Well, these guys<\/a>,\u00a0apparently:<\/p>\n

\u201cA college dropout, he traveled to India and returned, according to an article in the Telegraph, \u201cin search of philosophical enlightenment.\u201d His wedding in 1991 was officiated by Zen Buddhist<\/a> monk Kobun Chino Otogawa\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cOf all the different kinds of awareness, awareness of death and impermanence is best,\u201d the Dalai Lama wrote in The Way to Freedom. In his Sanford University address, Jobs spoke of death as being a great motivator. \u201cRemembering that I\u2019ll be dead soon is the most important tool I\u2019ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,\u201d he told the assembled graduates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
His Commencement speech:<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/div>\nDoes this mean I\u2019ll be switching to MAC any time soon? Hmmm\u2026 In truth I\u2019m probably too stubborn and rooted in PC-land to do that any time soon<\/b>. And while I\u2019m more convinced every day that MACs are just better-built and sturdier all around, they do have their problems \u2013 I encountered one <a href=\"http:\/\/americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\/2010\/03\/pc-to-rescue.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">not long ago<\/a>. But even with that and the very low price tag, my PC does crash and do weird things far more than I\u2019d like to admit.<\/p>\nOne of the turn-offs to MACs is reports I\u2019ve\u00a0received\u00a0from fellow scholars of the likes of:<\/p>\n<blockquote>CBETA just released an updated CD-rom with the complete version of the Taish\u014d canon, 17 sections of the Jiaxing canon, the Xuzangjing, and some apocryphal collections all of which are available in searchable, yet still Mac unfriendly format. PC users can request free copies at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbeta.org\/data\/news\/201003\/index.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.cbeta.org\/data\/news\/201003\/index.htm<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nPlenty of P\u0101li-reading software out there is similar: it\u2019s made by enthusiasts who love the language and want to share it with as many people as possible and for whatever reason they can\u2019t figure out how to make it work on MACs. I\u2019m also very much a DON\u2019T go with the flow kind of guy. Any time something becomes a status symbol, I avoid it religiously (I didn\u2019t have a cell phone until 2005 and still make a habit of not allowing it to become a digital leash). I know the \u2018I\u2019 stuff (IPad, IPod, IPhone) can be wonderful for their applications, but I also know they can be time-sinks and toys and diversions from wonderful and very simple thing we call the real world<\/b>. My lower-tech gadgets, an LG not-very-smart phone, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/SanDisk-Sansa-Express-Player-Black\/dp\/B000MD40N8?ie=UTF8&tag=montanafreethink&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">sansa express<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=montanafreethink&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000MD40N8\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important;padding: 0px !important\" width=\"1\"> mp3 player with radio and voice recording (which I love), etc work just fine at what they do \u2013 in fact I can feel a bit snobbish that my $20 mp3 player also has FM radio and recording ability while a $200 IPod can do neither, but I digress. But \u2018what they do\u2019 \u2013 digression aside \u2013 is limited. I can\u2019t download countless apps to do <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bodhipaksa.com\/archives\/theres-an-app-for-that\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">whatever random thing I happen to want do do right now<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe limited, but useful<\/b><\/i> (no random games or ex-girlfriend tracking \u2013 see the link above \u2013 here) nature of technology like the sansa allow for a truer engagement in life. I would hope that one of my favorite philosophers, <a href=\"http:\/\/https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Albert_Borgmann\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Albert Borgmann<\/a>, would appreciate this distinction. It\u2019s like the difference between grandma\u2019s homemade sourdough bread and a supermarket bread section. You can have a different flavor of bread with each meal for a month from the supermarket, but there is a certain shallowness \u2013 a <a href=\"http:\/\/https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commodification\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">commodification<\/a> \u2013 of your experience.<\/p>\nNow that\u2019s not to categorically dismiss either supermarkets or \u2018I\u2019 stuff. <\/b>One can<\/i>\u00a0develop a sophisticated relationship with a certain product, know it\u2019s quality, history, features, maker, etc with either. It\u2019s just that a simple item or simple, home-made food lends itself to such knowledge much more easily. Sure, grandma\u2019s sourdough may not always be what you want<\/i>, but eating it always carries a certain connection with the past, with your <\/i>reality, that brand-x bread will not. And my little sansa won\u2019t do a lot<\/i>\u00a0that an iPod can do, but, often enough, that\u2019s a good thing \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\nIf there are any shifts in my technological world, it\u2019s more likely I\u2019ll follow the advice of Ven. Ashin Sop\u0101ka (<a href=\"http:\/\/dhammabum.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/30\/ethical-computing\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ethical Computing<\/a>) and migrate to an open source operating system and programs. In the end, it\u2019s not about any one being \u2018Ultimately\u2019 better than any other, or passing judgment upon people because of what they do or don\u2019t have, but rather it is about getting down to basics, having technology that serves as a tool more than a toy and functions reliably and without excessive cost. <\/b>As Ven.\u00a0Ashin Sop\u0101ka\u00a0says:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Speaking of relieving the burden, I must say there is definitely a lightness, a freedom and a happiness when using the open source stuff that I didn\u2019t have when using proprietary, commercial software. I know, that sounds kinda odd, but I feel, in a sense, that I am living closer to the spirit of the Vinaya \u2013 and Dhamma! \u2013 in this one small area. Of course, the stability and disease-free status of the computer has allowed me to do what I really became a monk for \u2013 to study, practice and experience the Dhamma.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThanks to Mumon for the mentioning Jobs in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mumonno.blogspot.com\/2010\/05\/is-this-what-buddhism-is-about.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">his recent, highly relevant blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-9140691636461738448?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who knew? Well, these guys,\u00a0apparently: \u201cA college dropout, he traveled to India and returned, according to an article in the Telegraph, \u201cin search of philosophical enlightenment.\u201d His wedding in 1991 was officiated by Zen Buddhist monk Kobun Chino Otogawa\u2026 \u201cOf all the different kinds of awareness, awareness of death and impermanence is best,\u201d the Dalai […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Steve Jobs is a Buddhist!?? And a tangent on Commodification<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who knew?Well, these guys, apparently:"A college dropout, he traveled to India and returned, according to an article in the Telegraph, \u201cin search of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2010\/05\/steve-jobs-is-a-buddhist-and-a-tangent-on-commodification.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steve Jobs is a Buddhist!?? 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I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Steve Jobs is a Buddhist!?? 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