12 ICSA TODAY
newspaper reports were translated by Jundo Cohen, an
American lawyer and Zen priest who lived in Japan for 20 years.
[6] Among traditional Japanese Zen practitioners, Sasaki’s
interest in sex would not in itself be a cause for concern
rather, the concern was about his letting it take too big a
part in his life and interfere with his role of Zen master. For
further details, see Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and
the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (1946 New York, NY/
Scarborough, Ontario: Meridian), pp. 183–185.
[7] Sasaki was hardly the only Rinzai roshi who felt he did not
have to answer to people beneath him in the hierarchy.
[8] This group of loyal oshos may thus be characterized as
“a charismatic aristocracy, an inner circle that developed
around the charismatic leader within his growing flock”
(see S. Bell, “Scandals in Emerging Western Buddhism,” in
Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia, Prebish, Charles
S.,. &Martin Bauman [Eds.], [2002, Berkeley, CA/Los Angeles,
CA/ London, UK: University of California Press], pp. 230–244).
[9] These words were repeated almost verbatim by older
students of Richard Baker Roshi of the San Francisco Zen
Center when newer students, not quite fully socialized into
the Zen center’s ideology, complained over different aspects
of Baker’s high living. See S. Lachs, (2002), “Richard Baker and
the Myth of the Zen Roshi,” available online at
thezensite.com/ZenEssays/CriticalZen/Richard_Baker_and_
the_Myth.htm
[10] This quote comes from a podcast from CBC radio of an
interview with Nikki Stubbs, who as a young woman was a
student of Sasaki for 3 years.
[11] For the moving experience of one woman under Sasaki’s
influence and teaching, expressed in poetic form, see
“To Joshu Sasaki Roshi: Roshi You Are a Sexual Abuser”
(available online at sasakiarchive.com/PDFs/20130221_
Chizuko_Tasaka.pdf).
[12] For a fuller view and documentation of the Sasaki/Rinzai-
ji scandal, see sasakiarchive.com/ For a similar story that
documents the scandal surrounding Eido Shimano in New
York City, see shimanoarchive.com Interestingly, both
of these scandals persisted for roughly fifty years. These
websites were started and are maintained by Kobutsu
Malone, an American Rinzai monk.
References
As It Happens. (n.d.). (CBC radio podcast, interview with
Nikki Stubbs.) Available online at http://sasakiarchive.com/
Audio/20130219_asithappens.mp4
Bourdieu, P. (1991). “Rites of the institution,” Language and
symbolic power (pp. 105–126). Copy available online at https://
monoskop.org/images/4/43/Bourdieu_Pierre_Language_and_
Symbolic_Power_1991.pdf Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Cole, A. (2006). “Simplicity for the sophisticated: Rereading the
Daode Jing for the polemics of ease and innocence,” History of
Religion, 46 (August, 2006), p. 13. Retrieved from https://www.
academia.edu/8089712/Simplicity_for_the_Sophisticated_
Rereading_the_Daode_Jing_for_the_Polemics_of_Ease_and_
Innocence (last accessed 11/05/2017).
Lesage, B. (2012, Sept. 11). Sexual allegations about Joshu Roshi
(email communication). Retrieved from Sasaki archive online at
http://sasakiarchive.com/PDFs/19971208_To_Sasaki.pdf
Martin, E. (2012, Nov. 16). Everybody knows—Kyozan Joshu
Sasaki Roshi and Rinzai-ji. From Sweeping Zen digital archive.
Retrieved from http://sweepingzen.com/everybody-knows-by-
eshu-martin/
Off, C., &Douglas, J. (2013). As It Happens interview with
Nikki Stubbs (CBC Radio podcast). Available online at http://
sasakiarchive.com/Audio/20130219_asithappens.mp4
O’Hearn, B. (2012, Nov 23). Zen and the emotional/sexual
contraction (posted on Conscious Process blog). Retrieved from
https://theconsciousprocess.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/zen-
and-the-emotionalsexual-contraction/
Oppenheimer, M., &Lovett, I. (2013, Feb. 11). Zen groups
distressed by accusations against teacher,” The New York
Times, Asia Pacific section, para. 11. Retrieved from http://
sasakiarchive.com/PDFs/20130211_NYTimes.pdf
Sahn, Master Seung. (1976). Dropping ashes on the Buddha: The
teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn (p. 99). New York, NY: Grove
Press.
Sheng-yen. (1984). Selecting and studying under a master.
Ch’an Newsletter, No. 38, pp. 1–2. Retrieved from http://
chancenter.org/cmc/1984/06/15/selecting-and-studying-
under-a-master/
Suzuki, S. (1970). Zen mind, beginners mind. New York, NY:
Weatherhill.
About the Author
Stuart Lachs encountered Zen Buddhism
in New York City in 1967. After practicing
intensely for more than 30 years in America
and Asia, teaching for a number of years,
and witnessing countless instances of
questionable teacher behavior, he severed
all ties to Chan/Zen Buddhist centers around
2000. He has been active in the Columbia University Buddhist
Studies Workshop, the Princeton University Buddhist Studies
Workshop, and the Oslo University Buddhist Studies Forum he
also has presented at the annual conferences of the American
Academy of Religion (AAR), the Association of Asian Studies
(AAS), the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS),
and the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). His
articles include “The Zen Master and Dharma Transmission: A
Seductive Mythology,” published in Minority Religions and Fraud:
In Good Faith (Ashgate, London, 2014) “Denial of Ritual in Zen
Writing,” published in The Ambivalence of Denial (Harrosowitz,
Wiesbaden, 2015) and “Modernizing American Zen Through
Scandal: Is “The Way” Really the Way?” published in Buddhist
Modernities: Re-Inventing Tradition in the Globalizing Modern World
(Routledge, New York and London, 2017). n
newspaper reports were translated by Jundo Cohen, an
American lawyer and Zen priest who lived in Japan for 20 years.
[6] Among traditional Japanese Zen practitioners, Sasaki’s
interest in sex would not in itself be a cause for concern
rather, the concern was about his letting it take too big a
part in his life and interfere with his role of Zen master. For
further details, see Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and
the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (1946 New York, NY/
Scarborough, Ontario: Meridian), pp. 183–185.
[7] Sasaki was hardly the only Rinzai roshi who felt he did not
have to answer to people beneath him in the hierarchy.
[8] This group of loyal oshos may thus be characterized as
“a charismatic aristocracy, an inner circle that developed
around the charismatic leader within his growing flock”
(see S. Bell, “Scandals in Emerging Western Buddhism,” in
Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia, Prebish, Charles
S.,. &Martin Bauman [Eds.], [2002, Berkeley, CA/Los Angeles,
CA/ London, UK: University of California Press], pp. 230–244).
[9] These words were repeated almost verbatim by older
students of Richard Baker Roshi of the San Francisco Zen
Center when newer students, not quite fully socialized into
the Zen center’s ideology, complained over different aspects
of Baker’s high living. See S. Lachs, (2002), “Richard Baker and
the Myth of the Zen Roshi,” available online at
thezensite.com/ZenEssays/CriticalZen/Richard_Baker_and_
the_Myth.htm
[10] This quote comes from a podcast from CBC radio of an
interview with Nikki Stubbs, who as a young woman was a
student of Sasaki for 3 years.
[11] For the moving experience of one woman under Sasaki’s
influence and teaching, expressed in poetic form, see
“To Joshu Sasaki Roshi: Roshi You Are a Sexual Abuser”
(available online at sasakiarchive.com/PDFs/20130221_
Chizuko_Tasaka.pdf).
[12] For a fuller view and documentation of the Sasaki/Rinzai-
ji scandal, see sasakiarchive.com/ For a similar story that
documents the scandal surrounding Eido Shimano in New
York City, see shimanoarchive.com Interestingly, both
of these scandals persisted for roughly fifty years. These
websites were started and are maintained by Kobutsu
Malone, an American Rinzai monk.
References
As It Happens. (n.d.). (CBC radio podcast, interview with
Nikki Stubbs.) Available online at http://sasakiarchive.com/
Audio/20130219_asithappens.mp4
Bourdieu, P. (1991). “Rites of the institution,” Language and
symbolic power (pp. 105–126). Copy available online at https://
monoskop.org/images/4/43/Bourdieu_Pierre_Language_and_
Symbolic_Power_1991.pdf Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Cole, A. (2006). “Simplicity for the sophisticated: Rereading the
Daode Jing for the polemics of ease and innocence,” History of
Religion, 46 (August, 2006), p. 13. Retrieved from https://www.
academia.edu/8089712/Simplicity_for_the_Sophisticated_
Rereading_the_Daode_Jing_for_the_Polemics_of_Ease_and_
Innocence (last accessed 11/05/2017).
Lesage, B. (2012, Sept. 11). Sexual allegations about Joshu Roshi
(email communication). Retrieved from Sasaki archive online at
http://sasakiarchive.com/PDFs/19971208_To_Sasaki.pdf
Martin, E. (2012, Nov. 16). Everybody knows—Kyozan Joshu
Sasaki Roshi and Rinzai-ji. From Sweeping Zen digital archive.
Retrieved from http://sweepingzen.com/everybody-knows-by-
eshu-martin/
Off, C., &Douglas, J. (2013). As It Happens interview with
Nikki Stubbs (CBC Radio podcast). Available online at http://
sasakiarchive.com/Audio/20130219_asithappens.mp4
O’Hearn, B. (2012, Nov 23). Zen and the emotional/sexual
contraction (posted on Conscious Process blog). Retrieved from
https://theconsciousprocess.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/zen-
and-the-emotionalsexual-contraction/
Oppenheimer, M., &Lovett, I. (2013, Feb. 11). Zen groups
distressed by accusations against teacher,” The New York
Times, Asia Pacific section, para. 11. Retrieved from http://
sasakiarchive.com/PDFs/20130211_NYTimes.pdf
Sahn, Master Seung. (1976). Dropping ashes on the Buddha: The
teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn (p. 99). New York, NY: Grove
Press.
Sheng-yen. (1984). Selecting and studying under a master.
Ch’an Newsletter, No. 38, pp. 1–2. Retrieved from http://
chancenter.org/cmc/1984/06/15/selecting-and-studying-
under-a-master/
Suzuki, S. (1970). Zen mind, beginners mind. New York, NY:
Weatherhill.
About the Author
Stuart Lachs encountered Zen Buddhism
in New York City in 1967. After practicing
intensely for more than 30 years in America
and Asia, teaching for a number of years,
and witnessing countless instances of
questionable teacher behavior, he severed
all ties to Chan/Zen Buddhist centers around
2000. He has been active in the Columbia University Buddhist
Studies Workshop, the Princeton University Buddhist Studies
Workshop, and the Oslo University Buddhist Studies Forum he
also has presented at the annual conferences of the American
Academy of Religion (AAR), the Association of Asian Studies
(AAS), the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS),
and the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). His
articles include “The Zen Master and Dharma Transmission: A
Seductive Mythology,” published in Minority Religions and Fraud:
In Good Faith (Ashgate, London, 2014) “Denial of Ritual in Zen
Writing,” published in The Ambivalence of Denial (Harrosowitz,
Wiesbaden, 2015) and “Modernizing American Zen Through
Scandal: Is “The Way” Really the Way?” published in Buddhist
Modernities: Re-Inventing Tradition in the Globalizing Modern World
(Routledge, New York and London, 2017). n
