Zentatsu Richard Baker (born March 30, 1936), born Richard Dudley Baker, is an American Soto Zen master (or roshi), the founder and guiding teacher of Dharma Sangha—which consists of Crestone Mountain Zen Center located in Crestone, Colorado and the Buddhistisches Studienzentrum (Johanneshof) in Germany's Black Forest. As the American Dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, Baker assumed abbottship of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) shortly before Suzuki's death in 1971. He remained abbot there until 1984, the year he resigned his position after it was disclosed in the previous year that he and the wife of one of SFZC's benefactors had been having an ongoing affair. Despite the controversy connected with his resignation, Baker was instrumental in helping the San Francisco Zen Center to become one of the most successful Zen institutions in the United States.
Read more about Zentatsu Richard Baker: Early Life and Practice, San Francisco Zen Center, Resignation, Dharma Sangha, Family
Famous quotes containing the words richard and/or baker:
“We are taking the Nautilus down for the last time.”
—Earl Felton, and Richard Fleischer. Captain Nemo (James Mason)
“Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak ones soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.”
—Josephine Baker (19061975)