A Zen Job

Jennifer Egan asked Steve if he was defying Buddhist philosophy "by making computers and other products that people coveted?" (Steve Jobs, 262). He talked of a state of enlightenment, where it is "important to avoid attachment to material objects. Our consumer desires are unhealthy...and to attain enlightenment you need to develop a life of nonattachment and nonmaterialism" (262).

So, how is Jobs mind at peace with Buddhist ideals while simultaneously creating a corporation of consumer goods? I really can't begin to assume answers to this. We haven't read enough about Steve's ideas on enlightenment or study deeply enough into Zen Buddhism. I'm sure he has/had the answers and could have argued well for himself.

To draw some basic parallels, one can see how Jobs at least strived for a disattachment to material goods. He lived in an average (if not slightly above average) home, with no security, no bodyguards. He wore the same thing every day. He had no clutter of furniture or objects in the home. And he could be very unattached to people. Although I doubt that this is what Buddhismn meant by leading a life of nonattachment.
His products exude simplicity but they are still products that make a profit. And Jobs strictly controls the functions of his products. He is very attached to his products and inventions. To anyone, his spiritual choices and career choices seem like a mighty conundrum.

Before I get myself all confused and in a tizzy, I want to focus on part of Suzuki's lecture. Not this Suzuki;

but this Suzuki; . (I couldn't resist, sorry).

Shunryu Suzuki, a teacher of Zen Buddhism who immigrated to San Francisco, talks about noise versus sound, during one of his recorded lessons. I couldn't help but picturing Jobs in the Apple office, listening to various employees and staff members while listening to Suzuki describe 'noise'. "Noise is something more objective, something which will...bother you" and "sound is something real, that comes out of your practice".
Jobs must have thought that most people around him emitted 'noise', annoying, useless babel. He sought out those individuals that could emit 'sound', something more practiced, more worthwhile.


When Shunryu speaks of the bluejay becoming part of you, something that is in your mind, we can think of people with ideas that Jobs likes, that he is seeking, that perhaps are already in his mind. Those people are not disturbing him but are 'reading' to him. You can only be read to if you are receptive the sound that is being emitted, to what people are saying. Those select people are sound amidst noise, in Jobs' world.

This idea of sound vs noise also plays into Jobs' obsession with simplicity and perfection. Why waste time, breath and thought on something that is not very worthwhile? He would say we should strive for something more meaningful, which is seen in Buddhism.
It is difficult to try to understand Steve's ties to Buddhism but I hope that the example I stated (created?) can open up the floor to more discussions about the meaning of Buddhism when translated to a materialistic, capitalistic world.