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13 Apr ' 17:37
Randy Banko Phillips to Sweeping Zen Addressed to Nonin Chowaney.
“I wish to tell you [Nonin Chowaney] that your ‘actions’ made a very difficult time for those of us who were trying to deal with this situation from the inside much more difficult. I don’t believe that you can understand how much more difficult you made things – and what a negative drag it was dealing with your continued sniping. Was this sniping, goading, gloating, quick to anger and attack ‘unethical’ – I don’t presume to know by a long shot but there was apparently plenty of greed anger and delusion to go around. IMHO.”
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13 Apr ' 12:33
04/13/13
04/13/13
20130410_Banko_SZ.pdf
Sweeping Zen
Post by former ZSS Board President Randy Banko Phillips to Sweeping Zen.
http://sweepingzen.com/unethical-practices/#comment-14932
“… I am Banko Randy Phillips and I was at one time president of the board of directors of the Zen Studies Society. At one time I considered myself a good friend of Eido Shimano. I traveled with him to Japan and worked on several books with him. When Robert Aitkin via the web asked for a formal reply by Eido Shimano to his charges (the first that I was aware of them) I tried to get Eido Shimano to respond. I was no longer president of the board but was still on it. It was apparent that his answer was not forthcoming.”
“The reason for this reply now is simply because of the subject of the above article. As a matter of record – you [Nonin Chowaney] – from the side-lines repeatedly cast aspersions at anyone who was ‘against’ Shimano or Shinge Roshi. You were an apologist for both – one might even say even a rabid apologist. To my reading – and I think many others – you responded often in a mean spirited manner. Almost anything that Genjo Osho said was picked apart ad nauseam – in a seemingly imperious manner as well – to what end? Shinge Roshi eventually called Shimano a 'psychopath' – nothing that either I nor Genjo Osho did. Maybe she is right – now Shimano is suing ZSS (for breaking a contract that he basically wrote himself) - ‘Let True Dharma Continue’ – indeed.”
“I wish to tell you that your ‘actions’ made a very difficult time for those of us who were trying to deal with this situation from the inside much more difficult. I don’t believe that you can understand how much more difficult you made things – and what a negative drag it was dealing with your continued sniping. Was this sniping, goading, gloating, quick to anger and attack ‘unethical’ – I don’t presume to know by a long shot but there was apparently plenty of greed anger and delusion to go around. IMHO.”
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06 Apr ' 17:37
ADDED:
04/06/13
04/05/13
20130405_Marinello_SZ.pdf
Sweeping Zen
(In response to Merry Benezra’s piece above.)
Genjo Marinello
April 5, 2013 at 8:11 pm
“Overall a good summery of the tragic history of ZSS and it’s founding abbot Eido Shimano. Indeed the current Abbot, Shinge Roko Sherry Chayat has done little to reach out to those most harmed or alienated over the decades. It is true that ZSS has employed the Faith Trust Institute and An Olive Branch to good effect to start, but has never followed up with an organizational apology (such as Rinzai-Ji has made), a long overdue and promised forensic audit, or democratic reorganization of the bylaws ('new' bylaws have not even been made public). Neither has ZSS sponsored any further reaching out to those most harmed or alienated. No detailed account of Eido Roshi’s wrong doings has been investigated by ZSS, let alone made public, except as can be derived by their counter suit to his complaint that he has not been paid enough.”
“Shinge Chayat has admitted to me that she has experienced ‘unexpected physical molestation’ from Eido Shimano, and though she categorically denies having an ‘affair’ with him, many people claim to have heard her directly say otherwise, including her ex-husband. In any case, it is clear that she too has been abused and taken in by him, publicly to this day expressing gratitude for ‘Eido Roshi’s uncompromising and penetrating Dharma Eye, which reveals directly the luminous power of the unconditional mind’ while privately calling him a ‘psychopath.’ ”
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06 Apr ' 13:33
ADDED:
04/06/13
02/14/13
20130214_Kaiser_Buddhadharma.pdf
Buddhadharma Online
Thursday, February 14, 2013 At 3:00PM
Clinical therapist Tamara Kaiser asks why Buddhist communities have not adopted ethical standards long accepted by the rest of society.
Excerpted from the Spring 2013 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, available on newsstands and by subscription.
“What happens in your sangha if a member has a conflict with a spiritual teacher over alleged psychological or sexual exploitation? Is there room for open discussion about the conflict, or is any such discussion automatically interpreted as a violation of ‘right speech’ and suppressed? As a therapist and, for want of a better term, ‘spiritual seeker’ whose practice includes meditation, I have followed the discussion regarding sexual and psychological exploitation in the American Buddhist community for a number of years. I first became acquainted with these issues in the Buddhist community through my husband, a longtime Zen practitioner and meditation teacher. In my own profession, I have worked extensively with boundary issues in my roles as a therapist and supervisor of therapists (including those who have been sanctioned by a licensing board for violations of the profession’s code of ethics) and also as a teacher of therapists and their supervisors.”
“Some in the American Buddhist community compare their current dilemma to that of the therapeutic community in the 1970s, a time when therapists came to recognize problems of abuse and worked to develop effective means to address them. They suggest that Buddhist communities will need years, if not decades, to establish clear ethical principles and processes by which to protect members and hold teachers accountable.”
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06 Apr ' 04:58
Drinking The Kool-Aid
Sweeping Zen
Posted by: Merry White Benezra on April 5, 2013
Merry White Benezra, author of Special Karma: A Zen Novel of Love and Follyhttp://specialkarma.wordpress.com/
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05 Apr ' 16:26
ADDED:
04/05/13
04/05/13
20130405_Benezra_SZ.pdf
Drinking The Kool-Aid
Posted by: Merry White Benezra on
April 5, 2013Merry White Benezra, author of
Special Karma:
A Zen Novel of Love and Folly
http://specialkarma.wordpress.com/“At 44, Eido was a beautiful man, charismatic, absolutely imbued with the atmosphere of Zen and its aesthetics. As a deeply invested Japanophile, I should have been a very easy mark. But, perhaps because of the tip-off, when Eido began to approach me I knew it wasn’t a unique or spontaneous attraction (it was being hit up); and, frankly, his technique was poor. 'How many men?' he would ask. 'Must have been more than one hundred?' How many humiliating heartbreaks would have been the better question.”
“Saying ‘No thank you’ did not (as I had expected) inoculate me from harm. ‘Do you like your room?’ he asked, as I was rising to leave our first dokusan meeting. An odd question, I thought. I said I did. I loved my room, my monk’s cell. If I had said my room was too small and my futon was too hard and I was lonely, would the conversation would have moved on to alternative sleeping arrangements, such as in the Roshi’s quarters?”
“On the last evening of the first sesshin of the training period, Eido invited me to enjoy a book of pornographic photos with him in his private study. I very quickly excused myself and reeled back to my room. Sesshin ended the following morning and I had to decide. Dai Bosatsu’s very first training period had just started; who was I to bring it to a close? So I let myself believe that Eido had simply made a mistake about the kind of student I meant to be. If other women actually wanted this, that was their business.”
“In the middle of the training period’s second sesshin, Eido revealed the news in dokusan that I had a ‘special karma.’ For someone in my frame of mind, this should only have meant a great spiritual karma. In a Zen monastery, it should only imply spiritual potential. But I had shown so little on-demand spiritual acumen at that point that I knew, in my heart of hearts, that my spiritual karma was not what he meant. Permitting myself to come to this realization in the pressure cooker of sesshin was excruciating. After failing to get a straight answer from Eido about the nature of my special karma and finding myself unable to do anything but cry, nonstop, I walked out of the sesshin. If I had not done so, I believe I could have experienced a complete mental breakdown. I thought long and hard about suicide. If my ‘special karma,’ wasn’t spiritual, what was left?”
“And, a week or so later, Eido confirmed that my special karma was, after all, to have won the lucky ticket that gave the winner a night (or more!) in bed with a real Zen master. It was a ticket I never redeemed.”
“I am watching the unfolding of Eido’s denouement with interest. Finally, at the age of 81, a sexual criminal is being publicly unmasked. But, shouldn’t this have happened in 1964, when his first victims were hospitalized? Or during one of the many Fuck Follies (as we called them) in the 1970′s, 1980′s and 1990′s—when evidence of Eido’s unremitting and unapologetic sexual pathology was brought, again and again, to the attention of the ZSS Board?”
“Recently it has come to light that Eido’s teacher, Soen Roshi, either failed to add Eido’s name to the list of lineage holders (the one that includes Bodhidharma) at Myoshinji, his home temple in Japan—or later removed it. There are many ways to look at this, and how it impacts Eido and his successors. One way is to ask, What is a piece of paper, anyway? But to my mind, Soen’s act is the one clean moment in this whole terrible affair.”
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31 Mar ' 15:13
ADDED:
03/31/13
03/28/13 
20130413_ZazenKai.pdf
Ven. Eido Shimano will conduct an all day Zazen Kai at Kips Bay Community Center April 27, 2013.
All Day Zazen-Kai at Kips Bay Center April 27th, 2013
"On Saturday, April 27th, 2013, after his return from (The East Meets West) Sesshin in Turkey April 22, Ven. Eido Shimano Roshi will lead an all-day Zazen-Kai in honor of the Buddha’s Birthday at the Kips Bay Community Center in New York City."
"Kips Bay Community Center"
"330 East 33 Street (garden level) - Between 1st and 2nd Avenue, NYC"
"Saturday, April 27th, 2013 from 9am to 5pm (Doors will open at 9am)"
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13 Mar ' 18:01
– against –
– against –
– against –
– against –
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13 Mar ' 13:55
ADDED:
03/13/13
03/13/13
20130302_Shimano_Takabayashi.pdf
A Posthumous Letter to Genki Takabayashi from Eido Shimano.
[ Genki Takabayashi Passed Away
on February 25, 2013 ]“March 2, 2013”
“To Genki Zenji Dai Osho”
“Only a few days ago, I came back from Japan.”
“The first news I got at JFK was your departure. As the news was so shocking, I could not find any appropriate words to express my inner feelings. It was totally impossible to share my sadness, neither in Japanese nor in English. It was simply sad.”
“You came to DaiBosatsu a few times and gave me many tea bowls of which you made. Even though we didn’t speak with each other over the phone every month or write so often, there was strong support knowing that there was another Japanese Rinzai teacher who gave his life for the transmission of Buddha Dharma to the West. Three of us, namely you, Sasaki Roshi and myself were like the legs of a tripod, and you were the youngest. Now only two of us are left. No Japanese Rinzai monk or teacher is interested to come to America, at least for now. Your departure made me feel extremely lonely. However, this too must be the arrangement of the Dharma. So I have no choice but to accept it.”
“I have been chanting Daihishu for you. I understand that on April 21st, Daibosatsu Mandala Day, there will be the 49th day memorial service for you in Seattle. On that day, I will be in Istanbul, Turkey, doing Sesshin. I will mention this during Teisho and together, with all participants, we do a special ceremony for you."
"4. With respect to paragraphs 31 through 38 of Defendants Amended Verified Answer and counterclaims, denies the claims set forth in paragraph 32 through 38, and with respect to paragraph 31 thereof, denies that Shimano Roshi had inappropriate sexual relationships with anyone."
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11 Mar ' 15:41
03/11/13
03/11/13 
20130311_Plaintiffs_Reply.pdf
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEWYORK
PLAINTIFFS’ VERIFIED REPLY
TO DEFENDANT’S COUNTERCLAIMS
------------------------------------------------------------------
EIDO T. SHIMANOROSHI and
YASUKO AIHO SHIMANO,
Plaintiffs,
-against –
THE ZEN STUDIES SOCIETY, INC.,
Defendant.
INDEX NO. 650025/2013
RECEIVED NYSCEF: 03/11/2013
“Plaintiffs, EIDO T. SHIMANO ROSHI and YASUKO A. SHIMANO, through their
Attorney, LAWRENCE D. GERZOG, as and or their Verified Reply to Defendant's
Counterclaims state a follows:”
“Counterclaims.
FIRST AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE TO COUNTERCLAIMS
10. The counterclaims asserted in the Verifird Amended Answer and Counterckaims are barred, in whole or in part, by he doctrines of waiver, equitable estoppel, ratification and unclean hands,
SECOND AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE TO COUNTERCLAIMS
11. One or more of the counterclaim arc barred by he applicable statute(s0 of limitations.
WHEREFORE, plaintiffs demand judgment against defendant:
l . On the first through fourth causes of action in an amount to be determined at trial.
2. On the fifth cause of action actual damages in the amount of $1,000,000.00;.
3. On the fifth cause of action punitive damages in the amount of $1,000,000.00;
4. Dismissal of Defendant’s Counterclaims;”
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