> Isaacson does a fine job of showing how Jobs’ engagement with Buddhism was more than just a lotus-scented footnote to a brilliant Silicon Valley career. As a young seeker in the ’70s, Jobs didn’t just dabble in Zen, appropriating its elliptical aesthetic as a kind of exotic cologne. He turns out to have been a serious, diligent practitioner who undertook lengthy meditation retreats at Tassajara — the first Zen monastery in America, located at the end of a twisting dirt road in the mountains above Carmel — spending weeks on end “facing the wall,” as Zen students say, to observe the activity of his own mind.
You could have also said the same thing about "Buddhist monasteries in China" when they first appeared there 2000+ years ago, or about the "Buddhist monasteries in Tibet" when that happened. Same with Japan and even Sri Lanka.
Buddhism owes its continued existence to the fact that similar opinions were never taken too seriously.
Could you explain why you feel qualified to judge so thoroughly? Living in San Francisco, I know a number of California Buddhists. As with any religion, a wide variety of people are attracted to it. But I know plenty of sincere and thoughtful practitioners, so I think your views are not totally correct.
Do you believe Catholic churches (or monasteries/convents) outside of Italy / Vatican City, mosques outside of Saudi Arabia, and temples outside of Israel are also novelties?
> Isaacson does a fine job of showing how Jobs’ engagement with Buddhism was more than just a lotus-scented footnote to a brilliant Silicon Valley career. As a young seeker in the ’70s, Jobs didn’t just dabble in Zen, appropriating its elliptical aesthetic as a kind of exotic cologne. He turns out to have been a serious, diligent practitioner who undertook lengthy meditation retreats at Tassajara — the first Zen monastery in America, located at the end of a twisting dirt road in the mountains above Carmel — spending weeks on end “facing the wall,” as Zen students say, to observe the activity of his own mind.