No pension for Eido Shimano

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- In Zen teachings, one is taught to note “the coming and going of nothing”. Just as the sound that leaves the wooden fish the moment the paddle hits the block, Dharma learners are taught to relinquish any notion of permanence at any point which it arises. Like the sound that meanders away as the gong is hit, or the smoke that rises and disappears when incense is lit. They are taught to be aware of traces, and that too inherently will disappear.

In the ongoing suit against the Zen Studies Society (ZSS) by its previous abbot Eido Shimano – who is seeking payment of pension due to him (see here) - the ZSS needs to be clear on its spiritual and moral authority. The person who was asked to leave the organization was not asked to do so out of personal contempt or politics.

That person was asked to leave because he failed the fiduciary duty expected of a person of the Buddhist robe, that is to help bring peace and enlightenment to people that come to him. What transpired instead is one who had become a lustful demon disguised as a person of the robe and through it, had taken sexual advantage of people who he purports to help bring peace and enlightenment.

While Eido Shimano may have been the catalyst of establishing the roots of Zen within ZSS, it certainly does not mean that ZSS is obligated to support its founder for life. The crux of the matter is this: There have been allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of Eido Shimano. There are explicit evidences forwarded by victims themselves. These accounts are compiled and documented for public view via the Internet.

By all accounts this monk has been “defeated” in the traditional sense of Dharma-Vinaya (Buddha’s teachings and his discipline).

As such, he is no longer a monk in the spiritual sense and by that it means that he is cut off from the lineage that ties ZSS to its Japanese Buddhist roots. That being the case, according to the Vinaya (parajika) by natural law he is considered an outcaste, “excommunicated” from ZSS in all sense of meaning (spiritual, moral and legal).

In this circumstance, it would seem imprudent for the ZSS to have established any legal agreement to support the pension of a person who has abused his position and influence.

The ZSS board needs to be aware that this case is no longer confined to the boundary of its estate. Eido Shimano’s misdeeds and unsavory tales have already travelled far and wide. If the ZSS is sincere in maintaining its lineage and keeping its name as a trusted center for Zen learning, it has to re-engage with the community and show that it cares for Dharma learning. That it cares for people who come to the center seeking peace and personal enlightenment.

And it can only do that if it banishes whatever traces of Shimano saga left on its doorsteps. Yes, he came, he founded, he gave, he helped and he taught at the ZSS. But he also badly misbehaved.

Like smoke that trails off after the incense is lit, or the sound of the gong meandering off into the dead of night after it is hit, ZSS must do the right thing. The society must banish any thoughts of compensating Eido Shimano his due pension.

Let the teachings of “coming and going of nothing” ring true within the four corners of ZSS. Be aware of his traces but not be bound by it. Only then can real healing truly begin for everyone concerned.

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Eido Shimano to lead sesshin at Providence Zen Center in 2013?

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The Kwan Um School of Zen has offered an official statement on the matter of Eido Shimano booking a rental at their Diamond Hill Zen monastery in 2013. We are happy to announce that they have decided to decline renting out the space to Shimano and his followers.

<< Providence Zen Center (the international headquarters of the late Zen master Seung Sahn’s Kwan Um School of Zen) has reportedly offered Eido Shimano to lead a sesshin in 2013. They have since officially retracted the offer.

Here is the statement from Jason Quinn, the abbot of the Providence Zen Center, that we just received:

Adam Tebbe

October 4, 2012

Dear Jason,

I understand that the Providence Zen Center would like to offer an official statement on the May 2013 booking of Diamond Hill Monastery by the followers of Eido Shimano. I look forward to hearing back from you and wish these were more fun times. Thank you.

Warmly,

Adamj (typo)

Jason Quinn

October 5, 2012

Hello Adam,

Thank you for the message and respect to contact me directly. We have many people interested in renting space at both the Providence Zen Center and the Diamond Hill Zen Monastery. Our director is the contact person for exchanging information to rental groups about price and availability. After the exchange, the potential rental is discussed with the management team. The management team then evaluates each group to see if it is a good fit for the current situation. In this specific case, we decided not to rent to this group in 2013.

Hapchang _/l\_

Jason Quinn

Original October 2, 2012 posting

One must really pause to question the wisdom of any Zen institution that would offer Eido Shimano a place to teach and lead sesshin, knowing about his long and well-documented history of sexual and ethical misconduct that began when he first came to the United States in 1960. From where I am sitting, for any Zen institution to offer Shimano a place of teaching authority on their grounds is unconscionable. According to a letter from George Zournas to the Trustees of the Zen Studies Society dated 9/14/1982, one Dr. Tadao Ogura (then Senior Psychiatrist of the South Oaks Hospital) agreed, saying of Shimano: “Wherever he goes, he s[h]ould never again be given a position of primary authority.” That was the opinion of a highly respected psychiatrist dating as far back as 1982!

And yet, the Providence Zen Center (the international headquarters of the late Zen master Seung Sahn’s Kwan Um School of Zen) has knowingly done just that. In an email from Ekyo Ursula Sapeta to Eido Shimano’s remaining group of followers, Sapeta writes:

“Eido Roshi kindly agreed to lead sesshin in USA in May 2013.The sesshin will be four and half days, starting Friday evening May 24th and finishing Wednesday May 29th, after lunch.

We have a reservation in beautiful place Diamond Hill Monastery at Providence Zen Center (http://www.providencezen .org).”

Fair enough. The assumption would be that the Providence Zen Center mistakenly booked the reservation for May of 2013, not knowing that the sesshin was to be led by Eido Shimano. This, sadly, is not the case. In an email exchange between the Providence Zen Center’s director Jeff Partridge and Rev. Kobutsu Malone dated October 02, the Kwan Um School of Zen’s head temple confirmed that Mr. Shimano would indeed be leading sesshin at Diamond Hill Monastery in 2013.

Kobutsu Malone:

Dear Friends,

I am writing to inquire if the Providence Zen Center has actually booked a reservation to host a sesshin conducted by Eido Shimano in May of 2013 as per the attached email?

Thank you in advance for your prompt reply,

Rev. Kobutsu Malone

Jeff Partridge:

“Hello!

Yes I’m working with Ekyo now on the details. Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

Thank you,
Jeff Partridge
Director
Providence Zen Center”

Unreal…

Source: http://sweepingzen.com/eido-shimano-to-lead-sesshin-at-providence-zen-center-in-2013

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The Shimano saga: Selling off to pay the rent?

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Zen Studies Society's controversial land deal with Nature Conservancy

New York, USA  -- This week, Gallup, Inc., a US, research-based performance-management consulting company issued a report entitled "U.S. Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point." It appears that confidence in "Organized Religion" in America has been is steady decline since the early 1970's.

While the Gallup report deals primarily with "Christian" denominations, Catholic and Protestant, there is ample evidence that even relatively new, and somewhat obscure, organized religious traditions in America are also being questioned by adherents. 

In America, everybody's got to pay the rent, and the Zen Studies Society , a Zen Buddhist organization based in New York, with its two multi-million dollar centers, is no different.  Upkeep is required if the two centers -- Dai BosatsuZen monastery set on a 1,400-acre tract in the town of Hardenburgh, N.Y., and New York Zendo Sho Bo Ji, a converted carriage house on East 67th Street in Manhattan -- are to survive.
But the Zen Studies Society has been feeling the crunch of late not just because of hard economic times but also because of a variety of scandals centering on the former abbot, Eido Tai Shimano  – a man who, over a period of 46 years, stands credibly accused of a variety of depredations, including lying, character assassination, sexual misconduct and financial improprieties.

Shimano came to the United States in 1960 , and, over time, gathered around him many groups of students and supporters who financed the creation of both Dai Bosatsu and Sho Bo Ji.  It was their money and their spirit and their participation in Zen practice that bore fruit.  That fruit was not always sweet, however.  Over the decades Shimano repeatedly destroyed and alienated group after group when his behavior became public and he was never able to build a truly sustainable community for the practice of Zen.
In 2008, a series of revelations began to etch Shimano's role not just as a 'revered Zen teacher,' but also as a serial sexual predator, one who used his position as a teacher to advance his sometimes unwanted advances (alleged date rape ), as a liar who had no compunction to tell the truth and constant engagement in self aggrandizing machinations and hagiographic hyperbole.  

Large numbers of people were left mentally scarred in ways reminiscent of the child sex-abuse victims of the Vatican:  A trust and a body betrayed.  Year after year, decade after decade…  Denial after denial – after denial…
With papers provided by Robert Aitken Roshi and the subsequent efforts of the Rev. Kobutsu Malone, the Shimano Archive filled with documentation of Shimano's manipulative, abusive and self-important activities. And as that documentation became more widely known, membership (and thus income) at Zen Studies Society dwindled.
Now the Zen Studies Society faces some very hard financial choices. Shimano was forced into retirement in 2010 , but his self-mandateddeferred retirement package demands a $90,000 per year payment , that includes upkeep for the Manhattan apartment he and his wife live in, medical and life insurance for both of them, and various other benefits...  All coming out of the Zen Studies Society's donor supported pockets.
As a result, Zen Studies Society is in negotiations with The Nature Conservancy of Arlington, Va.,  either to lease, sell outright or create an easement on 1,000 acres of Dai Bosatsu's 1,400 total acreage .  This is land about which Shimano once said, “Under any circumstances, not even a square foot of property or a speck of dust should be sold.Right now this is under your [the Board of Directors] management, but strictly speaking it is the property of the Dharma, Keep that in your mind.” The money from such a sale/lease/easement would clearly be used not only to support and advance the institutions under Zen Studies Society control, but also to meet its coerced contractual obligation with Shimano.
In a March 13, 2012, letter  and subsequent phone conversation with the Nature Conservancy, the Rev. Kobutsu Malone attempted to point out that any payment for the land would amount to the support of a "serial sexual predator" and further, were Shimano's depredations become the subject of a lawsuit, the Conservancy might find itself dragged into a legal matter that was not of its own devising. The bad publicity associated with such a legal battle might not be to the Conservancy's benefit.
In a July 2, 2012, conversation with Rick Werwaiss , executive director of the Eastern New York Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, the Rev. Kobutsu Malone reiterated again and again his concerns and his argument that the Conservancy might want to steer clear of the deal. For his part, Werwaiss made it clear that the Conservancy would take its own due precautions, but essentially didn't care what history preceded any potential deal.  He seemed to be purposely ignoring the effect that a respected conservation organization’s bottom line support of a financially hemorrhaging organization that has never offered a sincere apology on the myriads of people who were victims of their disgraced leader and the decades long inaction of multiple Boards of Directors.  Survivors of Eido Shimano and his Zen Studies Society organization feel that the Nature Conservancy’s involvement at this time is the equivalent to a kick in the teeth as the Conservancy’s donor supplied funds will essentially be used to provide support for an already wealthy serial sexual predator who is completely unremorseful for the damage and hurt he has wrecked over the years.
It is not entirely clear at the moment where the negotiations stand. Neither Zen Studies Society nor the Nature Conservancy has offered any transparent discussion about the amount of land in question or the financial arrangements under consideration.
The Nature Conservancy's lock-step mantra of "our mission is to protect and preserve the lands and water on which all life depends," is likely to be perceived by survivors of Shimano's depredations as the equivalent of a kick in the teeth – in the same fashion as would be a statement by the Penn State Athletic Department to the effect of, "all we want to do is play football."

It is clear that everyone has to pay the rent.
The question is, at what cost?

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