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Richard Baker

Richard Baker

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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San Francisco Zen Center

What they did here

DOCUMENTED: succeeded Suzuki as abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center (1971), leading it until his resignation in 1984 amid controversy.

About San Francisco Zen Center

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 San Francisco Zen Center at the same time

Nyogen Senzaki, Shunryū Suzuki, Alan Watts, Gil Fronsdal

See other sages who lived in San Francisco Zen Center

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.