| Toni Packer | |
|---|---|
Toni Packer (1978) |
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| Born | 1927 Berlin, Germany |
| Residence | New York |
| Known for | Meditative inquiry |
| Spouse | Kyle Packer |
Toni Packer (born 1927) is the founder of Springwater Center, located in Springwater, in the finger lakes region of upstate New York, an hour south of Rochester. The center was founded in 1981 as the Genesee Valley Zen Center and has since been renamed. Up to 16 retreats are held a year in what can be a curious blend of ritual-less zen and neo-advaita silent retreats, and David Bohm style dialogues/group meetings. Packer is a former student in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism, and was previously in line to be the successor of Phillip Kapleau at the Rochester Zen Center. Her eventual departure from Zen Buddhism was due in part to her growing scepticism toward the use of Japanese ritual in Zen as practised at the Rochester Zen center. Today her discursion of meditative inquiry is informed largely by her own vision, but also by the talks and writings of J. Krishnamurti.[1] Packer has rejected labels for herself such as a teacher or authority, though some of the individuals she has asked to carry on her work do not. (as evidenced on the Springwater Center web site).
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Toni Packer was born in Berlin, Germany in 1927. Her family was Lutheran in name only, as they endeavored not to divulge the fact that her mother was of Jewish decent. It was in her childhood, growing up amidst the turmoil of Nazi Germany, that Packer first developed mistrust for authority. The family eventually made a move to Switzerland, where she married her husband Kyle Packer in 1950. The pair moved to New York near the State University of New York at Buffalo, where Kyle came to earn a degree in psychology. Toni began reading the pioneering works about Zen Buddhism by Alan Watts, D. T. Suzuki and Philip Kapleau. It was the latter which had the greatest impact on her, and she soon joined the nearby Rochester Zen Center with her husband. Throughout the 1970s she accepted minor teaching positions at Rochester, and in 1981 she ran the center for an extended period in Kapleau's absence. During this time she instituted many changes in the practice there and discontinued wearing the rakusu that normally distinguishes teachers from students. Packer left the Center shortly after Kapleau's return and ceased calling herself a Buddhist. She opened the Genesee Valley Zen Center that same year. In 1986 the center relocated and changed its name, dropping the word Zen to become the Springwater Center for Meditative Inquiry and Retreats in Springwater, New York.[2][3] The word "Zen" was dropped from the Center's name as a result of Packer's move away from Japanese Zen Buddhist traditions.[4] Through stripped of rituals, Packer still finds the practice of zazen to be useful. (Toni would probably call it "sitting meditation," since this is simple English and she is not attached to any tradition, Japanese or otherwise.)
Packer has been described as "...a Zen teacher minus the 'Zen' and minus the 'teacher,'"[2] emphasizing the importance of meditative inquiry without practicing Buddhism.[5]
Packer has also published a variety of articles and commentary on the Springwater website.[6]