Integrity: A Connection to A Spiritual Foundation
Steve Jobs’s
concern with Eastern spirituality, Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, and his pursuit for
illumination went past the phase of a curious 19-year-old. From the time he journeyed to India, Steve
Jobs was an active and sincere Buddhist—throughout his life, pursuing many of
the teachings of Eastern religions.
These precepts included direct insight into the truth Buddha (prajñā)
taught , wisdom, and rational
understanding, instinctively felt through meditation. Steve Jobs reflected on the lasting influence
of his trip to India.
“Coming back to
America was, for me, much more of a cultural shock than going to India. The
people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use
their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the
rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than
intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.
Western rational
thought is not an innate human characteristic; it is learned and is the great
achievement of Western civilization. In the villages of India, they never
learned it. They learned something else, which is in some ways just as valuable
but in other ways is not. That’s the power of intuition and experiential
wisdom.
Coming back
after seven months in Indian villages, I saw the craziness of the Western world
as well as its capacity for rational thought. If you just sit and observe, you
will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it
worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more
subtle things— that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to
see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down,
and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you
could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.
Zen has been a
deep influence in my life ever since. At one point I was thinking about going
to Japan and trying to get into the Eihei-ji monastery, but my spiritual
advisor urged me to stay here. He said there is nothing over there that isn’t
here, and he was correct. I learned the truth of the Zen saying that if you are
willing to travel around the world to meet a teacher, one will appear next
door.”
Steve Jobs first
joined a small group of Zen Buddhist followers.
Their teacher was Shunryu Suzuki of the San Francisco Zen Center, who
used to come to Los Altos every Wednesday evening to lecture and meditate with
this group. After a while, Steve Jobs asked his
assistant, Kobun Chino Otogawa, to open a full-time center in Los Altos, where he became a faithful
follower.
Steve Jobs also
went to retreats at the Tassajara Zen Center, a monastery near Carmel where
Kobun Chino Otogawa also taught. Steve
Jobs’s devotion became intense, meeting with Kobun almost daily, and going on
retreats with him every few months to medidate.
Steve Jobs discussed with Kobun about devoting himself fully to
spiritual pursuits. Kobun Chino Otogawa counseled
him otherwise, assuring him that he could keep in touch with his spiritual side
while working in business.
After his
ousting from Apple in 1985, Steve Jobs took up intensive study with Kobun Chino
Otogawa. Throughout his life, Steve Jobs
experimented with various modes of self-improvement and actualization. However, Zen Buddhism stayed with Steve Jobs
the longest. Steve Jobs centered his
journey to spiritual realization on Buddhist beliefs and practices, with Kobun
Chino Otogawa as his guide. Steve Jobs’s
beliefs were open and flexible, centering on a few essentials of Buddhist
doctrine—simplicity, oneness, and integration.
Steve Jobs’s and Kobun Chino Otogawa’s time together was integral to the
big leaps that Apple took later on with its product design and business
strategy. Based on Eastern religion, Steve
Jobs first honed his design aesthetic.
Then he chose to identify only what he needed—leaving the rest behind.
Steve Jobs used
Zen precepts of simplicity, oneness, and integration to create the Apple
product line. The early Macintosh
computers were remarkable in their simplicity of design. As Zen is very complex and yet simple, so too
were Apple products. Macintosh
computers, released in 1984, used a complex graphic user interface to make
using a personal computer simple.
(DOS-based personal computers, released in 1984, used blinking green
display screens on which the user had to enter lots of text and remember long
commands to make it work.) The
technology that made the iPod work was incomprehensible. However its design made it simple to
use. The iPod had no on off switch and
allowed its user to teach it. Steve
Jobs’s ability to integrate Zen philosophy into everyday technology contributed
to the success of Apple products.
Steve Jobs’s
Zen-based beliefs remained constant over the years and expressed themselves
also at NeXT and Pixar. During the
mid-1980s, Steve Jobs named Kobun Chino Otogawa, NeXT’s spiritual guru.
At Pixar, Steve
Jobs expressed the Zen Buddhist precept of integration. He sought to have technology and creativity
intersect at Pixar.
The design of
the Pixar campus was a demonstration of the intersection of technology and
creativity. In November 2000, Steve Jobs
bought a deserted Del Monte canning factory on 16 acres in Emeryville, just
north of Oakland, California. Steve Jobs
insisted that there should be one large building around a central atrium to
encourage unsystematic meetings between
computer scientists, animators, and Pixar executives.
Steve Jobs
sought to emphasize the linkage of principles from different cultures, even at
the expense of convenience. Steve Jobs
insisted that the best creations occurred when people from disparate fields connected
so that distinct ways of seeing the world were brought to bear on a single
issue. The Latin crest of Pixar
University embodies the Zen Buddhist teaching of integration: Alienus
Non Diutius. Alone No Longer.
Source Notes
Steve Jobs’s
concern with Eastern spirituality, Hinduism, Zen Buddhism: Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve Jobs. New York, New York:
Simon & Schuster Coming back to America was: Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve
Jobs. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster (pp. 48-49)
Steve Jobs first
joined a small group of Zen Buddhist followers:
Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve Jobs.
New York, New York: Simon & Schuster
After his ousting from Apple in 1985, Steve Jobs took up intensive study with
Kobun Chino Otogawa: Melby, C. (2012). The Zen of Steve Jobs. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons
Steve Jobs used
Zen precepts of simplicity, oneness, and integration to create the Apple Product
line: Bradford, B. (2014). The
Inconsistent Zen Of Steve Jobs [blog]. Retrieved from http://barrybradford.com/steve-jobs-inconsistent-zen/
During the
mid-1980s: Isaacson, W. (2011) Steve
Jobs. New York, New York: Simon
& Schuster The Latin crest of Pixar University: Taylor, B. (2008). Pixar’s Blockbuster
Secrets. Harvard Business Review.
Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2008/07/pixars-blockbuster-secrets
Excerpt from: Universal Characteristics in The Leadership of Steve Jobs
Available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B081J113NT
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