Zen and Steve Jobs
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Apple Inc founder Steve Jobs' death from pancreatic cancer at age 56 on October 5, 2011, affected many people around the world. This was not just because he was a very rich businessman, but also widely regarded as "the best CEO of the century".
He was compared to history’s greatest innovators, like Thomas Edison. His inventions – the McIntosh computer and MacBook Air, the iPod and iPad and iPhone – changed the world and our way of life. He helped usher mankind into a paperless age. Business could be conducted with the click of a button.
The sad news of Jobs’ early demise made many people wonder how someone so young and prosperous could succumb to cancer.
Jobs identified a possible cause in a best-selling biography, speculating that his illness might have started while he was managing two companies at once and had no spare time to eat, sleep or rest or even go to the toilet. His body clock was thrown off balance.
It’s widely accepted that stress and imbalance in health can prevent the body from healing itself, thus inviting serious disease.
In Zen philosophy, which Jobs studied and utilised in his inventive creativity, there is the story of a master asking a disciple, “Do you know the greatest miracle in life?”
“To walk on water or disappear,” the disciple answered.
“That is not a miracle,” the master scoffed.
“Then what is the greatest miracle?”
“When you are hungry, just eat. When you feel sleepy, then sleep. This is the greatest miracle.”
Perhaps Steve Jobs forgot this lesson, instead forcing himself to keep working hard in the face of severely limited time. But let’s imagine he had had more time. How different our world would be today.
Bill Gates, born the same year as Jobs, opted to resign from his company 10 years earlier, recognising that there were more important things in life than work, such as his health and “sharing”.
If we have everything except good health, then the “everything” amounts to nothing, doesn’t it? As the Lord Buddha reminded us, our time in each existence is limited. Modern humans can live no more than 120 years, and that’s only in rare cases.
On the other hand, many humans live far shorter lives. Those who work too hard for too long are their own worst enemies. They work, work, work as though their mind and body belong to a robot. It should be no surprise that workaholics’ lives are often short.
“Our time is limited,” Steve Jobs repeated when he fell sick, and he tried to spend less of it working, but, even at age 56, it was already too late.
People who still enjoy good health should ask themselves whether they’ll be the next Steve Jobs, dying inappropriately early, or whether they can design their lives to balance achievement at work and a pleasurable life.
If you don’t want to leave before they’re old, if you want more time, you should review the way you think, the way you work and the way you live.
In Buddhism we have an important term that workaholic “Steve Jobs types” might not be familiar with: “the middle way”. It’s one of the Buddha’s core teachings. Whoever understands the concept will have more time to live in pleasure.
As for those who don’t understand the term or ignore it, their time is limited. And their time will run out shortly.
This column by prominent Buddhist preacher Phramaha Vudhijaya Vajiramedhi, better known under the pen name V Vajiramedhi will run every first Sunday of the month.
