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44 EASTERN HORIZON | REFLECTION

Why You’re Addicted to

Your Phone

By Kurt Spellmeyer

Kurt Spellmeyer, Kankan Roshi trained with Takabayashi Genki and Kangan Glenn Webb, founders of
the Seattle Zen Center. In 1985, Kankan completed his training under Webb Roshi and was authorized
to teach. He received the dharma name Kankan (Ch. Guan Han, “Sees the Cold”), at a private ceremony
with Webb in 1991. In March 2010, Webb Roshi gave Inka, his personal seal of final approval to Kankan.
Kankan Roshi has practiced Zen meditation for 35 years. He has directed the Cold Mountain Zen since
1994, and supports himself by working as a professor in the English Department at Rutgers University
in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The Cold Mountain (Kanzan) lineage of Rinzai Zen can be traced back to
the Han Shan Temple in Suzhou, China. After Webb Roshi received dharma transmission from Miyauchi
Kanko Roshi in Japan, he and his teacher made a journey back to the Han Shan Temple on the Chinese
mainland. There Kangan’s transmission was acknowledged by the abbot.

Kurt has written several books. His latest book Buddha at the Apocalypse: Awakening from a Culture

of Destruction takes a critical look at the role western religions have played in shaping the modern
worldview. The book challenges our assumptions about time, about religion, and about the nature of
“progress,” and invites us to explore the vantage point of Buddhism where the complexity and circularity
of life are embraced.

About two years ago, I lost my phone. Waiting at Newark International
Airport, I heard the cancellation of my Chicago flight, closed down by a
blizzard. I took out my phone to call home, but then I learned about another
plane, soon departing from a different terminal. Stampeding down the
concourse with the crowd, I must have dropped my aging Samsung.

In the weeks that followed, I added “Buy a phone” to my list of undone tasks,
but as each list replaced the former one, something held me back. Gradually,
I understood: losing the phone felt liberating.

Living as I do in central New Jersey, I wouldn’t have the same sense
of relief if my Toyota disappeared. And I’d surely miss my Kenmore
washing machine, still running after 20 years. But cell phones differ from
technologies like these—and in ways we might not appreciate.

Pinging, ringing, and vibrating all the time, phones can be annoying, but
that’s not what sets them apart. Lying in my bed at the end of a day, I don’t
feel so overwhelmed by anxiety that I can’t relax unless I run downstairs