17][4]

In 1976 Tassajara Bakery—now defunct—was established in San Francisco by the SFZC when they purchased the old Gallo Pastry Company. It was sold by SFZC to the company Just Desserts in 1992, which then closed the bakery in 1999. Tassajara Bakery was a venture for Zen Center that was entered into by Richard Baker as an extension of the baking practices at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Tassajara Zen Mountain Center had been making their own breads back in 1967 for their own consumption, and when the Center released Edward Espe Brown's Tassajara Bread Book, a potential consumer interest was demonstrated. The bakery supplied Greens Restaurant and some local grocers with their breads.^[18] Greens Restaurant was yet another business venture embarked upon by SFZC under the prodding of Richard Baker, opened in 1979 in Fort Mason of San Francisco. Serving vegetarian cuisine, the first chefs were Edward Espe Brown and Deborah Madison. The two published a book of recipes together in 1987 titled The Greens Cookbook. Throughout the 1980s Greens was one of the most popular restaurants in San Francisco, obtaining their breads from Tassajara Bakery and produce from Green Gulch Farm. Two other SFZC business ventures that are now defunct should also be mentioned. The Alaya Stitchery storefront, which made zafus, zabutons and clothing, and Green Gulch Grocery which sold produce from Green Gulch Farm.^[19]^[20]^[18]^[21]^[5]

Problems

Baker resigns

In March of 1983 it became widely known by the sangha at SFZC that Baker Roshi was engaged in a sexual relationship with the wife of a close friend of the community. According to author James William Coleman in his book "The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition" (page 167):

Under Baker's stewardship, the Zen Center grew at a frenetic pace. In fifteen years, it went from an annual budget of $6,000 to $4 million. It acquired property worth somewhere around $20 million and built up a network of affiliated businesses staffed by Zen Center students, which included a hip vegetarian restaurant, a bakery, and a grocery store. Although no one ever accused Baker of amassing a personal fortune at Zen Center's expense, he did live a life of comfort and elegance that stood in stark contrast to the austerity expected of his students. His salary was modest, but Baker traveled extensively, entertained visiting dignitaries in high style, and was even provided a luxurious BMW for commuting and chauffeuring around important visitors. As time went on, Baker became less and less available to help students with their spiritual practice, and resentment mounted over what was perceived as his extravagance. The spark that set off the growing discontent was an affair Baker had with the wife of an influential member of the sangha. As the news of his indiscretion spread, the community split into pro- and anti-Baker factions, and reports began to surface about other affairs Baker had had."^[22]

Also, at some point in the 1980s Baker ordained Issan Dorsey as a priest. This was likely prompted by a conversation between Robert Baker Aitken and Baker at San Francisco Zen Center concerning the question of Zen's availability to interested gays, for Dorsey went on to become abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center later.^[23]

At any rate, the "spark" Coleman talks about occurred in March of 1983 at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center following a weekend Buddhist Peace Conference. Present there were such dignitaries as Thich Nhat Hanh, Jerry Brown, Robert Baker Aitken and Gary Snyder—all of whom had been invited to the event by Baker. The woman in question was the wife of one of Baker's best friends.^[1] According to Frederick C. Crew:

The married Baker spent most of the weekend in his cabin with the latest of many lovers, and for the first time ever, he was making no effort to keep the relationship a secret." Crew goes on to state, "The shoes outside Baker-roshi's door were those of Anna Hawken, the wife of his best friend Paul Hawken, a wealthy benefactor of Zen Center. And Paul Hawken, amazingly enough, was another stunned guest that weekend. His subsequent threat to hold Zen Center legally accountable for its abbot's misconduct touched off a cataclysm in the Zen community, bringing down Baker-roshi and precipitating an institutional crisis that would finally revolutionize the center's self-image and style of governance."^[24]

The affair and subsequent revelations led to community-wide pandemonium, and in 1984 Baker was forced to resign as abbot.^[1] It should be noted that the San Francisco Zen Center's website has this to say about Richard Baker: "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."[5] And Baker, for his part, is quoted as having said in a 1994 interview with Sugata Schneider, "I said to a friend recently, 'Looking back, I can see that I was pretty much a complete asshole. Sometimes I think I didn't know what was going on at all.' He said, 'Well, that's not true, but there must be some things you didn't see-but then, how could you see everything?' I said, 'Okay, but still I had deep flaws which made me deeply inconsiderate of others. It wasn't my intention, that I know, but I was unwilling and unable to see my flaws too.'"^[25]

Following Baker's resignation, Dainin Katagiri stepped in to lead the community until 1985. When Katagiri left, Tenshin Reb Anderson assumed Abbotship of the Zen Center—serving until 1995. In the early 1990s the Board of Directors at the Zen Center created the "Ethical Principles and Procedures for Grievance and Reconciliation" for its members, geared toward conflict resolution mediation that was guided by the Buddhist precepts. The Board of Directors at SFZC also decided to begin the practice of installing leaders by elective process. 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).^[8]^[1]

Tenshin Reb Anderson's arrest

In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson had received shiho from Zentatsu Richard Baker, becoming Baker's first Dharma heir (though Baker disputes this). From 1986 to 1988 he served as abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, and from 1988 to 1995 he served there as co-abbot with Sojun Mel Weitsman. Anderson became entangled in a strange incident that occurred in 1987 that reached back to 1983—a period just after Zentatsu Richard Baker had resigned as abbot. While jogging through Golden Gate Park one day, Anderson had deviated from the path to urinate in some bushes. There he found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Rather than report this to the police, Anderson returned to the body over a period of several days to meditate over the corpse. On one such visit he decided to take the revolver home with him.^[26] Upon his final visit he found that the body was no longer there, and a fellow priest whom he had confided in showed him a newspaper article covering the apparent suicide. Five years later (in 1988), roughly fifteen months after Anderson had become abbot of the San Francisco, Anderson was arrested for brandishing this same firearm in public. He reports that he had been mugged at knifepoint by a man just a block away from the San Francisco Zen Center at 300 Page Street. Anderson remembered stowing the revolver away in the San Francisco Zen Center's garage and quickly retrieved it. 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.^[27]

This 1987 incident has had a damaging impact on Anderson's reputation as a teacher, the incident having received local and national media coverage at the time of arrest. The San Francisco Board of Directors sent him on a leave of absence for six months, and when he came back they appointed Mel Weitsman as a co-abbot. Regarding this ordeal, Anderson has written:

On both a personal and a professional level, I am still dealing with the consequences of this episode. Some people felt that I had committed an irrevocable betrayal of trust, and have discounted me and my teaching ever since. Others were more forgiving, but their trust in me and my integrity was permanently shaken. 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. These events are a helpful reminder—both to me and to others—of my vulnerability to arrogance and inflation. 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. This ancient twisted karma I now fully avow."^[27]

SFZC today

In 2000 Jiko Linda Cutts was appointed Abbess, having received Dharma transmission from Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1996. In 2003 Paul Haller, who had received transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman in 1993, was installed as co-abbot with her. In 1987 SFZC started the Zen Hospice Project, a volunteer hospice program run out of a guest house on Page Street with five residential beds, as well as a twenty-five bed ward within Laguna Honda Hospital; it is the largest Buddhist hospice center in the United States. The volunteer project's founding director was Frank Ostaseski who served until 2000, when he began a training program for SFZC students called the End-of-Life Counselor Training Program. Zen Hospice Project provides hospice care for individuals of any or no religion that are looking for a compassionate end to their life.^[28]^[29][6] Today SFZC is the largest Soto organization with a foothold in the West.^[1]

Friends of SFZC

SFZC is connected, in an unofficial capacity, to the following Zen Centers:^[1]

Alumni

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Ford, 121-137, 725-726
^ Japantown Task Force, 100
^ Clarke, 44-46
^ Leighton, 208
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Prebish, 14-15
^ Swan, 184
^ Owens, 271
^ ^a ^b ^c Seager, 101-101 Cite error: The named reference "seager" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^ Zen With a Difference
^ Johnson, 53-55
^ ^a ^b Richmond, xiii, xiv
^ Suzuki, 9
^ Oda, 13-14
^ Graham, 5
^ Pierce, 375
^ Joyce
^ Rose
^ ^a ^b Sinton
^ Madden, 173
^ Sim Van der Ryn, 163
^ Fields, 268
^ Coleman, 167-168
^ Prebish, 81
^ Crews, 283-284
^ Schneider
^ Being Upright; 187-189
^ ^a ^b Anderson, 187-189
^ Dimidjian, 27
^ Lembke, 126

References

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Clarke, Peter Bernard (1994). Japanese New Religions in the West. Routledge. ISBN 187341000X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Coleman, James William (2002). The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195152417. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Crews, Frederick C. (2006). Follies of the Wise: Dissenting Essays. Shoemaker & Hoard Publishers. ISBN 1593761015. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Dimidjian, Victoria Jean (2004). Journeying East: Conversations on Aging and Dying. Parallax Press. ISBN 1888375361. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Fields, Rick (1986). How the Swans Came to the Lake. Random House. ISBN 0394744195. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Ford, James Ishmael (2006). Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0861715098. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Graham, Jerry (1990). Jerry Graham's More Bay Area Backroads. Perennial Library. ISBN 0060964529. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Japantown Task Force, Inc. (2005). San Francisco's Japantown. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 073853059X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Johnson, Fenton (2003). Keeping Faith: A Skeptic's Journey. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618004424. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Joyce, Alice (2003-07-23). "Zen in bloom". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Leighton, Taigen Daniel (2003). Faces of Compassion: Classic Bodhisattva Archetypes and Their Modern Expression. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0861713338. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Lembke, Janet (2004). The Quality of Life: Living Well, Dying Well. Globe Pequot. ISBN 1592281281. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Madden, etta M., Finch, Martha L. (2006). Eating in Eden: Food and American Utopias. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803232519. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Oda, Mayumi (2002). I Opened the Gate, Laughing: An Inner Journey. Chronicle Books. ISBN 0811833860. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Owens, Tom, Chatfield, Melanie Bowen (2004). Insiders' Guide to the Monterey Peninsula. Globe Pequot. ISBN 0762729708. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Pierce, Pam (2002). Golden Gate Gardening: Year-Round Food. Sasquatch Books. ISBN 157061136X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Prebish, Charles S. (1999). Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America. University of California Press. ISBN 0520216970. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Rawlinson, Andrew (1997). The Book of Enlightened Masters. Open Court. ISBN 0812693108. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Richmond, Ivan. Silence and Noise: Growing Up Zen in America. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0743417550. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Rose, Ted (2002-09-01). "Tofu and Zazen by the Sea". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Schneider, Sugata (Winter 1994). "The Long Learning Curve: An Interview With Richard Baker Roshi". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved 2008-03-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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Sinton, Peter (1999-04-10). "Staff of Life Not Enough For Tassajara". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-01-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Suzuki, Shunryu (1999). Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness: Zen Talks on the Sandokai. University of California Press. ISBN 0520219821. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
Swan, Roberta (2004). Hope and Healing in a Troubled World: Stories of Women Faith Leaders. iUniverse. ISBN 0595311091. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Wenger, Michael (2001). Wind Bell: Teachings from the San Francisco Zen Center 1968-2001. North Atlantic Books. ISBN 1556433816. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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Shunryu Suzuki (founder)	Zentatsu Richard Baker	Edward Espe Brown	Kobun Chino Otagowa	Taigen Dan Leighton
Jakusho Kwong	Sojun Mel Weitsman	Tenshin Reb Anderson	David Chadwick	Seirin Barbara Kohn
Ryushin Paul Haller	Issan Dorsey	Philip Whalen	Jiko Linda Cutts	Zoketsu Norman Fischer
Dainin Katagiri	Taitaku Patricia Phelan	Zenkei Blanche Hartman	Hozan Alan Senauke
Wu Bong (Jacob Perl)	Furyu Nancy Schroeder	Fenton Johnson	Yvonne Rand	Maylie Scott
Issan Dorsey	Angie Boissevain	Joanne Kyger	Dairyu Michael Wenger