Richard Baker Rōshi

Zentatsu Richard Baker is the Founder of the Dharma Sangha Centers in the United States and Europe. In September 2024, he retired as the Abbot of the Dharma Sangha and passed the responsibility on to his successor Nicole Baden Roshi. However, he still teaches regularly in both Centers and online.

Baker Roshi is the Dharma Successor of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, the first Zen Master to establish Residential and Monastic Practice for laypeople and for monks in the West. In 1966, with and for Suzuki Roshi, Baker Roshi co-founded the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California, the first traditional Zen monastery outside of Asia. From 1968 to 1971, he studied in Japan at Antaiji, Eiheiji, and Daitokuji Zen Monasteries. He became Suzuki Roshi’s Dharma Heir in 1969 and was installed by Suzuki Roshi as the Second Abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center in 1971.

Baker Roshi subsequently founded the Green Gulch Zen Practice Community and Farm in Marin County, California in 1972. During the ’70s, he pioneered a number of businesses related to Zen practice. He founded the Zen Centers in Crestone (USA) and the Black Forest (Germany). Today, he continues to guide students both in person and online through his online format Weekly Zen.

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