Stef’s teacher, Bernie Glassman, Roshi, offers the following reflection of Stef’s life in the Zen Peacemakers Newsletter:
In 1975, Flora Courtois, one of the founding members of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, told Maezumi Roshi, its spiritual head, about a wonderful Quaker fundraiser who had raised lots of money for the American Friends. ZCLA needed money, so Roshi agreed to a meeting, and Stef Barragato came to the Zen center. It was quickly obvious that Stef was very good at his work. He believed not just in cultivating donors but also in developing genuine relationships for the long run; fundraising was a practice. Maezumi Roshi also believed in developing relationships, but in his culture it was considered impolite to actually ask for money, so he had a hard time following his new student’s advice.
I appreciated Stef’s skills immensely, so when I returned to the East Coast to found the Zen Community of New York, I asked him if he would come with me and become its first executive director. He had just been offered the position of executive director of the American Friends in Philadelphia; instead he agreed to come with us to Riverdale. There he was instrumental in the founding of the Zen community, including obtaining the necessary funds, and when we opened the Greyston Bakery he became the head of marketing and sales, connecting us with important new clients like Macy’s and Godiva Chocolate.
He also continued his study with me, especially koans, where he was consistent, thorough, and highly meticulous. I have very warm memories of his parents visiting from Italy, sharing delicious Sicilian food (he was a wonderful cook), and of listening to him and Margaret play the recorder.
When I ordained Stef, I gave him the name Mui, which literally means “No Rank.” Maezumi Roshi sternly reminded me that that name, alluded to by Rinzai, connotes the highest level of accomplishment in Zen and should not be given lightly, if at all. But I gave him that name anyway because I was always moved by Mui’s simplicity and humility, his lack of interest in titles, and a basic desire to just serve.
When we planned Greyston’s social services, I asked Mui to take that over; this time he desisted. This is going to be a big project, he told me, and I want to simplify my life. So Mui and Margaret left the community and moved to upstate New York, where he began to work in prisons. He had served in prison years ago as a conscientious objector and felt this to be his natural ministry. He was the one who first brought me inside to speak to prison inmates, two of whom were eventually released to work in Yonkers alongside us, and inspired me to see prison ministry as an important practice in socially engaged Buddhism.
Mui is the third dharma successor I have had who has passed. It is hard for any father to see one of his own children pre-decease him, even when that child is older in years than he is, as is true in this case. But experience has taught me that our greatest teaching often comes through our death. The teachings of the Man of No Rank continue to flower and flourish through his successor Margaret Ne-Eka and his highly devoted sangha of students, bearing the distinct scent of service, simplicity, and a strong and pungent sauce ladled over spaghetti pasta.