Talk:Zentatsu Richard Baker
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Hm... good information here, but smells like unremediated POV. Can someone who is familiar with the issues take a look and see if this can be cleaned up? If the information is accurate, there should be a more NPOV way to present it. --Raduga 16:36, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Raduga:
Everything here is based on "Shoes Outside the Door," which is a nuetral enough portrayal. Personally, as an occassional student at Zen Center and Tassajara, I can say that most people involved now fault Baker-roshi and themselves in equal portions, or say that there is no way to really understand what happened because of how complex the situation was. But Wikipedia does not contain original research. If you can point out sentences that seem to blame Baker-roshi or Zen Center for anything, please point them out. But the facts are true, to wit:
- His actions caused a controversy
- His actions included sleeping with students, adultery, and buying expensive things
- People resented these actions because they were working for free, directly or indirectly in his service, and living in poverty in honor of the asceticism that Baker taught
- Baker has never apologised, and once sued for control. He believes he was wronged
- Zen center tossed Baker out, despite his argument that he was the only legitimate dharma heir of Sunryu Suzuki and the rightful abbot of the temple.
- Baker points out that Japanese Zen temples are not democracies
- Efforts at full rapprochment have not been entirely successful. Zen center invites Baker to lead sesshins, but Baker-roshi won't come back unless he's fully in charge
The notability of the controversy is that it showed how Americans adapt Asian religion dharma to our own circumstances. Baker is notable because he is the dharma heir of Suzuki, and because he precipitated a controversy. Please rewrite as best as you can. --Defenestrate 18:46, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
I've tried to give this a more NPOV, and I've included some additional relevant information. --DeCamp 21:16, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Please reinsert information about Baker's Scandal. Narcissus 06:52, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
- Really, though. DeCamp's soi dissant NPOV edit consisted of chopping a lot of text out of the article. - Nat Krause(Talk!) 03:17, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
