Toni Packer

Biography

Toni Packer was born in Berlin, Germany in 1927. Her family was Lutheran in name only, as they endeavored not to divulge the fact that her mother was of Jewish descent. It was in her childhood, growing up amidst the turmoil of Nazi Germany, that Packer first developed mistrust for authority. The family eventually made a move to Switzerland, where she married her husband Kyle Packer in 1950. The pair moved to New York near the State University of New York at Buffalo, where Kyle came to earn a degree in psychology. Toni began reading the pioneering works about Zen Buddhism by Alan Watts, D. T. Suzuki and Philip Kapleau. It was the latter which had the greatest impact on her, and she soon joined the nearby Rochester Zen Center with her husband.

Throughout the 1970s she accepted minor teaching positions at Rochester, and in 1981 she ran the center for an extended period in Kapleau's absence. During this time she instituted many changes in the practice there; for example, she discontinued wearing the abbreviated Buddhist robe called a rakusu, worn in some Japanese Zen circles to distinguish more advanced practitioners.

Packer left the Center shortly after Kapleau's return and ceased calling herself a Buddhist. Her eventual departure from Zen Buddhism was due to her ever-increasing resentment of all organized religion: all received doctrines, all rituals, all traditions. Her rebellion against religion was inspired by Krishnamurti, who had himself rebelled against Theosophy. She took most of her students with her when she was excommunicated and exiled from the Rochester Zen Center, immediately founding her own "non-religion" of "meditative inquiry" (which is, simply, paying full and undivided attention to the present moment).

In 1981 she founded the Genesee Valley Zen Center, in Rochester, New York. In 1986 the center relocated and changed its name, dropping the word Zen to become the Springwater Center for Meditative Inquiry and Retreats in Springwater, New York. The Springwater Center is incorporated under New York State law as a religious institution.

Packer has rejected labels for herself such as a teacher or authority, though some of the individuals she has asked to carry on her work do not. The word "Zen" was dropped from the Center's name as a result of Packer's move away from Japanese Zen Buddhist traditions.

Teaching style

Her discursion of meditative inquiry is informed largely by her own vision, but also by the talks and writings of J. Krishnamurti.

Up to 16 retreats are held a year, giving a blend of ritual-less zen and Neo-Advaita silent retreats, and David Bohm style dialogues/group meetings.

Packer has been described as "...a Zen teacher minus the 'Zen' and minus the 'teacher,'" emphasizing the importance of meditative inquiry without practicing Buddhism. Though stripped of rituals, Packer still found the practice of zazen to be useful.