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Charlotte Joko Beck (born 1917) is a Zen teacher in the United States and the author of the books Everyday Zen: Love and Work and Nothing Special: Living Zen. Born in New Jersey, she 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, and later with Yasutani Roshi and Soen Roshi. Having received Dharma transmission from Taizan Maezumi Roshi, she opened the San Diego Zen Center in 1983, serving as its head teacher until July 2006. Joko was responsible for a number of important innovations in Zen teaching. In particular, she taught students to work with the emotions of everyday life rather than attempting to avoid or escape them. 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. In 1995 Joko founded the Ordinary Mind Zen School. She now lives in Prescott, Arizona, where she teaches part-time.
Shortly after Joko’s departure in 2006 a controversy arose over the future of the San Diego Zen Center. Joko Beck sent a letter in which she stated that she was revoking Dharma transmission from two senior students: Ezra Bayda and Elizabeth Hamilton. Joko also stated that the San Diego Zen Center should not claim to represent her or her teaching. Joko’s actions caught many long-time students off guard and led some, such as her Dharma heir Barry Magid, to question her judgment. Magid said in a recent interview, "Personally, I feel that the teacher who attempted to withdraw Dharma Transmission from two of her longest and most devoted students, Elizabeth Hamilton and Ezra Bayda, is not the same teacher I studied with."[1] In the same interview, Magid acknowledges that some students do not share his current view of Joko. The five-day sesshins she leads in Prescott several times a year still draw so many participants from around the country that would-be participants are required to fill out an application form as part of a selection process.
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An account of Joko Beck's unique role and influence on the development of Zen in America can be found in Zen Master Who? by James Ishmael Ford, Wisdom Publications, Boston 2006.
An in-depth interview with Charlotte Joko Beck appears in Meetings With Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America, by Lenore Friedman, Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1987. ISBN 087773366X. A revised and updated version of the book came out in 2000. ISBN 1570624747.
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