In defend of Ed Brown.

I found out that one of my former teachers at Green Gulch Farm Zen Community has been barred from giving anymore lectures and classes; in short he has been excommunicated from the Zen center. Edward Brown or better known as Ed, the author of several Zen related books like the Tassajara cook book and Greens cook book in which he coauthored, was found guilty of bad language and morally despicable during one of his latest class at green Gulch. I say these in such harsh words only because this is what it would take to remove a long standing ordained priest of Ed's caliber. Ed was my teacher and friend when i was doing my practice at Green Gulch and I was most indebted to him for his friendship and understanding and accepting me as who I was then without any judgement or condemnation as i was never a good student to most others there then.
Ed gave me his old robes which he said were the first he ever wore and i wore them with pride most of the time  was at GG and he invited me to his home where he cooked and entertained me in Inverness a little north of GG along the coast. At one of our Dokusan or one on one chat with the teacher I told Ed that I was a Muslim by birth and have difficult prosterating to the statue of manjushri on the altar in the Zendo. Ed told me that if i consider the statue as some object of worship I have problem, but if I can look beyond the form,at the emptiness, i might get away with it. He also added that if i were to become a member of the club, I  will have to abide by the rules of the game and I did. I survived almost two yeas at GG through his guidance and friendship and mostly his sense of humour. I never found him to be pretentious about being a Zen Master but loved and respect him for his genuine care for others and their well being. He may seemed shallow in his presentations and lectures about Zen and the everyday life but he was never boring. He gave his students a view of Zen with a touch of simplicity that accords with our modern day quirks.

The year that i entered GG Zen Community was the year that the community was recuperating from the Baker Roshi scandal where most of the activities were put on hold and GG was sliding into neglect. With the leadership of Paul Disco and a few others like Lou and Blanch Harman,Peter Rudnick and wife, Wendy Johnson, Norman Fisher and wife Kathy and the practice group of hardy students under Paul set about rebuilding the GG Zen Community. Initially one hardly found any SF Zen Center, or the City Zen Center as we knew them, visited the Gulch. I started seeing them only after we got The Farm up and running and most of those on the Board of Directors today were among those who showed up to make their appearances known. Ed Brown remained throughout our practice period as one of the Practice Teachers. GG if not the SF Zen Center itself, came back to life on account of these individuals i have mentioned, for if it had not been for them the Zen community would have been dragging their feet like Zombies in Black robes moaning and groaning over the fall of Baker Roshi.  

The Prophet of Allah has a saying which said that, when you are pointing in accusation, just remember that the four other fingers are pointing right back at you.