Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center

This is not some truly great book like Robert Fagles' translation of The Iliad, or Thomas Aquinas' Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics, but it sure is a fascinating and exceptionally good read, and a refreshing critique of the narcissism that led to the Sixties counter-culture and its interest in Zen. At the very least it is a cautionary tale, as others have said here, and perhaps something of an unintentional Dharma text in that regard. I liked the style very much, and found the narrative easy to follow. The humor and irony were nicely done, and it was especially poignant to read an outsider's insight into the nonsense we Buddhists engage in. I have practiced Buddhism for almost twenty years. I have seen this sort of stuff firsthand in EVERY setting with which I have been affiliated, including a short Zen stint periodically sitting at Aitken-roshi's Diamond Sangha, where I was blessed to hear his senior student and heir-apparent rationalize banging the wife, Japanese of course, of a fellow practitioner. This stuff saddens me greatly, to the point where I mostly just practice on my own and stay away from "The Buddhist Scene." We are encouraged as Buddhists to examine our own faults, rather than those of others. Yes. Good advice, but I don't think it translates into wholesale abandonment of discriminating wisdom or good judgement. We are encouraged to transcend ordinary views. Yes, but I don't believe this is license to jettison common decency and common sense.Whether or not Zen is a religion, a "spiritual path" or even a form of Buddhism is a matter of definition. If it is Buddhism, it is a rather strange sort, especially the way Zen has evolved in the US. For basics, Buddha taught clearly that a student was to train in moral discipline first, that this foundational practice would then allow a settling of the mind in meditation, and once one could meditate well one was to begin meditating on the profound wisdom teachings. Certainly, meditation and wisdom could be introduced from the very beginning, but the progression of emphasis was clearly moral discipline, then meditation, then wisdom. Zen, especially American Zen, turns this on its head, starting with merely a nod to morality of a decidedly counter-cultural variety, focusing instead on meditation technique and a very sloppy and unsystematic, but oh-so clever "Zen-speak" approach to the epistemological wisdom teachings of the Mahayana, with the hope that once one becomes "enlightened" one's moral discipline will then fall into place naturally, or even the sophistry that, once enlightened, whatever one does automatically IS enlightened moral conduct. Ha! This book makes mincemeat of that little conceit, simply by telling this tale in all its glory. Besides, the idea that these characters might be enlightened is simply laughable; that some of their students believed so is both laughable and tragic. How naive to mistake charisma, a bit of knowledge, a good rap and perhaps a few minor psychic p

I loved this book, but then, I was at SF Zen Center attending a meditation intensive when Suzuki-roshi died in 1970, and spent 8 months at Tassajara in 1972. The winter training period was conducted by my own teacher, Katagiri-roshi. I spent the summer working there for the guest season, then left in the fall when I learned that the training period would be run by Dick Baker. I already knew Reb Anderson too well, and thought that the two of them were arrogant fools, an amazingly irritating combination of faults. I couldn't imagine trying to study and practice Zen Buddhism with these two self-important guys. At the time, although I knew some other students had left with Dick's installation as abbot and grand potentate, I thought I was one of very few who thought Dick and Reb were travesties of Zen teachers. Now, 30 years later, I read this wonderfully well-written, well-researched, funny, germane, anecdotal book, with a cast of characters so many of whom I knew, and I feel both amused and delightfully vindicated in my young man's judgement. I was amazed to read how many otherwise fine and intelligent women and men with whom I practiced zazen so many years ago were so thoroughly taken in by the Dick and the Reb. It's laughable and pitiable when they finally realize they've been had by the Dick. And of course it ain't over till it's over, to quote my favorite Zen Master, Yogi Berra: they took power away from Dick Baker only to give it to Reb Anderson, another Dick Baker but without the intelligence, humor, or style. It was also good to read the fine insights of Ed Brown (Tassajara Bread Book) and Yvonne Rand, two of the people I most admired both in 1972 and now. What I particularly like about the book is the way it shows how very quickly, in religion, reform and a fresh start (Suzuki-roshi coming to the US) turn into the sour-tasting mix of empty ritual, self-aggrandizing antics, and mind-numbing bureaucracy within a few years of the original master's death. A sweet and much needed exposé of SF Zen Center, written with care and humor and insight. The mixing up of the time-line, at first disconcerting, becomes a beautiful way into the wholeness of real Zen Buddhist practice. Although the book is obviously of interest to those with curiosity or connection to Buddhism or Eastern religion in America, its resonance as a cautionary tale of sincere simplicity turning into arrogant complexity will attract a wider audience.

What a powerful, engrossing read this book is! Excellent writing, deeply researched, and as honest as I could image (I know lots of the story, what I know was accurate in the book). Any one with ties to the SF Zen Center, or interested in how Religious Leaders can self-destruct and alienate thousands of sincere people from their organizations. This story is amazing, but now so familar with the fall of so many preachers and gurus. It leaves the opinion that religions are magnets for those who rush in to be dupped. I was fortunate enough to met Suzuki-roshi, had the highest opinion of him, yet the failure of Richard must ultimately be seen as Suzuki's failure. He put Richard in a position that he could not possibly have performed. In all those years (1960-1983) Richard was the only "enlightened" student (signified by formal transmission) he produced. Dedicated students, sitting in meditation for ten's of thousands of hours! For what???? The purpose was just to create this story. I think this story is the greatest lesson. Read it and it will awaken you better than decades of Zen practice.

Buddhism is here to stay, and this book will have historical importance. It recounts the crisis that nearly destroyed the first Buddhist monastery ever built outside of Asia, in the 2,300 year history of that religion, after the death of its founder, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. I hope that the author will put his notes and taped interviews in some university library, since historians of religion will want to consult them in the coming centuries. Wouldn't scholars love to have first person accounts of the disputes mentioned in Acts of the Apostles between Peter and Paul about admitting gentiles to the Christian community?When I first began to read about Buddhism in the early 70's, I thought that a Zen master was a type of saint. He or she could make mistakes, but was infinitely compassionate, above fleshy desires, and as enlightened as the Buddha. But facts in the last thirty years show that Zen masters (and teachers in other traditions) can be insensitive to others' needs, have plenty of desire, and have (so far as one can judge) less than perfect understanding. One can pass many koans or receive transmission from a certified Zen master and still be a jerk--or worse. This book documents the rise and fall of one such man, Richard Baker, the handpicked successor to Suzuki Roshi. Baker, although married, had affairs with female students, ignored the monastic community to hobnob with the rich and famous, and started zen related businesses that, instead of providing money for the zen community, turned into money and time sponges only profitable because the monks provided practically free labor. People were working so hard in the businesses that they had little time or energy for meditation. Finally, Baker had one affair too many and people realized that they were slaving to provide him with a nice BMW, three houses, and a great lifestyle. He was asked to resign and the members of the community, after some initial floundering, hired management consultants, sold the businesses, and put limits on the power of future leaders. The men and women of the zen community deserve great credit for preserving Suzuki Roshi's legacy this crisis could have destroyed it.Another lesson of this book and others such as After Zen by Janwillem van de Wetering or Ambivalent Zen by Lawrence Shainberg is that spiritual wisdom and worldly wisdom (or practical common sense) are not the same. The virtues of Mother Teresa and Abraham Lincoln seldom occur in the same person. Even if Baker was a complete opportunist taking a sweet deal for all it was worth, he should have realized that he was living to high on the hog for it to last. This book should be read by any Westerner who has or is thinking of attaching himself to a Buddhist teacher, or for that matter, any type of guru. The book teaches that faith in a teacher must be provisional and that you must not surrender your own judgment. Reason is our greatest gift from God, and we must never fail to use it. The Bud

This is an invaluable chronicle of what happened when a profound spiritual practice became disconnected from the psychological reality of its practitioners' daily lives. Although the book takes its title from and revolves around the sexual scandal that led to the resignation of Richard Baker-Roshi as Abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center in 1983, the real value of this book lies in the extensive interviews Michael Downing has collected from current and former Zen Center members, including Baker-Roshi himself. These interviews chronicle four decades in the evolution of Zen practice in America, from the early years under Suzuki Roshi, through the expansion of the Zen Center to include not only the Tassajara monastery, but also Green Gulch farm, Greens restaurant and other businesses, all under Baker-Roshi's charismatic leadership. We hear how the Zen community struggled with the problems of authority, hierarchy, the authenticity of Dharma Transmission, the meaning of an enlightened life, and how their understanding of Zen practice was transformed not only by the 1983 leadership crisis, but by the subsequent struggle to "democratize" American Zen. What emerges are important questions about the nature of practice and the role of a teacher. How did meditation itself become a vehicle for denial and for the maintainence of a veil of silence that prevented anyone from confronting the master about his behavior? Just how much authority should a teacher have over students lives and to what extent should the teacher's behavior be a model for his students? At a time when Baker-Roshi was living lavishly with tens of thousands of dollars in discretionary funds at his disposal,his students lived on monthly stipends that averaged $115 - with no health insurance. At what point does "work practice" turn into merely long hours of low paid work? Remarkably, Baker-Roshi repeatedly asserts that for years he had no idea what impact his sexual affairs and extravagent lifestyle might be having on his students. The master of "just sitting" comes across as having had a great deal of difficulty just listening. This is not a simple story about saints and sinners, but a complex account of how sincere, dedicated and, yes, even "enlightened" people became entangled by their personal conflicts and blindspots regarding authority, sexuality and personal responsibility. This record of how everyone concerned has struggled with these issues, both in their individual practice and together as a sangha will provide valuable lessons to generations of students and teachers to come.