ZEN and Steve Jobs

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(Our time is limited)

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On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs, founder and
CEO of Apple Inc., succumbed to pancreatic cancer.
He was 56. His passing had global impacts. Steve Jobs
was not just an ordinary billionaire businessman;
he was perceived by many as the best CEO of his
century. His name ranks alongside one of the greatest
mass communication innovators of the 19th & 20th
centuries, Thomas Edison. Steve Jobs, creator of the
iconic brand names Macintosh and Mac, and mass
communications gadgetry we all know as iPod, iPad,
iPhone and their like, shaped the world and our way of
life in the 21st century. He heralded and made possible
a paperless age. We must also acknowledge his place
in the world of global visual entertainment, with the
animation movie industry in general and with Pixar
Animation Studios in particular. To do business, to
undertake study and to communicate globally using the
click only one button concept is the legacy that Steve
Jobs left the world in the 21st century.

Steve Jobs enjoyed a prosperous life, but his
passing put an end to that at the tender age of 56. This
caused many people to think about people like Steve
Jobs, those who contract fatal illnesses and have their
lives cut short at the height of their creative powers.

In his first and only autobiography, Steve Jobs
told us stories about his life. He believed that the
onset of his illness might have been linked to the
frenetic activities of running two burgeoning companies
at the same time, and with a lifestyle that meant little
time to eat, sleep or rest. He believed that his body
clock imbalance allowed the cancer to develop.

It has long been recognized that stress and
imbalance lower the bodys immune system and hinder
its ability to heal itself, allowing the onset of severe
illnesses such as cancer. Steve Jobs is an example of
this hypothesis.

In Zen philosophy, which Steve Jobs studied and
applied to his creative processes and inventions, a Zen
master engaged his disciple in the following dialogue:

Do you know the greatest miracle in life?

Yes, his disciple replied, to walk on water or
to disappear.

That is not a miracle, the Zen master retorted.

Then what is the greatest miracle?, responded
his disciple.

The Zen master replied: When you are
hungry, just eat. When you feel sleepy, just sleep.
That is the greatest miracle.

Steve Jobs might have forgotten or ignored this

Zen teaching, and thus his time was curtailed.

Let us try to imagine how our world might have
developed if Steve Jobs had been given more time.

Microsofts Bill Gates, who was born in the
same year as Jobs, stepped back from his company as
its hands on CEO, for he knew that there were some
things more important than his work, identifying his
health and the gift of sharing as just two examples.

If we have everything but we do not have good
health, everything we have amounts to nothing.

In Buddhism, the Lord Buddha said that time
in our existence is limited. It was so then and remains so
now. The human lifespan has developed over millennia
so that living to 90 or 100-years is common. But the
qualitative limitations of time remain unchanged from
the shorter lifespans that the Lord Buddha observed in
his era.

It may be said that someone living without
any understanding of what happens to time when
over-working becomes the daily norm is his own worst
enemy. They may work until they forget that the mind
and the body are not part of a machine. Those who
become addicted to work and become workaholics will
mismanage their time and shorten their lifespans.

Our time is limited.

Steve Jobs realized all this when he was already
ill, and tried belatedly to adjust his time. He left us at
just 56.

Many people who enjoy good health and remain
mentally alert should ask themselves if they are in any
danger of following in the footsteps of Steve Jobs
and his predicament. Should they redesign their lives
and have as their goals great achievements at work and
a pleasurable life, or simply aim to engage in good
work and enjoy a great life?

If we do not want to leave before our time,
and we want to have more time, then we should review
the way we think, the way we work and the way we live.

In Buddhism, we have an important phrase
which Steve Jobs may not have heeded. That phrase
is the middle way or balance. These words are at
the core of the Lord Buddhas teaching, for whoever
understands this phrase will have more time to live and
experience pleasure. For all those who do not understand
this and ignore the words of the Lord Buddha, their
time is limited. And their time will run out soon.