Page 39 - Applied Buddhism

adopted, this life experiences must have cast a strong impression on
him and influenced his life tremendously. Many people attributed
Jobs was a sincere and
Jobs’ rebellious character, violent emotions, and weird behaviour to
W
serious Buddhist. His
hat marriage ceremony was this early life experience.
From the perspective of Buddha Dharma, that was a kind of
accompanied by chanting
Changed from monks and Buddhist negative condition that eventually pushed him upwards. Being
Steve Jobs? hymns. The banquet rebellious made him creative and innovative, and that became a
primary force in the creation of Apple Computing. This negative
was vegetarian, as both condition also made him wonder about and contemplate issues like:
he and his wife were Who am I, where do I come from? What am I here for? Where do

vegetarian. I go from here? This kind of contemplation eventually led him to
India, where he began to learn Buddhism and practice meditation.
Hence, this negative condition ended up pushing him upwards.

Three apples changed the world. First an apple stolen and Those who can turn their negative conditions to “negative but
eaten by Eve changed the world; then an apple fell on the head of upward” conditions are those who are born with some positive
Newton and it also changed the world. And now Steve Jobs’s Apple qualities. In Buddhism, we say these people are born with good
has changed the world! The interesting question is: what changed roots, or with some good karmic fruits (karma vipaka). Good karmic
Jobs? What were the factors that influenced him? fruits therefore was the second major factor influencing Jobs. He

had vision, intelligence, courage, creativeness, perseverance, and
The first factor must be his early life experience. He was curiosity. These innate qualities, or what Buddhists called good
adopted immediately after birth. Later he met his birth mother, and karmic fruits enabled him to step out of the world of Hippies, into
sister as well, but he consistently refused to recognise his biological a path that would eventually benefit mankind. Many of his Hippy
father. In fact, his attitude to him was rather cold. It seems they had contemporaries, perhaps lacking in good karmic fruits continued
met each other before but did not recognise each other. His father smoking marijuana and leading a decadent lifestyle.
was a restaurant operator then and Jobs came to the restaurant. Jobs
praised the food and shook hands with the operator. Later he came Spurred by his good karmic fruits of curiosity and perseverance,
to know that the operator was his real father. After knowing that, he Jobs was always seeking answers to the truth of life. As a boy he
never went back to see him again. Jobs remarked that his adopted was always curious and wanting to know the exact answer. At 13, he
parents were one thousand percent his parents; his birth parents were went to a church which his adopted parents frequented, and asked
mere sperm and egg donors. As a boy who had been rejected and

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