Richard Baker (Zen teacher)

Zentatsu Richard Baker
Titel	Roshi
Personal
Born	Richard Baker (1936-03-30) March 30, 1936 Biddeford, Maine, United States
Nationality	American
Partner	Sofia Baker (b. 2001)
School	Soto
Lineage	Shunryu Suzuki
Bildung	Harvard University
Other names	Dick
Dharma names	Zentatsu
Senior posting
Predecessor	Shunryu Suzuki
Successor	Reb Anderson Philip Whalen Koyo Welch Paul Rosenblum
Website	www.dharma-sangha.de www.dharmasangha.org

Zentatsu Richard Baker (born March 30 1936), born Richard Baker, is an American Soto Zen roshi, the founder and guiding teacher of Dharma Sangha—which is comprised of Crestone Mountain Zen Center located in Crestone, Colorado and the Buddhistisches Studienzentrum (Johanneshof) in Germany's Black Forest. As the exclusive Dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, Baker assumed abbottship of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) shortly before Suzuki's death in 1971. 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. Despite the ill repute connected to his resignation, Baker was instrumental in helping the San Francisco Zen Center to become one of the most successful Zen institutions in the United States.

Biography

Richard Baker was born in Biddeford, Maine in March 30, 1936. Because his family moved around frequently, he lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Pittsburgh growing up. A descendant of Thomas Dudley, Baker was raised in a family of moderate wealth. He attended Harvard University, where he studied architecture and history. He then arrived in San Francisco, California in 1960—beginning to sit with Shunryu Suzuki in 1961. Baker was ordained a Soto priest by Suzuki in 1966 just before the opening of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. Baker was instrumental in orchestrating the acquisition of Tassajara, raising $150,000 for the purchase in just a short period of time. From 1968 to 1971 he studied Soto Zen in Japan at well-known monasteries, including Antaiji, Eiheiji, and Daitokuji. Baker received Dharma transmission from Suzuki in 1970, and then was installed as abbot of San Francisco Zen Center during the "Mountain Seat Ceremony" on November 21, 1971. Baker also penned the introduction to Suzuki's famous book, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind." Within a very short period of time Baker broadened the scope of SFZC, starting first with the acuqisition of Green Gulch Farm in 1972—followed by the opening of Greens Restaurant, Green Gulch Green Grocery, Tassajara Bakery, and Alaya Stitchery.

File:San Francisco Zen center.jpg

San Francisco Zen Center's Page St. location

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.

At some point in the 1980s Baker also 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.

Family

Baker married Princess Marie Louise of Baden (born 3 July, 1969 at Salem) the eldest daughter of Maximilian, Margrave of Baden, in a civil ceremony on September 15, 1999, and in a religious ceremony ten days later, in Salem. They have one daughter:

• Sofia Baker (born March 10, 2001 at Alamosa, Colorado)

Resignation

The zendo at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

The "spark" James William 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. 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.

The affair and subsequent revelations led to community-wide pandemonium, and in 1984 Baker was forced to resign as abbot. However, San Francisco Zen Center's website 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." 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.'

In 1983 Tenshin Reb Anderson went through the shiho ceremony with Richard Baker. However, when Baker was forced to resign as Zen Center abbot amid the revelations of sexual liaisons with students, Baker had claimed Anderson never completed the entire transmission ceremony. Members of the San Francisco Zen Center disagreed, however, and today Anderson is understood to be the Dharma heir of Baker.

Dharma Sangha

Following his departure from the San Francisco Zen Center in 1984, Baker relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he founded a new community known as Dharma Sangha. 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. In July of 1987 Baker gave Dharma transmission to Whalen; Whalen later became abbot of the Hartford Street Zen Center (following the tenure of Issan Dorsey) in the Castro district of San Francisco. After the founding of Dharma Sangha in New Mexico, Baker then moved on to Crestone, Colorado and Germany to found other practice sites for Dharma Sangha. Baker also gives seminars at Boulder Zen Center in Boulder, Colorado twice each year, typically on the last weekends of January and April. It is unclear whether his first center in Santa Fe, New Mexico remains active today.

Criticism

San Francisco Zen Center member Meredith Cleaves has been poignantly critical of Richard Baker, who was her teacher for several years. In the book "Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism" by Sandy Boucher, she draws comparisons between her father and Baker by stating:

The Zen center approximated my family in that it was centered around a man who was profoundly insecure and didn't feel capable of doing what he felt he needed to do—and he had been asked to do more than he could possibly do. My family was addicted to alcohol, Richard Baker was addicted to power. Both my father and Richard Baker were tremendously out of touch with what's usually called the 'self,' and that was disguised. Both were charming, handsome. Both exceedingly bright. I mean, this goes along with being a sociopath, actually. Richard Baker is a much better actor than my dad. Very hard to see through. Almost no feminine energy. And just a devastating misuse of everyone—men and women, teachers and students.

Collected works

Books

• Baker, Richard (1999). Original Mind: The Practice of Zen in the West. London: Thorsons. ISBN 1855382210. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Audio

• Baker, Richard (1999). Karma, Zen und Zukunft: Geist in Bewegung 1. Münsterschwarzach Vier-Türme-Verl. ISBN 3896802216. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Baker, Richard (1999). Karma, Zen und Zukunft: Geist in Bewegung 2. Münsterschwarzach Vier-Türme-Verl. ISBN 3896802216. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

See also

• Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

References

• Azara, Nancy J. (2002). Spirit Taking Form: Making a Spiritual Practice of Making Art. Red Wheel. ISBN 1590030168. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Boucher, Sandy (1993). Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism. Beacon Press. ISBN 0807073059. {{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)
• Downing, Michael (2001). Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint. ISBN 1582431132. {{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)
• Kotler, Arnold (1996). Engaged Buddhist Reader. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press. ISBN 0938077988. {{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)
• 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)
• Tworkov, Helen (1989). Zen in America: Profiles of Five Teachers: Robert Aitken, Jakusho Kwong, Bernard Glassman, Maurine Stuart, Richard Baker. North Point Press. ISBN 0865473544. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Winson, Robert (1997). Dirty Laundry: 100 Days in a Zen Monastery. Albuquerque, N.M.: La Alameda Press. ISBN 1888809027. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

• Dharma Sangha, European website