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 last 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. In 1980, Toni visited Kapleau in Mexico, where he was on a sabbatical while she ran the Zen Center. According to Kapleau's assistant, who was present at the meeting, Toni had “reached a point where she felt she could no longer practice in a Buddhist context.” When Toni's decision to no longer practice at the Center was announced to the Zen membership (sangha), there was a period of dismay and even acrimony—more so among individual members than between Kapleau and Toni, However, several years after Toni left the Zen Center, Kapleau visited the Springwater Center that Toni and her group had established. About two decades later, Toni was invited to speak by phone with Kapleau as he was dying. 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==