Beck, Charlotte Joko - A00014
"Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something. All your life you have been going forward after something, pursuing some goal. Enlightenment is dropping all that. But to talk about it is of little use. The practice has to be done by each individual. There is no substitute. We can read about it until we are a thousand years old and it won't do a thing for us. We all have to practice, and we have to practice with all of our might for the rest of our lives." (04/06/2023)
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Charlotte Joko Beck, died June 15, 2011 at 7:30 a.m., at age 94. She was not a member of the White Plum Asanga, but she did recieve transmission from Maezumi Roshi and several of her dharma successors are members of WPA.
The following is from the Prairie Zen Center website:
Charlotte Joko Beck was a renowned Zen teacher, co-founder of the Ordinary Mind Zen School and former head of the San Diego Zen Center. In the 1960s she trained under Hakuun Yasutani Roshi and Soen Nakagawa Roshi. In 1983 she became the 3rd Dharma heir of Hakuyu Maezumi Roshi of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Joko semi-retired in 2006 and moved to Prescott, Arizona. She passed away on June 15th, 2011 at the age of 94. She was the author of two books:
Everyday Zen: Love and Work. 1989. Harper Row. ISBN 0-06-060734-3.
Nothing Special: Living Zen. 1994. Harper Row. ISBN 0-06-251117-3.
A chapter discussing her work can be found in L. Friedman’s book, Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America. 1987. Boston & London: Shambhala.
In Memorium Charlotte Joko Beck
by Shishin Wick, President – White Plum Asanga
I first met Charlotte Joko Beck in 1972. In April the ice plant bloom along the highways in San Diego. I passed many fields of vibrant purple and violet blossoms on my way to the small sitting group in the home of Ray Jordan, where I came face-to-face with another vibrant flower. Joko’s page boy haircut, her dark cat’s eye glasses and her rather large breasts would be enough to make her stand out. There was also the fact that she was the only middle aged woman in the sitting group. We became fast friends.
Joko drove every Saturday for two hours to the Zen Center of Los Angeles to have dokusan with Maezumi Roshi and then she drove two hours back to San Diego. Together we would drive every month to sesshin and laugh all the way home on the two hour drive. That was her routine until she moved to ZCLA in 1977 when she retired as the administrator in the chemistry department at University of California San Diego. Since I also worked at UCSD, Joko and I would regularly meet for a sack lunch and walk around the campus talking about Zen. She would often comment on how unreal everything seemed. She had recently had an awakening experience at a sesshin with Yasutani Roshi. She would stick her finger out and say that she felt that she could poke right through everything to another realm.
Joko and I arranged to have Maezumi Roshi come to San Diego for a weekend sesshin at a house I was renting in La Jolla. He brought two young monks, Joshin and Tesshin. Joko and I arranged everything from the meals to procuring all the implements. When it came time for chanting service, we only had a bell. I still smile when I think of Joko beating out the rhythms on a thick phone book using a large wooden spoon as our make-shift mukugyo. The umpan was a pot lid which we struck with a large metal spoon. When the toilet gave out from over use, we all scurried down to the corner gas station to use the bathroom.
Joko was my best Dharma friend. Her dedication as a student of Zen was inspiring. Her devotion as a teacher of Zen is awesome. I feel fortunate to have known her in her formative years and to have witnessed how she matured into one of the most influential Zen teachers of our time. It is amazing that she started on the Zen path at an age when most people think of retiring and that she has accomplished so much in the second half of her life and touched the lives of so many people.
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Charlotte Joko Beck (March 27, 1917 – June 15, 2011[1]) was an American Zen teacher and the author of the books Everyday Zen: Love and Work and Nothing Special: Living Zen.[2]
Born in New Jersey, Beck studied music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and worked for some time as a pianist and piano teacher. She married and raised a family of four children, then separated from her husband and worked as a teacher, secretary, and assistant in a university department. She began Zen practice in her 40s with Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi in Los Angeles,[3] and later with Hakuun Yasutani and Soen Nakagawa.[3] Beck received Dharma transmission from Taizan Maezumi Roshi in 1978,[3] but broke with Maezumi over his actions and opened Zen Center San Diego in 1983,[3] serving as its head teacher until July 2006.[4]
Beck was responsible for a number of important innovations in Zen teaching. Because she was adept at teaching students to work with their psychological states, she attracted a number of students who were interested in the relationship between Zen and modern psychology. Several of her Dharma heirs are practicing psychologists/psychiatrists.[5] In 1995 Joko, along with three of her Dharma heirs, founded the Ordinary Mind Zen School.
Shortly after Beck’s departure in 2006, she revoked Dharma transmission from two senior students: Ezra Bayda and Elizabeth Hamilton. Beck also stated that Zen Center San Diego should not claim to represent her or her teaching.[6][5][7] In 2006 Joko moved to Prescott, Arizona, where she continued to teach until she retired as a teacher in late 2010. In the spring of 2010, Joko announced Gary Nafstad as her last Dharma successor.[6][5]
Beck died on June 15, 2011, at age 94.[1]
Joko Beck appointed nine teachers:[8]
- Christensen, Larry Jissan
- Christenson, Anna
- Dawson, Geoff
- Howard, Gregg
- Magid, Barry (b. 1949)
- Nafstad, Gary (b. 1949)
- Penn, Barbara Muso (d. 2023)
- Smith, Elihu Genmyo (b. 1948)
- Rizzetto, Diane Eshin (b. 1942)
From two other teachers she later sought to revoke her appointment:[9]
- Bayda, Ezra (b. 1944) (revoked 2006)
- Hamilton, Elizabeth (b. 1942) (revoked 2006)
- Beck, Charlotte Joko (2021). Ordinary Wonder. Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-1-61180-877-3.
- Beck, Joko; Smith, Steve (1989). Everyday Zen: Love and Work. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-060734-3.
- Beck, Joko (1993). Nothing Special: Living Zen. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-251117-3.
- ^ a b Tebbe, Adam (June 15, 2011). "Charlotte Joko Beck dies at 94; American Zen pioneer". Sweeping Zen. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
- ^ "Joko Beck Bio". Sweeping Zen. Archived from the original on 5 Dec 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Ford, James Ishmael (2006). Zen Master Who?: A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen. Boston: Wisdom Publications. pp. 173–175. ISBN 978-0-86171-509-1.
- ^ "Honorary Founder". Prairie Zen Center. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
- ^ a b c "Barry Magid Interview". Sweeping Zen. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
- ^ a b "Stuart Lachs". Non-Duality. August 26, 2010. Archived from the original on 2014-06-23. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
- ^ "Elizabeth Hamilton reflects on Joko Beck's life at memorial service". Lions roar. Retrieved Jan 1, 2017.
- ^ "Sanbo Kyodan: Harada-Yasutani School of Zen Buddhism and its Teachers". Buddhist Studies WWW Virtual Library. Archived from the original on April 4, 2015. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
- ^ "Stuart Lachs interview Aug. 26, 2010". non-duality magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-06-23. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
- Friedman, Lenore (2000). Meetings With Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America. Boston: Shambhala Publications. pp. 125–150. ISBN 978-1-57062-474-2.
Charlotte Joko Beck
Charlotte Joko Beck was an American Zen teacher, founder of the Ordinary Mind Zen School, and author of Everyday Zen: Love and Work and Nothing Special: Living Zen. She is remembered for teaching her students to work with the emotions of everyday life, rather than attempting to escape them, and produced many Dharma heirs who are practicing psychologists and psychiatrists. She passed away in 2011, at the age of 94.
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