Originally posted by Sweeping Zen
Oct 2nd, 2012
Sexual Predator Allowed Back After Being Not Just Asked to leave, but kicked out with Options he gave no shit about.
By Adam Tebbe
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…
(Photo via Wikimedia Commons by Brian Murtha under a CC-BY-2.0 license)
Shobogenzo Zen Center 