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Richard Baker in the SFZC Wind Bells

1999 - 2012          

1963 - 1971  1972 - 1973  1974 - 1979  1983 - 1987  1988 - 1998  1999 - 2012

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Richard Baker main page


Spring Summer 1999

 

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The first tea I recorded was in August 1988. Robert Lytle talked to 
the children ahout how Buddha is in all of us, about what it means to 
be awakened. He had the children offer incense to the Buddha in the 
Buddha Hall. Some other lecturers also began the children's portion of 
the lecture in this way. That same year, Robert Thurman was the guest 
lecturer on the day scheduled for the children to attend. He enjoyed it 
so much that the portion 'Of his talk that was directed to the children 
was much longer than usual. He spoke about reincarnation and rebirth, 
about which the children were remarkably well informed. One of the 
children said he remembered a past life when he was a cobra. As the 
children filed out of the Buddha Hall, Robert Thurman said to him 
affectionately, "Goodbye, cobra-face." In 1990, Robert Aitken Roshi 
talked to the children about compassion and practice. He spoke again 
to them in 1994, about "not talking stink." In 1996, Richard 
Roshi lectured after many years of absence from Zen Center. The 
Buddha Hall was packed with people and the room was filled with 
strong feeling. I was so grateful for the presence of the children and I 
know it must have been helpful to Baker Roshi as well.

P19 - from an article on a children's tea by Mary Watson

 

 

Fall Winter 1999

 

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The talks were recorded and transcribed by Marian Derby, who was the 
head of the Los Altos Zen group and who first conceived of the book. The 
transcriptions were edited by Trudy Dixon, a Close disciple, and Richard 
who succeeded Suzuki Roshi as the second abbot of Zen Center. 
The editors of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind gleaned the most interesting and 
unique parts of those Los Altos talks and edited them into short chapters. 
Each chapter is a little gem of wisdom.

P13 - from Mel Weitsman's introduction to Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness

 

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Buddhism at Millennium's Edge 
AS WE APPROACH the end of this human millennium, so full of con- 
fusion and violence, we're presented with a great challenge: how to repair 
ourselves and the world. Can Buddhism help? It seems that the need for 
Buddha's teachings has never been greater than in these times. But how do 
we translate ancient wisdom into contemporary terms? How do we apply 
centuries-old mindfulness practices in this time-pressured, modern world? 
In 1998, San Francisco Zen Center sponsored a year-long series of 
monthly benefit lectures and workshops by some of Western Buddhism's 
most respected teachers and practitioners. The lectures and workshops were 
so well-received that it was clear such a series should be organized again. 
Robert Thurman 
January 15, 16 
Sylvia Boorstein 
June 3, 4 
Bernie Glassman 
February 18, 19 
Robert Aitken 
2B, 29 
20 
Jon Kabat-Zinn 
March 3, 4 
Richard Baker 
August 18, 20

 

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At one point I thought of translating more of Dogen's writings into 
English. As Suzuki Roshi had passed away, I wrote to Baker Roshi. When 
I met him in Kyoto in 1975, I expressed my wish to collaborate with 
those who were practicingZen. Baker Roshi asked me directly: "Are you 
a Buddhist?" I said, "Well, I am not. But I am a Buddhist scholar." Then 
he said, "Why don't you come to Zen Center and work with us?" Since 
1977 1 have had the pleasure Of being part Of the Sangha and working with 
friends who are deeply engaged in Zen practice.

P35 - from an article Why Dogen? By Kazuaki Tanahashi

 

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With Paul Haller as head of Zen Center's outreach program, we have 
been able to share our practice with the world in many ways. Our students 
have been active in offering meditation to prisoners, in hospitals, drug re- 
hab centers and childcare centers; we have been working with other groups 
to find housing and provide food for the homeless, to protest capital pun- 
ishment, and to promote racial diversity in Bay Area sanghas. Many new 
affiliated temples and sitting groups are under way all over the country, 
from Bellingham, Washington, to uptown Manhattan. We have been offer- 
ing retreats for business people, engaging in various forms of inter-religious 
dialogue, and networking throughout San Francisco and Marin On behalf 
of peace and justice. In addition, the last five years has seen us make some 
progress in our community practice of forgiveness and peace-making with 
our second abbot, Richard Bakéi, who left Zen Center unhappily in 1983. 
During this time we have reached out to him in several significant ways, 
and he has responded. Although we have not reached, and may never 
reach, an unqualified rapprochement, I feel good that we have done Our 
best, and I have a strong faith that in future an appropriate friendship and 
mutual appreciation will be possible. 
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From a Letter to the Wind Bell by Norman Fischer

 

 

Fall 2000/ Winter 2001

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These early Zen Center students gathered at City Center on August 12, 2000 Lo share their 
recollections of their years of practice with Shunryu Suzk"ki-roshi. The event was a benefit 
ror the Suzuki-Roshi Tape Archive project. Front row from leg: Betty Warren, Jane Schneider, 
Paul Discoe, Katherine Thanas, Graham Petchey, Blanche Hartman; back row: Reb 
Anderson, Richard Peter Schneider, Mel Weitsman and Dan Welch.

 

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Zen Center's 
second abbot, returned to 
share recollections of Suzuki- 
roshi along With Other early 
disciples. 
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Summer 2001

 

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After chanting the Sutra of Loving Kindness, Abbess Linda Cutts posthu- 
mously gave George a precept name: Dai Shin Zen Ho, Boundless Heart- 
Mind, Complete Liberation; and the sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts. Many 
people gave statements, including Abbess Blanche Hartman, Rev. Yvonne 
Rand, and Senior Dharma Teacher Norman Fischer, who also read a poem 
sent by Zentatsu Richard Baker, and Wendy Johnson. George Wheelwright 
IV and Michael Wheelwright gave eulogies and spoke candidly and honest- 
ly Constance Richardson read from George's memoir, Dead Reckoning, and 
many other people spoke extemporaneously, telling stories of George 
Wheelwright's secret generosity and anonymous benefaction. Many grand- 
children expressed how strongly they had felt their grandfather's support 
and love.

P4

 

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After making an effort to sell the land to another group, finally, 
through the great help Of Huey Johnson of The Nature Conservancy, 
Dick Saunders, and Zentatsu Richard bakG, all working together with Mr. 
Wheelwright, the land became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation 
Area, and a portion of it went to Zen Center. Because of the way Zen Center 
was caring for Tassaiara, which is part of the Los Padres National Forest, Mr. 
Wheelwright felt confident that we would take good care of Green Gulch. 
6

From a piece on George Wheelwright's memorial at Green Gulch

 

 

Fall Winter 2002

 

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The Zendo looked like this for many years, until the most recvnt structural upgrade was 
completed in 1992. 
30th Anniversary of Green Gulch Farm 
Mick Sopko 
November 28, 2002 
A WAKENED 
By this Japanese bell 
The sky-headed sea-tailed 
Green Gulch Dragon 
Stirs the fine mists and rains 
Ot- right dharma 
For East and West 
Farming and greeting guests 
The pre-voice this Old bell 
Is not hindered by the wind 
—zentatsu Richard Baker, 1975 
Inscribed on the Green Gulch Obonsho, 
the large cast bronze bell overlooking the pond 
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We've learned to weather the storms and transitions that define each 
season, not only the physical ones that have flooded the valley, cracked 
and uprooted trees and left us without power, but the more emotional ones 
like Roshi's resignation in 1985 and the death of our fellow-residents 
Suzy Clymer and Jerry Fuller. Many people have been married here and 
many have gone off to form their own dharma groups or to become teach- 
ers, business people, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, doctors, artists or 
farmers. A number of our children have grown into adulthood and are Lais- 
ing children of their own. Some young men and women have joined our 
practice periods and sat sesshin beside senior students who had listened in 
on them when, as toddlers, they slept at home while their parents were sit- 
ting in the pre-dawn zendo.

P20

 

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"rom the very first, Sunday was a time tor people to come out to Green 
Gulch. Mr. Banducci grew irises in some Of the fields and there were many cows 
Still grazing the hillsides. I remember the reeling Of Zen Center having this place 
as a dream come true. It was unbelievable that this beautifitl country property 
was going to become a practice place. Strangely enough, that very winter of '71, 
I had driven tn Davis with Deborah Madison on Highway 1 and as we drove past 
Green Gulch she said, "This is the most beautiful place have ever seen, I would 
love to live here." Her dream came true. 
In the next few weeks more people came to live there including one Tamily 
with a baby. I loved cooking with Jssan_ For the breakfast cereal in the morning 
he would always throw in a tube of butter because he thought the "kids" would 
like that. Everyone was a kid Lo him since he was much older than most of u.s. 
Zentatsu camc for visits and brought his friends to see the place. I remem- 
ber him showing Ram Dass around one agemoon, both ot- them without shirts, 
wearing Buddhist beads around their necks.

P22

 

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Then-abbot Richard strikes the newly cast Obonsho bell the first time in a 
dedication ceremony July 31, 1976.

P24

 

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After developing carux•r, Hope passed away in the late '60s, and 
Mr. Wheelwright decided he wanted to give away the land on which as a 
couple they shared so much special time. A number of non-profit and help- 
ing organizations were considered over the succeeding years but nothing 
quite worked out until, through the effort and support of Huey Johnson 
and the Nature Conservancy, Tom Silk, Dick Saunders and Richard 
115 acres of the Green Gulch Ranch were sold to Zen Center for a small 
sum and with conditions. The two main requirements we have to honor in 
perpetuity are to maintain a working farm—this is part of Mr. Wheelwright 
and Hope's request—and in the spirit of the surrounding Golden Gate 
National Recreation Authority property, to allow public access to trails that 
pass through Green Gulch. Zen Center had at this time alreadv proved itself 
with Tassajara as an able steward of an inholding surrounded by wilderness. 
This was a major reason why we were allowed to have another inholding in 
the midst of public parkland. 
After selling Green Gulch, Mr. Wheelwright was still an active presence 
on the land. He came over almost every day just to be here and also to give 
advice, which most ot the time was truly needed and appreciated by the 
young urban farmers and land managers. Even at age 70 he was an active 
person, taking up skiing and rowing daily from Belvedere to Angel Island. 
He got along well with both Baker Roshi and Harry Roberts. He became a 
regular fixture at the weekly Sunday public lectures in the old barn, having 
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Alan Chadwick originally came to Green Gulch in 1973 and helped 
establish the first formal Zen Center gardens on a bare southwest-facing 
slope up in Spring Valley. Trained in classical horticulture in England and 
in France, and a Shakespearean actor as well, Alan was also a disciple of 
Rudolf Steiner and Krishnamurti. But most importantly, he was a passionate 
gudener working to bring forth the Garden of Eden on modern ground. 
After Staying a season here he continued up the spine Of Northern 
California and then finally out East to his last project at New Market, 
Virginia, leaving a trail of glorious gardens in his wake. In the early winter 
of 1979, he returned to Green Gulch at the invitation of then-Abbot 
Zentatsu Richard Terminally ill with cancer, Alan dedicated the last 
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six months of his life to teaching and offering his vision of the garden to 
a lively team of students gathered at his bedside. He died in May of 1980.

P28 - Lou Hartman on Alan Chadwick

 

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Eric Larsen lived at Green Gulch in the early days and has recently 
been helping us think about our stream restoration project: 
writing poetry. Knowing that Richard 
was involved with poetry, I asked, on 
one or my visits to the Zen Center in San Francisco, to talk with him about my 
work. He sugested we meet halfway between San Francisco and Bolinas, at the 
VVheelwright ranch. When I arrived he was walking with an intense man wearing 
shorts, accompanied by two young apprentices. I joined the small group walking 
up each valley as they discussed what sorts or plants could grow where. Later, we 
sat in the grass (where the Wheelwright Center is now located) and ate lunch out 
of a wicker basket that the man, Alan Chadwick, had brought. I naively asked if 
he had grown the tomatoes. Scoffing, he assured me he had. When we finished, 
I left without talking about poetry. 
One day as was driving Harry Roberts in his pickup up from Muir Beach 
into Green Gulch, Harry asked me to park in the turnout at the top of the drive- 
way. He often liked to sit and look. He looked over at the hillside above Spring 
Valley. Auer a while, he said, as it he were talking to himself, "You know, Eric, 
the earth is alive. It is moving, changing. It struck me that ill had it to do over 
again, I might have trained to understand the land. Later, I left Green Gulch, 
went back to school, and became a research geologist. 
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Funeral for Kobun Chino 
David Schneider 
THE FUNERAL FOR KOBUN AND MAYA took place last evening, Tuesday, 
30 July, at the home (a country place, not his main Lucern house) of Vanja 
Palmers, who is one of Kobun's senior Dharma heirs. It was at Vanja's house 
that this terrible accident occurred. This house is in Engelberg, an extreme- 
ly beautiful ski valley an hour's train ride out of Lucern. The ride is so steep 
that for a considerable distance the train is hoisted up by cable. 
I arrived at the house about 6:45 p.m., the same time that 
arrived with his wife, and with a car full of ceremonial gear. We went in to 
see the bodies. They were lying in a simple, white-silk-lined coffin on a 
broad patio to the side of the house, under a large picnic tent. It was com- 
pletely heartbreaking, because, despite the autopsies performed the day 
before, both Kobun and Maya looked very beautiful. 
37 
Kobun was dressed in robes, with an heirloom brocade rakusu, holding 
a nyoi (teacher's stickl. His chin was tucked in, and he looked very much 
there, as if he were doing zazen in an horizontal posture. I kept expecting 
him to pop his eyes open, but he didn't. Lying curled up beside and slightly 
on top of him was Maya. It seemed like father and daughter had just taken 
an affectionate nap together. 
People gathered on this terrace as they arrived, some standing looking 
at the bodies, others began doing zazen on the cushions around. It was a 
cool evening, with a light but steady rain. Beyond the patio, one saw green 
hills, a few houses, mountains. Baker-roshi and Vania talked over the possi- 
bilities for the ceremony with a few of us in an upstairs room. Vanja lis- 
tened carefully, and also factored in the advice he'd been getting on a daily 
basis from Kobun's older brother, a priest in Japan.

P38

 

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Philip Whalen's 
Cremation and Funeral Ceremonies 
Zentatsu Myoyu Richard Baker 
The Cremation Ceremony: 
This is not a ceremony I ever thought I would perform. Ot course, I knew 
I might, but I have always been so related to Philip's life and poetry and 
Mind, his wit, and his Bizarre Wisdonl Vision and Big Heart, that the truth 
of this someday-ceremony was not my truth with Phil, with Zenshin Ryun' 
(Zen-Heart Dragon-Wind). But here we are commending his body to fire, to 
the elements, to the wind and to the world he loved so much, to the world 
he gave everything of himself to, through his poeüy, his beautiful, inven- 
tivg unprecedented, poetry; h_is serious, deep Zen practice; his loving prac- 
Lice with others, and simply Phil's brilliance and goofing around conversa- 
tions that continued up until the last. Only his body Can be commended to 
this fire, all else we commend to ourselves and to all those touched by him. 
One of the last things he asked for was Socrates' Milkshake. This wish he 
gave himself, he stopped eating, he stopped willing his life against his doc- 
toes orders. And he asked "to he laid out, cremated, on a bed or frozen 
raspberries." And wc have raspberries here Lo give him one of his foolish 
last wishes. 
He wrote at Tassajara: 
Purple flags for the luxurious color 
Extravagant form; and then I calmly 
Empty dead tea leaves into the toilet 
I hate the world i hate myself the dragon wind 
I allow everything to happen. 
t want luxury, extravagance, to use 
To give to you, 
A wild naked leap in moonlight surf 
Wildflower meadow, swim in alpine lake 
Stand under waterfall. 
He also wrote at Tassatara: 
The 'shooting-star' flowers that Mama used to call 'bird-bills' 
Bloom around the Hogback graveyard 
Suzuki Roshi's great seamless monument 
Wild cyclamen, actually, as in the Palatine Anthology 
I go home to mend my rakusu with golden thread. 
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Funeral procession for Philip Whalen at Green Gulch Fann 
So we assist you Philip, Zenshin Ryufu, a handful of fire, burning this phan- 
tom body. Ruling, Dogen Zenji's teacher said: 
All things return to the one. Living is like wearing your shirt; 
where does the one return to? Dying is like taking off your pants. 
When life and death are sloughed off and do not concern you at 
all, the spiritual light Of the one path always stands out unique. 
O the swift flames in the wind flare up all atoms in all worlds do 
not interchange. The Original Face has no birth or death; Spring is 
in the plum blossoms, entering a painted picture. 
Go home and mend your rakusu, Phil, with Golden Thread. 
The Funeral Ceremony. 
On September 1, 2002, Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, and Norman Fischer 
joined me in performing Phil's Funeral Ceremony at Green Gulch. Phil's pres- 
ence touched our lives, sometimes filled our lives, sometimes moved our own 
presence to a new touching of the world and of ourselves. It's hard to accept 
that he is dead. Yet it's usy 10 accept. We knew he was dying. He knew he was 
dying. It's an ancient tradition—in Asia and in the West, especially for poets— 
to see their own death and to accept and predict it. 
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Phil practiced a long time at Tassajara Zenshinji: 
Here our days are nameless 
Time all misnumbered 
Right where Mr Yeats wanted so much to be 
Moving to the call of drum, bell and 
semantron, rite and ceremony 
Art oozes forth from fractures in planes of solid rock 
Hurrah for Karamazov, I 
Totally insane, sprung loose from all moorings 
Wander about, a cup of coffee in hand, 
Chatting with students at work in warm spring rain. 
Zen Master Hongzhi said: 
A patched-robed monk is not bound by life and death. In upright 
practice, let go of the edge of the high cliff, without grabbing any 
thing. In wholeness take one step. Reed flowers and bright moon- 
light are mixed. Oars pulled in, the solitary boat drifts past without 
difficul ty 
We cremated you not long ago, pushed your body into the flaming torch of 
a furnace. Again we acknowledge your passing with a torch. (The torch was 
a paper flame on a branch of aspen. I turned the torch in a large circle in 
front of Phil's ashes and photograph, three times clockwise and three times 
counterclockwise. Saying goodbye, joining him and all of us in this circle of 
flame we call living.) 
Sprung loose from all moorings. 
"O, the swift flames in the wind flare up. Original Face has no birth or 
death; spring is in the plum blossoms, entering a painted picture. 
Goodbye, Phil, fare-thee-well, fare-thee-well. 
by Fran Thompson

 

 

Spring Summer 2003

 

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Throughout the ceremony, other references were made to the shadow 
side of power and authority. Myogen Steve Stücky, in reference to the 
groundhog seeing his shadow, spoke of the period following Zentatsu 
Richard *pkeks abbacy as a "cataclysm" and advised that while "expound- 
ing the light" the shadow not be ignored. Hilda Guitiérrez-Baldoquin, a Zen 
priest born in Cuba, also cautioned that "when people ascend to high 
places the air gets a little thin and mind lapses can happen

P5

 

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fresh from Asia (where he had practiced as a forest monk in Thailand) at 
the steps of the Center 28 years before and was turned away. He jokingly 
asked, "Am I any different than I was then?" Ryushin, who has matured as 
a teacher at Zen Center, comes into the leadership of a matured institution 
with the task of bringing authority to the position while avoiding the mis- 
takes made in the past. Towards the end of the ceremony, Sojun Mel 
Weitsman, from whom Ryushin received dharma transmission, expressed 
his confidence in his practice and abilities. Describing his own abbacy in 
the years following Richard Baker's resignation, when City Center "was like 
a hotel, and practically no one was going to the zendo," Weitsman attested 
that Ryushin was one of three pillars who, with Michael Wenger and Pat 
Phelan, "held me up and helped turn things around. The three of them 
picked up what was necessary to do and interacted with each other in great 
harmony." His wish for the new abbot was that he be able to "find harmo- 
ny within the chaos." 
Zentatsu Richard the second abbot of Zen Center who succeeded 
founder Shunryu Suzuki, ordained Paul Haller in 1980, giving him the 
name Ryushin Zendo, "Dragon Heart, Zen Way." 
The abbacy is now a position that is held for an initial four years, with 
a possible three-year second term. It is held concurrently by two senior

P6 - from piece on Paul Haller becoming abbot of the SFZC

 

 

Winter Spring 2004

 

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CHARLOTTE SELVER, a longtime friend and supporter of zen Center, died 
quietly in her sleep on August 22, 2003 at the age of 102 years. Norman 
Fischer spoke about Charlotte in a lecture at his one-day sitting two days 
after her death. He said, "Inng ago her body stopped being strong. She was 
living on pure spirit and human relationship . . . That's why she had to die 
in her sleep by herself, because if anyone had been with her she would still 
be alive forever!" Charlotte was a remarkable teacher, even though she 
claimed all of her life not to be a teacher. She often declared, "1 have noth- 
ing to teach!" From her point of view, she simply invited people to wake up 
and be more true to their own natural responsiveness. 
10 
The mindfulness practice that she developed here in the United States 
was called Sensory Awareness. For over 75 years, thousands Of students 
from the United States, Western Europe, Japan and Mexico came to study 
with her. Charlotte was a pioneer in the Human Potential Movement. Some 
of her students included Erich Fromm, Alan Watts and Fritz Perls. Suzuki 
Roshi and ÉakG Roshi were good friends with Charlotte and her second 
husband, Charles Brooks. They gave workshops and public events together 
to benefit Zen Center. Charlotte and Charles donated the yurts at Green 
Gulch and at Tassajara to Zen Center to make it possible for more work- 
shops to take place. Charlotte loved giving workshops in the yurts and was 
delighted with their simple and elegant form. It was Charlotte and Charles 
who gave the first, and only, workshops at Tassajara for many years.

 

 

 Summer Fall 2004

 

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Peter Schneider: 
I'm Peter Schneider and one of the things I'm known for at Zen Center 
is being Jane's husband. I originally came to Zen Center because of one of 
my friends, Dick I had been somewhat unhappy and hadn't had a 
job, and had gone to a friend of. a friend who was kind of psychic and told 
hie to stop smökiné. So I had and it had worked. All of a sudden I had will 
again. 
Then he had said, now start doing meditation. So I had begun meditat- 
ing by myself down in Menlo Park. I was the only one of Dick Baker's 
friends who sat, so he was always trying to get me to come do it at Sokoji. 
So I started hitchhiking up in late '61 or early '62 and staying in Dick's 
apartment on weekends. I remember maybe a dozen of us sitting around 
the table in the Sokoii kitchen having Saturday morning breakfast. That 
summer, the week before I was to leave to take a teaching job in Michigan, 
I came up to do my first one-week sesshin and slept by myself in the zendo. 
We were very loose back then. Zazen ended after dinner, leaving me on my 
own from six until nine, and I would walk down to treat myself to a Blum's 
sundae.

P15

 

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creation of the second abbot, Richard Shortly after Suzuki Roshi died, 
Richard called the Board to a meeting, and he served strawberry shortcake, 
delicious strawberry shortcake, and he said, "I have this idea—there's a 
place in Marin that's been offered and I'd like to have it." Zen Center had 
no money or anything like that. Then he served us another helping of 
strawberry shortcake, and the Board couldn't resist. They said, okay, let's go 
for it; and here we are. But Suzuki Roshi did have a few desires. One was to 
create a place, a farm, for families. My understanding was he wanted to cre- 
ate a place where families could tarm and practice and sit and so forth, a 
kind ideal community. He had a feeling for families, not just single people. 
He also wanted to create a place together with Chogyam Trungpa in 
Vermont, the Tail of the Tiger, for rehabilitating people with mental illness 
or mental problems. That didn't happen 11t happened but not with ZCI. 
The germ of Green Gulch, I believe, was originally Suzuki Roshi's idea and 
Richard expanded on it.

 

P21 - Mel Weitsman

 

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Suzuki Roshi's Heritage 
A Message from Zentatsu Richard Baker 
s 
UZUKI ROSHI BROUGHT US SITTING-PRACTICE, which he visibly, physi- 
cally practiced—sometimes, even when he had specifically been asked to 
speak about practice, Instead he just sat: visibly and physically. And for all 
of us who practiced with him, he presented practice first of all and thor- 
oughly, and spoke, really, only when we had practiced enough to sit into 
his teaching. 
Equally Important, he also brought the soil of practice, the material 
stream of Buddhism in which practice often most fully roots and flourishes. 
It is in this stream of traditional forms that we can find our seat and, some- 
what surprisingly, it is where our own personal practice often most fully 
finds its true form. Crucially, it is also in this material stream that the fun- 
damental views of Buddhism are tangibly expressed and most clearly distin- 
guishable from the taken-for-granted worldviews of our inborn and 
ingrown culture. 
The relics, the enshrined, cremated bits of bones, of the Buddha repre- 
sent, of course, imperrnanence; yet they also represent the physical pres- 
ence of the Dharma—and the Buddha—and the continued presence of the 
teaching as it is embedded in the living presence of things. This continued 
presence of the Buddha and the Buddhadharma as a material stream is 
articulated in many ways: in stupas, pagodas, bound copies of a sutra—as 
Suzuki Roshi kept a copy of the Prajnaparanüta Sutra on the altar—and also 
in zafus, robes, teaching staffs, ways of lecturing, ceremonies, bows, face-to- 
face teaching and practice, eating bowls, dokusan, crossed legs, the four 
noble postures—walking, standing, sitting, reclining, Statues Of the Buddha, 
incense offerings, the form and practice of sesshin and ango and thus forth. 
This is not a mental stream, but the material Stream Of the world that 
we are born into, the living presence of the world, in and as us. In this 
stream of being and nonbeing, Buddha' appear and the Sangha is formed. 
In this stream, the mind and body of this world becomes the authentic 
manifestation of the Buddha and Buddha Ancestors. 
This writing and your standing or sitting, listening or reading, are all 
this relic stream continuing whal Suzuki Roshi continued. Thus, especially, 
Tassaiara, San Francisco, Green Gulch, and other centers continue this 
material stream that is the living presence Of Suzuki ROShi. I know Suzuki 
Roshi would be pleased and content to know how you are continuing his 
practice and teaching. 
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2006

 

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for his work and practice at Green Gulch 
Farm, learning and teaching farming 
and husbanding the horses that at that 
time were part of the Green Gulch scene. 
Steve received priest ordination from 
Zentatsu in 1977, was Shuso (head 
student) with Tenshin Anderson in 1985, 
and received Dharma Transmission from 
Sojun Weitsman in 1993. He also counts 
among his teachers Robert Aitken, 
Dainin Katagiri, Harry Roberts and 
other elders and peers at Zen Center 
Abbot-elect Myogen Steve Stücky

 

P 16 - from article by Steve Weintraub

 

 

2012 - Zen Center at 50

 

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Suzuki Roshi and Richard at Tassaiara, 1 967

 

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A memorabledharma teaching that has stayed with me: 
"Vow to live the life you're already living. " 
— Richard 
It was a phrase from one of his lectures and it stuck with me. I have 
used it more than once in my talks, in the context of accepting things 
as they are. But the meaning is stronger than that: don't just accept, but 
rather vow, to live in things exactly as they are. Don't wish for, hanker 
after, or fret for something other than what you are and what your 
situation is. Take an internal vow to live fully in the life you are already 
living, just as it is. 
—Layla Bockhorst 
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Machine generated alternative text:
Gil Fronsdal starting practicing Ct Zen Center in 1975, was ordained by Richard æ, 
and received dharma transmission from Me' Weitsmcn. He is clso o VIPassano teacher 
at the Insight Meditot10n Center in Redwood City. 
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Machine generated alternative text:
GREEN GULCH FARM TURNS FORTY 
Furyu Nancy Schroeder 
For rnore in-depth history, photos, and remembrances Of Green Gulch, please see the 
30TH-anniversary article compiled by Mick Sopko for the FOIi/Winter 2002 WInd Bell, 
now available online at http•I/sfzc.org/download/wb-xxxvi-2_sopko.pdf. 
This year we celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Green Gulch Farm as one of 
the three residential practice communities of the San Francisco Zen Center. Zen 
Center acquired the farm from George Wheelwright, who had used the land for 
twenty years as a working cattle ranch and wanted to see It remain in agricultural 
use. Through the work and vision of former abbot Richard and with 
the help of Huey Johnson of the Nature Conservancy, Zen Center was able to 
purchase the farm in the summer of 1972 and to continue stewardship of this 
truly remarkable land.

 

Machine generated alternative text:
Josho Pct Phelan was ordained in 1977 by Zentotsu Richard In 1991, the Chapel 
Hill Zen Center invited joshc to lead their group. She received dhcrmo tronsmrssion 
from Abbot Sojun Weitsmon in 1995 and was officially instc!led as abbess of the Chapel 
Hill Zen Center in 2000. In 2008, she porticipoted in Zwse ceremonies at E/hei-J1 Ond 
Soft-ji temples in Japan. For mure information about Chape' Hill Zen Center, please visit 
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1999 - 2012

1963 - 1971  1972 - 1973  1974 - 1979  1983 - 1987  1988 - 1998  1999 - 2012

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