Original Mind: The Practice of Zen in the West
San Francisco Zen Center · 1997
1936 CE · Modern · San Francisco Zen Center
b. March 30, 1936 (living)
Richard Baker (b. 1936) is an American Sōtō Zen teacher, the American dharma heir of Shunryū Suzuki, who succeeded him as abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center in 1971. He led the center through a period of major growth until resigning in 1984 amid a documented controversy over his conduct as abbot. He later founded Dharma Sangha, including the Crestone Mountain Zen Center in Colorado, where he continues to teach.
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DOCUMENTED: succeeded Suzuki as abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center (1971), leading it until his resignation in 1984 amid controversy.
The San Francisco Zen Center, in San Francisco, California, is one of the largest Sōtō Zen organisations outside Japan. It was established in 1962 by the Japanese Sōtō priest Shunryū Suzuki and his American students; Suzuki's talks there became the basis of the influential book 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.'
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Richard Baker’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Richard Baker’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
San Francisco Zen Center · 1997