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Kobun and Steve Jobs and Shunryu Suzuki and Zen
The
Spiritual Vision of Steve Jobs by Les Kaye
9-11-14 -
The Zen of Steve Jobs, Kobun Chino Otogawa and Japan
- thanks
Gregory MacNaughton who sent it as part of a discussion
with Reed Zen alumni.
DC responded: I don't know about Jobs
sitting at the SFZC zendo, rather the Los Altos zendo. All I know about
Jobs and Tassajara is that Kobun brought him there one day to show it to
him. [Later I found out about Jobs and Daniel Kottke going there for
the baths in the late seventies.]
9-12-14 - John
Sheehy (who's researching Reed/Zen/Lloyd Renolds) wrote the following
after reading yesterday's post from Gregory MacNaughton on Kobun Chino
and Steve Jobs and DC's piece on Kobun - some interesting stuff here -
dc
Thanks for the
link [to this page] (and Greg too ). A great write
up. I especially loved the story told by Rick Fields, a dear old friend.
I've
interviewed Daniel Kottke '76 about his adventures with Jobs around
Reed, SFZC, and India (now on file in Reed archives--and we will
eventually provide these interviews to
cuke.com I hope). He denies much of what Isaacson wrote in his bio
of Jobs about his practice of Zen while at Reed. They weren't
meditating, but rather reading numerous spiritual books (most
prominently "Be Here Now," although Steve's favorite was "Zen Mind,
Beginners Mind"). Also he said that their trips together to Tassajara
in the mid-70s were for the baths; and to Green Gulch once only to tour
the gardens. They did not sit at SFZC. Only Los Altos.
I've also read
Caleb Melby's cartoon book, The Zen of Steve Jobs, which goes into great
detail about Steve's relationship to Kobun (especially regarding
calligraphy). I'm trying to get in touch with Melby. It's not clear how
much of his account is fictitious, and how much is based on interviews.
He depicts Steve meeting Suzuki Roshi at the Los Altos zendo while a
high school student in 1970, and rejecting him, responding later more to
Kobun's style.
I would like to
find people who had more knowledge of Steve's relationship with Kobun
Chino, especially around the calligraphy and sumi painting.
From Our Great Friend
and Teacher Kobun Chino
Steve Jobs had been sitting at the Los Altos zendo and had taken on
Kobun as a teacher. He gave Kobun a place to live on his estate. Kobun
brought him to Tassajara one day (I don't think Jobs practiced
there at all as it says in his bio). Kobun performed a
marriage ceremony for Jobs and his fiancé. Bob Watkins said he once called
Steve Jobs asking for some financial help for Kobun and that Jobs had said
he’d only give Kobun money if he came back to live there. Bob asked Kobun
why hadn’t he ever asked Jobs for money and he said it had never occurred
to him.
Kobun Chino cuke page
Kobun Chino talks about Jobs
in this video
at his disciple Vanja Palmers' Austrian retreat, Puregg - but just a
little and it's long.
What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really? (or
read
here on cuke) -
Most interesting from Steve Silberman, but the Tassajara
connection doesn't ring a bell. If you have any memories of this please
write. - posted that a couple of years ago (2-15-12)
2018--09-17 - from
Salesforce CEO Marc
Benioff, who just bought Time Magazine for $190 million, says he
lives with a 'beginner's mind'
In his text conversation with the New York Times, Benioff reportedly
cited wisdom from 20th-century Zen master Shunryu Suzuki: "In the
beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there
are few."
Back in 2016, Benioff described his thought process to The
Wall Street Journal: "I kind of try to let go of all the things that
have ever happened so far in our industry, which is a lot of stuff, and
just go, OK, what's going to happen right now?"
It's a mindset that Benioff — a former Apple intern—
reportedly picked up from Steve Jobs. In an appearance at a 2013
TechCrunch conference, he praised his former boss as a "spiritual
man" who was "mindful and conscious of everything he did."
Jobs himself was a major advocate for cultivating a "beginner's mind,"
according to the Wall
Street Journal.
Jerry Halpern on Steve Jobs at Haiku Zendo
On 10/7/2016 1:15 AM, Jerry Halpern wrote:
Hi
David,
Steve did have a relationship with Kobun at the time of the effort
to acquire the Pentler estate. I believe he first met Kobun in
1974 or 75. However, Apple did not exist until
1976. And it was only in late 1978 or 79 that it had modest success.
The effort to acquire the Pentler estate occurred during 1975-6 to
1978. Steve was barely out of his garage at that time. I do
not remember that anyone regarded him at the time as someone who had
any money or who could possibly have contributed money to the
project.
Three other short comments.
1)My sense is that Steve was bright and had an excellent sense of
the beautiful. He didn’t need any relation with Zen or Kobun
for this. For instance, before he appeared at haiku zendo he
had had a substantial interest in calligraphy. And personally, the
first time I saw a copy of Feynman’s lectures on physics was at his
place well before Apple was founded.
2)I do not know whether or not Steve participated in sesshins at
Tassajara. [With my view, at the time in 1972-3, of Dick, how and
why (in my view) he was(still is?) operating, I kept little or no
contact with SF Zen Center after I left Tassajara at the end of Dec
1972 and then finally left Page street a few months later.]
However, although I do not specifically remember it, it is very
likely that Steve participated in one or more of the sesshins that
Kobun and Haiku_Zendo held in 1973-1978 in the Youth Hostel on Frank
and Josephine Duvanek’s property, “Hidden Villa” in Los Altos Hills.
3)Vanja has a recording/video_tape of a lecture that Kobun gave in
Europe. In it Kobun talks of some of his early meetings with Steve.
(Although interesting and, I’m sure, honest, Kobun has a not so
important error of memory. Kobun speaks of Steve’s Lisa
computer, but the Lisa was not created until several years after the
meetings Kobun describes. In whatever conversation took place Steve
would likely have been speaking of the Apple_1 or Apple_II or their
precursors). I haven’t checked, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this
video tape is available on one of Vanja’s Kobun websites.
Jerry
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