Fantastic Drive

‘He was what he talked about ... I completely loved him and would have done anything for him. I only had one desire, which was to be Suzuki Roshi's attendant. Suzuki Roshi gave people the intangible sense of quality and integrity and enlightenment. And that's absolutely the most important. But when you look… the place, the location, the rules—I did all that ... I did not make a single decision without his Okaying it, but basically he always agreed with me.” ~ Richard Baker talking about Shunryu Suzuki.

(Shunryu Suzuki’s first wife contracted tuberculosis and returned to her parents shortly after marriage; his second wife was brutally murdered by an erratic, antisocial monk whom Suzuki had retained as a temple assistant, despite contrary advice from neighbors and colleagues. His youngest daughter, Omi, committed suicide after spending nine years in a mental hospital; he gave Dharma transmission to his son Hoitsu, who did not study with him or even get on with him, but who inherited his temple (this is standard Soto Zen procedure); he gave, as a favor to a friend, Dharma transmission to someone he did not know or have any contact with. He also ran a temple virtually under the control of Japan's repressive fascist era government. This is the sort of detail, which might be useful to both present and future students, but it is absolutely missing from all of the completely standard biographies of Zen masters through the ages.)

“The Center, under Baker's guidance (and with Suzuki's inspiration) just got bigger and bigger… He was installed as abbot by Suzuki Roshi in 1971… Baker Roshi's first duty as abbot, just two weeks after his appointment, was to conduct the funeral ceremony for Suzuki Roshi, who had been ill for some time...

Over the next ten years, Baker carried out his duties, both spiritual and managerial, with considerable vigor… Between three and four hundred people would attend his public lectures; and he ordained over 60 students as priests during his time as abbot. He himself described SFZC as "the container for a kind of nutrient-rich soup, something that would generate forms for Buddhism in America… I found myself landlord, mayor, administrator, entrepreneur, and fund-raiser, as well as abbot and teacher. This was too much power for me to have, and many people couldn't handle it over time.”

Jerry Brown, governor of California, was a frequent visitor to Greens… a Californian golden boy… a personal friend of Baker's, thought highly of SFZC and appointed some of its students as advisors. "SFZC had a direct line to Sacramento… I committed myself to those people [at SFZC] as deeply as to my own family. In many ways I sacrificed my personal family to the practice and development of the community… Zen Center was designed around the upper limits of my particular abilities. It could not survive without me… I overdid it… If I had thought my authority to run Zen Center rested on something as personal as dharma transmission, I would have thought that was stupid.”

Eventually things came to a head. In 1983, it became general knowledge in the community that Baker had fallen in love with a woman (whom he regarded as a friend but whom others thought was his student); that he had told his wife; that the woman had told her husband (also a friend of his); and that the husband was very unhappy about it. According to Schneider, this revelation "stunned most everybody.”  Baker was charged with hypocrisy and many doubted his integrity as a teacher. The fall-out from this incident was considerable. The Board of Directors acted against Baker for the first time, asking him not to teach; and a large number of students pointedly rejected him… he had operated a double standard… not acted in accordance with his own teachings on sexual morality…set a bad example…

Baker wrote a letter of apology: “When I think of the extraordinary effort and intelligence all of you have put into making Zen Center such a wonderful place of refuge and help to so many people, I am ashamed of my unmindful, imperious and busy manner which often prevented me from hearing your heartfelt concerns and criticisms over the years… To this day I remain overwhelmed and humiliated by the irresponsibility and insensitivity of my actions that have so seriously threatened the existence of our wonderful Zen Center and cast such a shadow over the hope and trust that Suzuki-roshi placed in me.”

But the rift was too deep to heal and Baker resigned… He was succeeded as abbot by Roshi Reb Anderson. It was as if the students (or the majority of them) felt as if the driver of a fast car had rolled it over—with them inside it. So it was no use the driver saying that he would do better next time; they just did not want to commit themselves into his hands again…

While leader of the SFZC, Baker's purchase of a new white BMW became a focal point for much of the anger and resentments that Zen Center members felt towards him. At the time of the purchase, Baker claimed he needed so expensive a car because of the amount of driving he did. "It was a fantastic drive," he said, it was safe to drive and that he liked to keep his legs in zazen posture. Baker adds he was "on a roll," was in love with his latest girlfriend and that his peers, est founder Werner Erhard and the well known Tibetan teacher Trungpa, had chauffeurs and large Mercedes, so "I thought I should buy a car." During his interview with Downing, Baker Roshi explained that having a "nice car," girlfriends and going out to dinner were implementations of Suzuki Roshi's commitment to lay practice…

The Second Noble Truth—everything has a cause and an effect—means that we have a choice and hence a responsibility ... If the effect was not good, we try not to repeat it and try to become a person who doesn't repeat it. It is commonsense and it is difficult.” ~ Andrew Rawlinson, The book of enlightened masters : western teachers in eastern traditions. -- Chicago : Open Court, ©1997

Baker now runs two Zen centers in Colorado and Germany and has recently improved his relations with the SFZC. The center reorganized as a non-profit with two co-abbots and a board of trustees. Though its former glory is somewhat dimmed, its three locations continue to thrive and offer spiritual refuge to many."

“On September 25, 1999, Richard Baker married Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Marie Louise Elisabeth Mathilde Theodora Cecilie Sarah Charlotte of Baden, daughter of Maximilian, Margrave of Baden and wife Archduchess Valerie of Austria. Princess Marie Louise is grandniece of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and first cousin once removed of Charles, Prince of Wales. They have a daughter, Sophia Baker, born on March 1, 2001, in Alamosa, Colorado. He has two daughters, Sally and Elizabeth, from a prior marriage to Virginia Baker.” ~ Wikipedia

"Not what the holy man is but what he signifies in the eyes of those who are not holy gives him his world- historical value. It is because one was wrong about him, because one misinterpreted the states of his soul and drew as sharp a line as is possible between oneself and him, as if he were something utterly incomparable and strangely superhuman-that he gained that extraordinary power with which he could dominate the imagination of whole peoples and ages."
---Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878)