Located in Berkeley, California, Berkeley Zen Center is a Soto Zen Buddhist practice center. It is also called Shogakuji (正覚寺as in Japanese). Berkeley Zen Center was originally founded in 1967 by Sojun Mel Weitsman and Shunryu Suzuki as a satellite group for the San Francisco Zen Center. Weitsman was installed as abbot in 1985, one year after he had received Dharma transmission from Hoitsu Suzuki, the eldest son of Shunryu. Since then, Weitsman has been teaching dharma in BZC.
Along this lineage, Alan Senauke, who now lives on site with his wife, is the Dharma heir of Weitsman. He is a teacher in BZC, too. Maylie Scott, a Harvard graduate female disciple of Weitsman, also taught in BZC once. She passed away in 2001.
In 1969, Zenkei Blanche Hartman, later an abbess in SFZC, began sitting zazen (seated meditation) at BZC and received Dharma transmission from Weitsman in 1988.
Shunryu Suzuki was born in 1904, in Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan. He was a monk of the Soto lineage. Ordained in the age of 13, he has been studying Soto Zen since then. In 1925, Shunryu entered Komazawa University, a Soto Zen university in Tokyo. In 1926, he received the dharma transmission from So-on, his teacher of Soto Zen since childhood. During World War II, Shunryu was involved with some anti-war activities. On May 23, 1959 Shunryu Suzuki arrived in San Francisco to attend to Sokoji, at that time the sole Soto Zen temple in San Francisco. He was 55 at the time. He found American culture interesting and not too difficult to adjust to and Suzuki then decided to teach Zen to Americans. In the fall of 1969, he bought a building in San Francisco and turned it into a Zen temple. Suzuki left his post at Sokoji to become the first abbot of the first or one of the first Buddhist training monasteries outside of Asia. Suzuki’s departure from Sokoji was thought to be inspired by his dissatisfaction with the superficial Buddhist practice of the Japanese immigrant community and Suzuki’s preference for the American students who were more seriously interested in Zen meditation. He said that Japanese Zen had grown moss on its branches and saw his American Students as a means to reform Zen, and return it to its pure zazen and practice centered roots.
Mel Weitsman was born in Long Beach in Southern California in 1929, to Edward Weitsman and Leah Rosenberg Weitsman. Interested in religion from an early age, he started practicing at the San Francisco Zen Center under Shunryu Suzuki in 1964. He co-founded the Berkeley Zen Center with his teacher in 1967. Suzuki ordained Weitsman as a priest in 1969, and arranged for him to be Shuso (Head Monk) in 1970 under Tatsugami Roshi at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. His other teachers included Dainin Katagiri Roshi, Kobun Chino Roshi, Ryogen Yoshimura and Kazuaki Tanahashi, with whom he has often worked on translations of Zen texts. In 1984, Weitsman received Dharma transmission from Suzuki’s son and Dharma Heir, Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi, Abbot of Rinso-In Temple in Yaizu, Japan. Installed as Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in 1985, he later was invited to lead San Francisco Zen Center as co-abbot with Tenshin Reb Anderson from 1988 to 1997, following the eviction of the Zen Center’s previous abbot, Richard Baker, because of a sexual scandal and allegations of financial wrongdoing. He also co-founded the American Zen Teachers Association (AZTA) with senior American Dharma teachers Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Dennis Genpo Merzel and Les Kaye in 1995.
Because Mel Weitsman himself is a dharma heir of Shunryu Suzuki and BZC was established as a satellite group for SFZC, the teaching of BZC has followed the Soto Zen tradition. Soto is a Japanese Buddhist Zen tradition that originated from its Chinese counterpart, Caodong, which highlights silent illumination as the central doctrine. Founded by Dogen, a great Japanese Buddhist master in the 13th century, Soto teaches the practice of “just sitting.” Buddhists of this tradition, unlike those of the Rinzai tradition who focus much more on argument and studies of koans, believe that meditation should be the central practice of Buddhism. As we can see on the homepage of BZC’s website, it has a clear emphasis on the practice of meditation:
“Meditation, which is called zazen, or sitting in stillness, is the center of our practice, following and adapting the traditions of Soto Zen Buddhism. At BZC our everyday activity, as it extends from zazen, is the field where practice finds its full expression.”
As the Soto tradition suggests, meditation is a self-fullfilling activity. Buddhists of this tradition do not meditate for the purpose of enlightenment; instead, they simply do it to fulfill their inner buddhas which they believe is inherent in everyone. And by this interpretation, the practice of meditation itself is enlightenment. Therefore, they practice meditation often with a goal that they will be able to meditate in all daily activities.
As indicated in a previous paragraph, Suzuki founded SFZC out of a dissatisfaction with the superficial Buddhist practice of the Japanese immigrant community. Therefore, under the instructions of Suzuki, SFZC’s practices tend to be more similar to a convert community rather than an immigrant community even though its founder was originally from Japan. Following this lineage, we can see that the BZC is also a Buddhist community of this kind.
First, just as the Soto tradition itself has emphasized and also many convert Buddhist communities too have adopted, BZC has a principle of welcoming all beings. It treats equally people of every race, nationality, class, gender, sexual orientation, age and physical ability and provides for them instructions about meditation. A newcomer can consult the weekly zazen schedule and come to any period that works for him/her. Saturday mornings are a particularly good time for beginners as the teachers in BZC often offer zazen instructions at the time. Anyone with interest in meditation will be introduced to the meditation forms in the meditation hall.
BZC also offers family practice on Saturdays. Usually teacher Ryk Groetchen will be taking the lead. This is not like a program or class for children, but rather a discovery of how family life is a buddha field, a field of practice, of many practices. There will be music and movement, and The Toolbox – a social/emotional curriculum for families that is being used in many school districts, including Berkeley.
At least once a month, BZC provides the opportunity for people to participate in extended sittings, often referred to as sesshins. The intention for sesshin is to participate fully in an extended sitting. BZC has space for overnight guests and they accommodate people as much as they are able to. There will be shikas taking care of the guests.
As a diverse community, difficulties of communications inevitably arise from time to time. In order to keep the community in order, BZC has its own set of ethical guidelines which can be downloaded directly from its website. “To avoid all harm, to cultivate good, and to purify the mind”, as the guidelines suggest, is the first and foremost principle that participants in this community should abide.
Just as most of the convert Buddhist communities, BZC raises its funds by charging dues for members and extra fees for some particular events. Members of BZC, as the website describes, are people who participate regularly and frequently in BZC activities. They may: vote in BZC elections, hold leadership positions, borrow books from the library, and receive many other benefits. The dues requested from a member is $40 per month, according to BZC policy. Also, the fees for sesshin is $35 per day. Nevertheless, as the policy has indicated, BZC has recognized some members may have financial difficulties and therefore changes can be made on the charges. On the other hand, BZC also continues the dana practice somewhat from the immigrant community: “Unrestricted Donations are contributions made to support BZC in meeting its annual income goal. This supports essential temple activities, including maintaining our physical premises, paying the salaries and benefits of our abbot and vice-abbot, the salary of our Office Manager and other operational costs”.
After skimming through the website of BZC, I can see that this Buddhist community has been well adapted to American society and has based its sangha on a steady group mainly composed of Americans. It attracts some immigrants as it is located in a major city on the west coast; American converts are still the main adherents. Adherents of BZC are mostly middle aged or older people and females take a larger part than males.
After all, we can say that Berkeley Zen Center is a convert Buddhist community that takes the lineage of Soto. It has a quite diverse sangha with a number of local Americans. It focuses its main practice on meditation and has sought to spread its influence further.
