David Cohn began practice at Zen Center in 1969 with Suzuki Roshi, later becoming a disciple of Baker Roshi. A residential student at Tassajara, Green Gulch Farm, and City Center until 1984, he was ordained as a priest in 1977. David worked for Stewart Brand at Whole Earth for a year, before opening his first restaurant in 1985, another in 1988 and retiring in January 2009. David has been a Zen Hospice Project volunteer since 1998 and Board Member. He maintains connections with Zen Center as a Board member for Everyday Zen and management consultant for Greens Restaurant.
David Cohn gave the eighth talk in the eleven-week series "Ten Perfections," on the parami of Energy and Effort. David discussed bringing the present moment into awareness, letting go of negative states, and cultivating positive states of mind.
This talk was given as a part of the series "Where Rubber Meets the Road: A Series on Mindful Living." Note: This recording was improvised when our usual equipment failed. There is some ambient sound during the first several minutes, but the lecture can still be heard and it clears up as the talk progresses.
This series of talks provides insight and practical advice as to how to take the wonderful and serene mind that we develop during our meditation practice into our daily lives, into our relationships with others. Sometimes, the deepest grooves in our minds are only stimulated in our relationships to others. Defilements and habits of the mind, such as greed, anger and delusion, arise in ways that they don't in other situations. Fortunately, these daily life encounters offer us opportunities to practice, to see ourselves more clearly, and to become more free. This is the liberating power of awareness and mindfulness.
