Other Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages Los Angeles and Mount Baldy, California, USA · 2013

Rinzai-ji investigation finds Zen master Joshu Sasaki coerced students over four decades

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

Rinzai Zen roshi and lineage head

Organization

Rinzai-ji, Inc., Mount Baldy Zen Center

Spiritual nexus

As roshi, Sasaki held final authority over his students' spiritual advancement — koan validation and dharma transmission — and the investigation found he used private dokusan interviews to initiate contact, with resistance carrying the threat of expulsion from the training that had become their vocation.

Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
Sacred sex, purity, or sexual-energy claim
Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2013-01-01 · organizational investigative finding

Independent council investigation commissioned by Rinzai-ji, Inc.. An independent investigation commissioned by Sasaki's own organization documented that he had coerced and groped a large number of female students over roughly four decades, framing sexual contact as a teaching method. The organization's council formally acknowledged the findings. No criminal charges were filed before his death in 2014.

Documented coercion mechanisms

authority over students' spiritual advancement (koan validation, dharma transmission)
private teacher-student dokusan interviews
sexual contact framed as a teaching method
threatened expulsion for resistance

Primary record

Sources

institutional reporting investigation report 'The Zen Buddhist Who Preyed on His Upper East Side Students', The New Republic (2013).: Recounts the independent investigation's findings on Sasaki's decades-long coercion of students and the teacher-student authority that enabled it.

Related record

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