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

by Michael Downing

Eastern tradition collides with Western individualism in this provocative and compulsively readable investigation of Buddhism, American-style. A genuine spiritual movement becomes strangely entangled with elitist aesthetics, the culture of celebrity, multi-million-dollar investment portfolios, sex scandals, and an unsolved crime.

Told Rashomon-fashion by a singular mix of hippies, millionaires, intellectuals, and lost souls whose lives are almost unbelievably intertwined, Shoes Outside the Door is the first book to examine the inner workings of the profoundly influential San Francisco Zen Center. In exploring the history of the most important institution in American Buddhism, author Michael Downing provocatively captures the profound ambivalence of people who earnestly seek both inner peace and worldly satisfaction.

Genres: Buddhism, Zen, Nonfiction, Religion, History, Spirituality, Meditation

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

I lived at Green Gulch Farm for two years in the late 90s. My mom gave me this book when it came out, but I never read it. Pertains largely to Zen Center's early history and "1983" when the Baker-Roshi scandal erupted (before my time). A ZC friend was over last week and saw it on my shelf, and he recommended it, so I finally started reading it.

2/3 of the way through. Personally interesting as I know many of the people interviewed. Interesting to see Zen Center's reach and interconnection with so many foundations, businesses, etc.---some of these connections I was not aware of.

So far I recognize Baker-Roshi's character as archetypal: charismatic, visionary, kind of amazing, and therefore blind to his own abuses of power. To read about him gives me perspective on other individuals I've known in my life who are like him, and also on the visionary part of myself. (I hope anyone reading this will get what I mean and that that doesn't come off as too arrogant). Specifically, I have visionary ideas, but I don't have a personality like Baker-Roshi's, and sometimes those more impulsive personalities actually get things done, consequences or not. I'm wondering about that marriage of impulsive largeness, visionary progressivism, money, and hurting other people. And about if it's possible get a vision into action with a different set of personality colors.

As for the writing style: a few too many bad puns here (specifically "lay practice," which has been used far too many times and makes me cringe each and every time it appears), and one-liners that are supposed to be "deep" just because they occupy one line.

I've read a lot of subcultural/cultural history in the past few years: Duberman's Black Mountain, Patti Smith's Just Kids, Peter Coyote's Sleeping Where I Fall, and I might even, given some time, put Novella Carpenter's Farm City in this group (it's not quite "history" but somehow seems to fit). Here, in Shoes Outside the Door, Downing insists on framing the whole investigation into Zen Center around 1983 and the Baker-Roshi scandal, but he does so non-linearly, keeping on returning to this drama as if it is the heart of the story. As an insider to some degree with knowledge of Zen Center 15 years after the scandal, I don't think this is complete or fair picture he paints. And as a writer, I think he is grasping too hard at some "central drama" when he could have written a better book without continually trying to say "here's where the meat is". Because the book, in actuality, isn't about just that drama--it's about ZC's history as a whole. He is coming back to it like a touchstone, but it comes off as an almost desperate attempt to have a "dramatic" storyline. Duberman's Black Mountain history covered similar ground: an affair that destroyed the first wave of that community, rebuilding efforts and tensions among faculty afterwards once the obvious leader was deposed. But Duberman just places that material within a continuum, whilst Downing keeps trying to come back to that material in a more soap-opera-ish way.

Anyway, curious if the last 1/3 will prove any different. And it's good food for thought even though some of it irritates me.

***Update: finished the book. Not much new in the last third. I have realized that the charismatic, egotistical, visionary leader archetype I was discussing (and which here is embodied by Baker-Roshi) is typically male.

Also: Zen Center profoundly shaped and changed my young adult life, and most of my peers from there (many of whom I'm still in touch with 15 years later) feel the same. We all knew it wasn't perfect and had its flaws (such as hierarchical politics, over-seriousness, no one is Japanese but we do all these Japanese customs), and yet we as a group for the most part remain incredibly grateful for the opportunity to do spiritual practice in community, to learn skillsets in cooking and farming, and to be able to relate to people in a deep, sincere way. I lived for two years without keys or money in a beautiful valley where practicing awareness was the moment-to-moment task. It was hard. It was beautiful. I was blessed by it. I wish this writer had included more perspectives like mine, regardless of who the teacher was and all that dramarama. I never accepted anyone as my primary teacher, I never got into the whole hierarchy of taking steps towards ordination, and yet I was profoundly shaped and benefited by being there, gave my love and energy there, experienced the possibility of another way of life there.

[George Ilsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book about every spiritual community ever. Multiple voices and points of view. No easy answers. Very little Buddhism and much talk about a BMW.

My short sarcastic review, in other words, suggests it is impossible to write a history of a spiritual community and be fair in every respect. This book uses a multi-directional approach which feels appropriate and serves to approximate the multifaceted reality of such a community.

[Timothy Hallinan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A riveting book -- inspirational, horrifying, and hilarious, sometimes all at once. The rise and calamitous fall of the first Buddhist mystery ever founded outside Asia -- San Francisco Zen Center -- is told with a novelist's gift for characterization and eye for detail. The title alone is brilliant, not only standard Asian/Buddhist practice but also the tip-off that some Zen practitioners were straying from the path of renunciation. Just a tremendous read.

[Lisa Feld · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems like every year, we see more cases of religious leaders, coaches, CEOS, or educators caught out for abusing the trust of those under them. Every time, there's evidence that the problems were going on for years, with the community turning a blind eye or even actively working to enable the corruption and silence any dissenters. How does it happen? Who gives power to someone like that and keeps giving them power after it's clear they're taking sexual, financial, or psychological advantage of people? What finally gets people to mobilize in protest? And is it possible for a community to survive the downfall of such a charismatic but troubling figure?

On the surface, Zen Center was an amazing success: the first transplant of Japanese Buddhist traditions into the US, the birthing ground of a world-famous restaurant, bakery, and clothing company, inspiration for several bestselling books. It was meant to be both a source of spiritual enlightenment and a self-sustaining model for how to work in the world. But the financial and sexual liberties taken by Abbot Richard Baker meant the organization was constantly struggling, forcing students to work inhuman hours for starvation wages instead of allowing them to meditate, while Baker drove a BMW, entertained celebrities, and took sexual advantage of several students.

This book is not set up like a typical biography or social history. It dances in and out of different time periods, different conversations with particular people. In doing so, Downing recreates what it may have been like to be part of the Zen Center community through the period many referred to as "The Apocalypse": no one had the whole picture, everyone had reasons to speak up and reasons to stay silent, until the whole mess reached a boiling point where long-held grudges and problems finally all boiled over at once. The book is insightful, laying out both the good and the bad of different eras and holding on to contradictory accounts. But I would have liked just a touch more organization: it was sometimes hard to retain particular ideas because it wasn't clear what that chapter was about. The last quarter of the book also drags, and Downing is a little too in love with repeating little phrases to underscore particular points.

All that being said, it's both an uncomfortable and an important book, and one I highly recommend for anyone trying to understand this kind of deep institutional corruption.

[Peter Landau · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s nice to know that Western religion hasn’t cornered the market on sex scandals. But SHOES OUTSIDE THE DOOR: DESIRE, DEVOTION, AND EXCESS AT SAN FRANCISCO ZEN CENTER by Michael Downing is more than a sordid collection of lurid tabloid tales, it’s another piece of the puzzle in the alternative history of California and the birth of the beat/hippie underground.

Here is the genesis of Zen’s introduction into America through the founding of the SFZC by Suzuki-roshi, who brought the practice to California and may be the only Zen master in the United States who wasn’t involved in a sex scandal, though his direct descendent carried on that great tradition. From the beginnings of the practice came poets, such as Gary Snyder, who is the dharma bum at the center of Jack Kerouac’s DHARMA BUMS, and politicians, such Jerry Brown, and opportunists, such as Richard Baker, who received transmission from Suzuki and ran the center until the “Apocalypse,” when his many sexual escapades were publicly revealed.

Baker headed a massive expansion of the center, gobbling up properties and launching enterprises such as a fancy vegetarian restaurant and organic bakery, run by students on stipends that hardly paid for their callouses. The history is charted by the people who lived it, with Downing stitching their interviews together and offering an outsider’s head-scratching perspective on the behavior of so many “enlightened” people.

Buddhism has evolved from its origin in India through its travels to China and Japan, and with each new culture is a different spin on the practice. Now it’s settling into the United States and I couldn’t help thinking while reading this great book how Zen is being altered by the same economic forces that are currently dividing the country during this election year. Will a new, stronger religion develop from this strife or should old ideas of masters and their rickety lineages be put behind us and replaced with a more experiential practice? I don’t know, but I sure love reading about what the pious look like without their robes on.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read on the history of the San Francisco Zen Center. During the sixties, it flourished under the leadership of Shunryu Suzuki, a name to conjure with in the world of Soto Zen - but what happens when Suzuki dies and the center falls into the hands of Richard Baker, Suzuki's appointed American succesor? As everyone knows, Baker eventually got booted out, and how that came about is the subject of the book. It's told in a non-linear way, which might make for a longer book than it would make if the same story were told in a chronological manner, but I think it makes for a more intertesting read this way, and it's somehow fitting for the subject matter. Zen itself, as a philosophy, practice, religion or whatever isn't Downing's focus, rather it's a look at the American counter culture's search for spirituality, and just where that took this particular group of people.

The question the book raises is, if your spiritual reader is to be accepted as enlightened, operating at a level where logic doesn't always apply, and is never to be questioned, how do you tell when he's screwing up? And if you think he is screwing up, just how do you tell him that? And I think it calls into question the whole issue of the transmission of officially recognized enlightenment - if you're enlightened guru appoints a successor, and it becomes obvious after a bit that the successor is a total jerk, just what was transmitted? And how enlightened was the guru if he misread his successor anyway?

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, bad zen. California zen has become such a cliche, sort of like a fad in grape varietals or decorating style. This is old core stuff, the Tassajara books that we made bread from in the 70s, Paul Hawken, and so on. I think I knew some of these folks in Santa Fe later. Anyway, sex, money, and the desire for first place corrupt zen, Naropa, christian churches, et al, and this tells that tale. Read this along with van de Wetering and "Jake Fades."

[Cheryl Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've ever visited the Tassajara hot springs resort in the Big Sur wilderness, dined at Green’s, a vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco, or spent time at Green Gulch, a meditation and more center at Muir Beach in Marin County, you must read ‘Shoes Outside the Door’ by Michel Downing that tells the story of the uniquely American dilemma of Buddhism's American emergence in the Sixties, its growth and inevitable meltdown at the hands of large egos.
Studying the San Francisco Zen Center’s history offers insights into the Zen experiment in America.
There has long been a cultural aversion among Zen Buddhists to seeming censorious about sexuality. In “Shoes Outside the Door,” the main thread is about Richard Baker, the abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center in the 1970s and ’80s, Mr. Baker’s serial liaisons, not unique in the world of American Buddhism, could have been forgiven, but his chronic untruthfulness about them could not.
Downing’s book is broader in scope than that one story; it provides a history of and context for events that resulted in the near-implosion of Zen Center in 1983. It includes Reb Anderson’s tenure as abbot and chronicles Richard Baker’s move to Santa Fe, Europe, and the mountains of Colorado in an attempt to reestablish his lineage. The final chapters delve into the various reconciliation attempts over the years between Zen Center and Baker.
In the years leading up to Baker-roshi's inheritance of Suzuki-roshi’s American Zen empire, Zen Center grew from a small group of Buddhists looking for a quiet place to meditate to an operation with a $200,000-plus annual overhead. The group acquired property after property, including the remote Tassajara hot springs resort near Big Sur, [a monastery and resort-like getaway]; Green Gulch, [a practice center offering training in Zen meditation, philosophy and work as well as yoga instruction], and Greens, a successful upscale vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco. Zen Center had celebrities: Gary Snyder, Peter Coyote, Linda Ronstadt, and Ken Kesey dropped in to dine or meditate. But in 1983, the empire looked ready to topple, due to Baker's indiscretions with Anna Hawken, wife of major Zen Center investor Paul Hawken (of gardening company Smith & Hawken), not to mention his abuse of Zen Center finances. Referred to as the Apocalypse, Baker's actions left lives in shambles and marriages in dust, which is not Buddha nature, but not not Buddha nature.

[Tony Bartelme · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author put a tremendous amount of work, time and energy into this book, which I appreciate. Downing also captured well the visitors' social dynamics at Green Gulch, which I got a taste of this summer. But the book didn't work for me at all. Its zig-zag structure feels forced. I've got nothing against a creative chronology, but this book's structure was a mess. Its themes were repetitive. Overall, sadly, it's not worth the time.

[JC]

One of the best books I read last year was Darryl by Jackie Ess, which was recommended to me by Isabel and her wonderful partner, the Serb. I loved a character in that book, Moonbeam. From what I can remember, Moonbeam was a hippy side character that wielded his spirituality as a weapon to exert power and control. In one part of the book, Moonbeam challenges Darryl to a meditation duel. I was excited to learn from an interview with the author that Moonbeam was partially inspired by Shoes Outside the Door. After learning that, I had to read it, especially given my interest in Bay Area scandals and spiritual communities in America.

Spiritual Centers as Places for Self-Discovery for Some, Abuse for Others

I attended a weeklong silent meditation retreat at a Buddhist monastery, mainly out of curiosity, but also on the off chance that it would be a cure for a sense of listlessness that I had at the time. The experience was interesting. It certainly enriched my reading experience. I am not hankering to return to the monastary, though respect others who make the Sangha (Buddhist community) their home to navigate their spiritual questions. I can see the appeal too. Going on a militaristic regimen (wake at 5, meditation, simple breakfast, meditation, etc. sleep after sunset) and focusing on my breathing offered such a change of pace to my daily life that I left feeling more settled than when I got to the monastery. I came back to the lay world with a new perspective and even admiration for those who led this type of life.

The monastery and the staff were abstract figures to me. Their views were presented as objective and timeless. I came to the monastery with such naïve earnestness. Everyone there did. We signed up for the retreat for god’s sake. The earnestness was heavy and serious. In my blind reverence and open mind, I can see now that my attitude would have made me a good student or an easy mark. Probably both. As this book demonstrates, spiritual contexts are delicate ones. Life’s central questions are ruminated on. If it is in a setting with a more institutionalized power, like a monastery, the head teacher can easily abuse that power by playing on the idea that they are closer to God than you are.

The monastery I went to, to my knowledge, is/has not been scandalized. It is a much smaller organization than the Zen center is and is geographically situated in West Virginia. It is close to DC, where folks are looking to pad their resumes, but not necessarily to hyper rationally biohack their brains to Zen nothingness like in the Bay Area. What Michael Downing explains so well, is that regardless of the context, the structure of churches and other spiritual structures (e.g. the self-help world) are historically ripe for corruption and abuse. Based on Downing’s work, it seems like people in countries outside of the US, Japan especially, understand this fact well and have developed a softness and sense of humor about it.

In Downing’s book, he tells the story of how spiritual abuse extended its tendrils into a placid, but extremely profitable environment of the San Francisco Zen Center. The Zen Center’s history is fascinating. A little mysterious Japanese Zen teacher, Suzuki-Roshi and his sole Dharma heir, the charismatic, BMW-driving, sexist, entrepreneur, Richard (Dick) Baker bought the Tassajara resort and started the first Buddhist monastery outside of Asia (Buddhism is roughly 2500 years old). Almost immediately after the purchase, the Zen Center’s history becomes colored by exploitation in many senses: financial, spiritual, and sexual. It was a world mainly created by Baker after Suzuki’s death, but was clearly enabled by several Zen practitioners over the course of 10-20 years. Some of the names of the many celebrity enablers were surprising. It truly is a “who’s who” of San Francisco and the Buddhist world of the 70s.

Setting the Stage for Spiritual Abuse: Peak Experiences as the Goal

The title of the book references the “final straw” scandal that finally got Baker ejected from the world of excess he created. Baker (who is married and has two children) blatantly has an affair with the wife of friend and Zen Center supporter, Paul Hawken, during the Western world’s first Buddhist Peace Conference at the Zen Center’s Tassajara property. Thich Nhat Hanh (friend of Baker’s) was there along with Gary Snyder, and Governor Jerry Brown among other luminaries. Downing takes us through the discovery of the student’s shoes outside Baker’s cabin, and the resulting explosion of old resentments and other “me-toos.” The subsequent crisis that erupted in the community brings into question the entire model for the practice and Downing walks us through these debates. He finally brings us to the 90s where various reconciliation attempts were made by Baker, who is still an absolute piece of shit from what I can tell. Downing navigates us through all of this and more. It is not simply a history. It is Downing’s exploration and explanation of what Americanized Zen is and how it compares to Japanese Zen. This explanation helped me contextualize my retreat experience, understand the lineage and timeline of Buddhism’s growth in America, and give me a new perspective on how to approach communal spirituality (not limited to institutional religious spirituality) with a degree of skepticism.
There are an absurd number of quotes from this book, but I chose to pick one minor story on page 292 to illustrate a subtle piece of Dick Baker’s manipulation. Below he sets the stage that peak experiences are the goal of the practice. This little story is representative of subtle abuse in a spiritual environment:

Ed Brown remembers a summer sesshin (intense meditation) at City Center, “and I was in bliss the entire week.” Ed had spent many years not sitting still— he sat with involuntary movements, which often drove him out of the zendo, so this was a breakthrough. "There was a lot of light and warmth, and my body would disappear, and I would just sit there," remembers Ed. "So I said something to Dick in dokusan." Ed smiles. "He said, 'Well, can you shoot your energy up your spine?' I said, 'No.' And he dismissed it. No teaching. No advice for me about how to practice with that. No comment about what that was. If I couldn't shoot my energy up my spine, I hadn't done anything yet." Ed nods. Really. "I hadn't arrived. That was my experience with him over and over. He was the only one who really knew what was going on. You were too stupid to do anything on your own." Ed sits with that for a while, and then he says, rather mechanically, "Suzuki- roshi died. I stayed at Zen Center. Dick got by for years on being the enlightened successor." Ed exhales three times, as if something is caught in there. "And he used that until his credit ran out.”

Richard Baker institutionalized a variety of profit-making schemes that essentially used vulnerable spiritual seeker’s labor for free. He also institutionalized the idea illustrated above in Ed’s experience. If you do not have a peak experience of a psychedelic proportions, you are not actually practicing Zen. If you do, well you are still not the dharma heir because he is. This endless loop of Baker’s making served him nicely and provides a cautionary tale for spiritual seekers. Experiencing “heightened” or even altered mental states does not necessarily make one a better person, or even a person who composes themselves with more equanimity. This lesson was made abundantly apparent to me by the actions of Baker and Baker’s hand-picked successor, Reb Anderson. Reb likely experienced extreme and unusual mental states in his Zen practice at the Center since according to practically everyone he was the most hardcore practitioner. In 1983, while jogging in Golden Gate Park, Reb found the corpse of a man with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Reb may be shooting energy through his spine during “zazen” (seated meditation), but he is also the type of guy to return to the body over a period of several days to meditate over the corpse. I am not one to judge someone over their worst moments, but spiritual leaders should be subject to a higher level of scrutiny and that incident is enough to convince me that leaders in the Zen Center were missing a profound application of Buddhist (or most religion’s) ethics.

During my experience at the monastery, I mainly was sore and uncomfortable for sitting for so long. Having an extreme altered mental state may be well worth having in a spiritual environment. I am sure it is intense and if understood properly, profound. Based on this book though, I would not want to be at the Zen Center in the 70s trying to understand that experience from one of the characters in the book. It is more likely than not that I would have been taken advantage of.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good overall. I didn't mind the nonlinear approach, since it fit in with the oral history aspect, and I think it could really have spoken for itself without comments from the author.

I think the story is effectively told, and if 1983 isn't the most important event in the center's history, it's a pretty important one. Covering the bad decisions that were made before and after, the personal politics, the abuses of power, etc., serve to flesh out the picture, and what I was ultimately left with was a portrait of an organization that grew too much too fast, and the people making the decisions didn't know what they were doing, were oblivious, wilfully blind, and placed more trust than they probably should have in their supposed leader. No one comes across as a villain, at least in my reading, but everyone is flawed, and really, this makes the Zen Center about the same as any other large organization.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, California, so much to answer for

Impressive to me in its depth and perhaps exhausting for you in its length. Somewhat of an oral history of a pitched collision of Beats, hippies, communes, Eastern tradition, Western democracy, capitalism, ambition, personalities, values and revelation, some of which should be familiar to anyone involved with building an organization of any kind.

Extra points awarded for being the single text I’ve come across to suggest that Zen in America remains totally perplexed on relating to families or engaging with a complete picture of lay practice. Frustrating/humorous: a latter chapter full of handwringing regarding a lack of anyone practicing at SFZC who isn’t middle-class and white after 300+ pages describing how students could no longer spend time in the zendo because they were working all the time.

[Stuart Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating well-written and intimate view distilled from a great many interviews with long time members of the San Francisco Zen Center. The content focuses on the visionary growth of the center to include the location in SF proper, its mountain retreat Tassajara, and Green Gulch Farm inspired by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and managed by Richard Baker. It also focuses on the transitional issues the Center faced when its founder was asked to leave in 1983 - as the author termed it "The Apocalypse". For anyone interested in the history of the establishment of Zen Buddhism in America or in intentional communities and "movements" and the authority structures that emerge within them, this is a useful read.

[David Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

For anyone with an interest in Zen Buddhism, this is a fascinating story about happenings within San Francisco Zen Center during the 1970s-80s created primarily by Abbot Richard Baker-roshi, whose behavior, both from a sexual and financial perspective, caused a great deal of organizational and personal turmoil. The book would have benefited from stronger editing and better organization, but still quite a story.

[Susan Rothenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complex and thorough history of the San Francisco Zen Center written by an author who did intensive interviews with many of the people who had been or still are connected to the Zen Center. I was surprised by Baker’s Roshi being as involved within the book as her was. Knowing a number of the people who had been at the Zen Center at that time, it brought back many memories.

[Greg Soden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting but the book is just way too long. Cut out 75-100 pages and this is a thrill ride in scandal.

[꧁ k e l s e y ꧂]

Disappointing what happened. Read for class for context. DNF.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, another case of BGS (Bad Guru Syndrome). From the Maharishi to Jim Jones, Bhagwan Rajneesh to Sai Baba; from David Koresh to Jim Jones, the number of "spiritual teachers" who show up with feet of clay continues to bedevil sincere seekers.
This story about Richard Baker of the San Francisco Zen Center seems to be little of an exception to the rule. And after reading this I come to this conclusion: He's another socialized sociopath. The classical symptoms of socialized sociopathy include: A dominating need for conformity and ritual, an inability to admit that one's behavior may be wrong or might even hurt others, an unwillingness to apologize when it does, and a sense of self-righteousness which the rest of the entire world could never convince otherwise. I'm glad I never got involved with the Zen Center now, even if there were a time when, as a City neighbor, I might have considered such a thing. Their little grocery store was great. Their bread was great. For all I know, life in Tassajara might be great. They had so many things going for them, and this guy turns out to be playing the congregation for chumps, working them without recompense, and carrying around his reputation like a bully-log with which he can impress his friends & pals like Gov. Moonbeam. It's a good book, but unless you are a true fan you will come away with an ugly impression. Not of the writing, but of the subject.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is at its core about a sex scandal, but it's not some exploitative sensationalistic exercise. In an appropriately non-linear way, and with extensive personal statements by many key players, Downing conveys the dream-like quality that pervades a community of true believers who have complete faith in their sprirtual leader, a blind faith that left them all completely unprepared to discover their leader was vain, insensitive and corrupt. The SF Zen Center implosion, called "the Apocalypse" by most insiders, is the central point around which the explication of the export of Zen from Japan to America takes place. A fascinating look inside zen practice, human psychology and cult-like behavior.

[Katy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have been better. What a great subject--exploitation in a spiritual community where trust and ethical conduct were purported to prevail. It was an opportunity to explore human frailty, faith over wisdom, greed and delusion in a Buddhist community. Instead the author meanders, is indirect, and in short, never really explains exactly what happened. Perhaps I feel this way because the author keeps aluding to a cataclysmic event, but then never describes it. Because the core of the story is unclear, we never get to explore, in a meaningful way, the ambiguities of human behavior. There is no lesson to be learned, nothing new to be found, no real exploration of authority and accountability -- just lots of boring, repetitious and chronologically confusing details.

[Juliane Roell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful and interesting, though in parts a bit long and wordy. I found the jumps in time irritating and confusing at times. I liked the openness of the author, the way he tried to get as many perspectives as possible and bring them together using his own clear view and his intelligence. He is telling a long and complicated story and managed to keep his personal judgment/opinion out of it most of the time. (A great accomplishment!) Very much recommended for people involved in spiritual / religious, especially Buddhist organisations.

[Aileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read about how an entire Zen community was tested and divided when it was discovered the sole American dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Richard Baker Roshi, was having an affair with the wife of one of his students.

Fascinating to see how supposedly "enlightened" people revert back to their conditioned belief systems and judgement rather than embracing the "accept everything," spirit of Zen.

[catechism · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Love it, love it, love it. The story of the first Zen center in the U.S. is interesting enough on its face -- full of bizarre characters and a murder mystery and a sex scandal -- but the writing itself is gorgeous and so very zen that I was completely unable to put this book down.

[Chadwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rich, kaleidescopic history of America's first Zen temple. Although the bulk of the work focuses on the 1983 sex and money scandal that threatened to destroy the San Francisco Zen Center, all of the interviews taken together give a fascinating gestalt view of the story of the Center as a whole.

[briz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this, and I am ashamed. Especially because I've always said that I'm DYING for (secular) Buddhist history books. And this is even from the coolest subroutine: 1970s+ San Francisco Zen Center, and all the corruption that ensued! Oh man. Wish I could have liked this more, the topic is PERFECT.

[tl · Rating 4 out of 5]

any one interested in learning about the spiritual mindset of the sf bay area community should read this book. had i been the author i would have named the book "when good buddhists go bad."
funny in a somewhat painful way. kudos michael downing

[Matt Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Talk about controversy. The San Francisco Zen Center was a hot-bed of ego and striving, among its leadership, and devoted soul-seeking, among its laiety. Mr. Downing tells a very compelling story.

[Jeff Song · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buddhist cautionary tale... hubris always finds a way into everything.
It's an interesting story - a portrait of a very charismatic spiritual leader run amok - but reading this made me feel like I was participating in gossip.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an interesting story, but the writer provides WAY too much detail, which makes the book too long and kind of dull.

[Gravity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gossip make the world go round. This book is one mighty text of politically correct gossip. It's the story of the "apocalypse" of the SF Zen Center--the first Zen temple in the United States.