David Cohen

  

Cuke Podcast with David Cohen 🔊
see exchange with him about some fine points below

David Cohen is the brother of the late great Zen teacher Darleen Cohen. David was around the SFZC a lot in the past -doing electrical and mechanical work. He's  been Cuke Archives tech support at times.  He's been a fly on the wall at times and at others, a fly in the soup. He's also been frequent tech support for Cuke Archives and anything I was doing that needed tech or mechanical help.

Silas Hoadley married David and Christina Huggins in a redwood grove in Fairfax, CA, in 1984 using the text for a wedding ceremony by Shunryu Suzuki and gave them a copy. Here it is.

Exchange on Facebook with David Cohen concerning his podcast

Cohen: So for those people who think I hang on my every word (I've been in that club) I didn't make it to the podcast until today. So here are the corrections you were asking for:
The redwood grove was in Fairfax.
We got married in 1984. It would be Orwellian to not acknowledge that.
Why on Earth would you assume that I was in any way unhappy with my 'busy mind'? I've dealt with the effects (a skewed sleep cycle) and have never considered it a problem, per se. Like so many things in life, the problem was mostly me pushing the river. If my mind didn't trigger an obscure memory or find a new tangent every thirty seconds, I'd be bored out of my mind. But you spoke of my 'busy mind' like it was a bad thing. It's not. True, it keeps me from meditation, but since I have no particular desire to meditate, again it's not a problem. I don't want to not do anything.
I hope I can put your mind at ease about a cyclical Earth and radioactive materials. You're forgetting half-life of the material. They are still speaking of contaminations in terms of thousands of years. Even if we get a kick start every cycle with bacteria in the soil surviving, we're still talking a billion or two for large mammals. Fukushima with be background by then.

Chadwick: Gee that's interesting. I don't think you have a busy mind more than anyone else. And I don't think it's bad. I'll read your note into the intro to the podcast and apologize for giving that impression. I think I was referring to what I remembered you told me. I think you're just fine as you are. If you tell me where that is I can make the proper adjustments which usually means just taking out some things I said.

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I ran David Cohen's excellent podcast through Mac Whisper which transcribed it in about fifteen minutes (with one mistake - not getting Tilopa's name quite right) and found the offending lines. They're in the intro so he wasn't there to protest. Here they are within the context:

"So here's-- Tilopa's advice--
his six words on meditation.
Oh, and one reason I'm saying this is
because David, you know,
he told me once he can't meditate.
You know, his mind's just too busy or something.
Of course, that's one reason why people meditate,
because their minds are busy.
And the continual practice of meditation
tends to slow that down, reduce the grip of the thought stream."

I see how one could get the idea there that I think having a busy mind is bad whereas everybody's mind is busy and it's neither good nor bad. A busy mind is no obstacle to meditation. Anyway, I think everyone meditates in different ways and it's a private decision how one does so. Following the breath, listening to music, getting hi on pot, taking a walk, driving, lying in bed, etc. So here's the rest of what I took out from that transcription which is Tilopa's type of meditation:

"So here's Tilopa's six words on meditation.
Don't recall. Don't imagine. Don't think. Don't examine. Don't control. Rest.
So the last one is positive. I mean, it's not a negative construction. Rest."