[joe-frank-list] 'Zen'

[russellbell at gmail.com]

	Milton Schindler tells of working in Vernon (a small town in
Los Angeles county) in 1959.  He was seeing a psychiatrist for his
difficulties (unnamed).  For 5 or 6 months he flew to Las Vegas on
Friday nights to gamble.  He won in the beginning.  (He was with his
friend Frank DiSalvo and his wife.)  He stopped seeing the
psychiatrist and went to Vegas instead.  He claims he won tens of
thousands the first 8-9 months - then he lost big, kited checks, got
$80-100K in debt.  A big fire destroyed his business (making picture
tubes).  Thugs from one of the casinos threatened him.  He never paid
them back, never went back to Vegas.

	7:10: A woman recounts a dream: a bunch of men in the room are
talking politics; she tells them this is really all about throwing a
cow off a cliff, that men abuse women.  A man says that women have all
the power, another (Larry Block) agrees.  A group discusses the
relationships of men and women.  John suggests he may kill himself.
(This is the group therapy by phone session originally in 'When I'm
calling you'.)

	18:20: Jack Kornfield recounts the story of Groucho Marx and
the woman with 22 children ('I love my cigar...' - this comes from
Groucho's game show, 'You bet your life',
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Bet_Your_Life) to introduce talking
about wanting.

	20:50: Joe tells of working for a used-car dealer in DC,
buying a used car; a week later he finds it's stolen.  Joe confronts
the guy (Brooks) who sold him the car; the police aren't interested.
Joe chases him in his boss's Audi; they take US route 50 into Prince
George's county (Maryland).  Brooks exits, stops.  He and Joe fight,
then laugh and make friends.  (originally in 'Green Cadillac')

	30:20: Jack Kornfield tells of the guy who wandered the world
looking for happiness, failed, gave up, stopped to rest under
kalpataru, the 'great wish-fulfilling tree'
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpavriksha), which grants all his
wishes.

	33:50: A guy with a Russian accent (Milio Brodski) lives in
San Francisco.  His friend Slava calls from New York; Slava's mother
is dying of cancer, wants guy to come keep him company, so he flies to
NYC.  The mother set up a business to restore books for the public
library.  She hired Slava, who ran the business into the ground.  She
dies before the guy arrives.  The guy arranges the funeral - Slava
said he couldn't.  Slava wants it cheap.  The discount rabbi mixes her
eulogy up with others'.  Slava dies from an overdose a year later.

	44:20: Kornfield recalls coming back from the monastery the
first time, his first girlfriend.  He can't express a preference,
which drives her crazy.

	46:20: Schindler says you don't have to lie (and that he's 64.
He was born in 1925.)  A woman is interviewing him.  She asks him
about lying.  He says faithfulness is an illusion.  He claims the
greatest thing is losing all sexual energy.

	49:20: Kornfield tells us that the more attention we pay, the
more we realize our one-ness with nature, that the idea that we are
separate individuals is a delusion.  He says that grasping causes
suffering.  He says that Suzuki roshi
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._T._Suzuki) summed up the teaching of
Zen with 'Not always so'.

	54:10: Schindler tells a story from ancient Greece, 4th-5th
century BCE: you got a 4-week vacation; you wrote an admission
'ticket' on which you listed all your sorrows.  You handed over your
ticket then got to do anything you wanted: sex, orgies, dancing,
music, feasts...  When you leave you get your neighbor's 'ticket'.  (I
don't recognize this story, don't find Milton Schindler a reliable
source.)

http://jfwiki.org/index.php?title=Zen