Steve Jobs gave a huge influence to people by making what they will want. During Apple’s early days, he meditated an hour every morning before work. After visiting India in 1974 to search for enlightenment, Jobs adopted Buddhism and vegetarianism.
The meditation Jobs did was Zen, a Buddhist practice of mind concentration for enlightenment. Zen insistence to be monk fit his weird lifestyle habits.
When young, Jobs felt lost after learning he was adopted, making him seek more spirituality. As a teenager, he confronted a bishop about God allowing a starving child’s suffering, refusing to worship such a God. Jobs never returned to church, turning instead to Eastern practices like Buddhism, meditation and Zen.
Behind Jobs’ innovations was his spiritual life. He sought liberation from his adoption pains through Enlightenment’s transcendental promises. He spent a year trying to experience Nirvana, desiring to un-desire in an effort to reach that rare, elusive salvation of the soul.
Synthesis of Beliefs
Steve Jobs was religiously complicated. He rejected Christianity outright and has been reported practicing Zen Buddhism. Essentially, though, he was probably an atheist. After taking a break from corporate life in 1974 to backpack across India and search for spiritual enlightenment, Jobs adopted a life-long Buddhist practice. He also experimented with psychedelics, and mentioned that his LSD experiences were “one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life”.
In the quest to be more and more free, he finally had to dip himself to spirituality and its higher consciousness. He went to India during the ‘70s as a teenager before he co-founded Apple. It proved to be a life changing experience. After reading Harvard professor Ram Das’s Be Here Now and Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, Steve Jobs traveled to India in 1974 with a friend, Dan Kottke, who later became Apple’s first employee.
What was Einstein’s religious views?
Albert Einstein stated that he believed in the pantheistic God of Baruch Spinoza. He did not believe in a personal God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naïve.
A letter in which the 19-year-old Steve Jobs shares his thoughts on Zen is to be auctioned at Bonhams, perhaps the first handwritten letter by him auctioned.
Why did Steve Jobs convert to Buddhism?
Steve Jobs was deeply influenced by Zen Buddhism. In 1974, he decided to travel to India to meet Maharaj-ji, a Hindu guru and mystic who was an inspiration to his friends. Though Maharaj-ji died before Steve’s arrival, the trip sparked Jobs’ conversion to Buddhism.
Back in the Bay Area, Jobs continued to cultivate his meditation practice. He met with Kobun Otogawa, a student of Shunryu Suzuki, almost every day. Suzuki was the author of "Zen Mind, Beginners Mind". Zen Buddhism and the practice of meditation it encouraged, were shaping Jobs’ understanding of his own mental processes. "If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is," Jobs told Isaacson.
The next theme is self-reliance, which was also a theme of Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford University. Sometimes Jobs was criticized for being mean or shouting at subordinates. However, Jobs was self-reliant – so much so that he did not even believe in marketing surveys.
But what was the secret behind his extraordinary success? According to a recent book by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, his creativity, drive for innovation, and working process owes a considerable amount to the influence of Zen Buddhism.
Reaching a Zen Buddhist, such as Steve Jobs, with the gospel of Jesus Christ is difficult and problematic. Fundamentally, both the Zen Buddhist and the Christian focus on the metaphor of light as being the path to truth. These suggested bridges can be used by the Holy Spirit to pierce the heart of the Zen Buddhist.