There has been a lot of attention turned to late Steve Jobs due to this month marking the third anniversary of his departure. Apple just came out with iPhone 6 but the man who created Apple itself is … gone…at age 56… too premature for a final exit. Just as premature as his Zen teacher, who died at age 64 while trying to save his 5 year old daughter from drowning. In front of our very own eyes, both demonstrating how fleeting and impermanent our lives can be…Realized lately how many people do not know about this fascinating book. Here’s a description from Amazon:
An illustrated depiction of Steve Jobs’ friendship with Zen Buddhist Kobun Chino Otogawa and the impact it had on Jobs’ career
Apple cofounder Steve Jobs (1955-2011) had such an enormous impact on so many people that his life often took on aspects of myth. But much of his success was due to collaboration with designers, engineers and thinkers. The Zen of Steve Jobs tells the story of Jobs’ relationship with one such person: Kobun Chino Otogawa.
Kobun was a Zen Buddhist priest who emigrated to the U.S. from Japan in the early 1970s. He was an innovator, lacked appreciation for rules and was passionate about art and design. Kobun was to Buddhism as Jobs was to the computer business: a renegade and maverick. It wasn’t long before the two became friends–a relationship that was not built to last.
This graphic book is a reimagining of that friendship. The story moves back and forward in time, from the 1970s to 2011, but centers on the period after Jobs’ exile from Apple in 1985 when he took up intensive study with Kobun. Their time together was integral to the big leaps that Apple took later on with its product design and business strategy.
Told using stripped down dialogue and bold calligraphic panels, The Zen of Steve Jobs explores how Jobs might have honed his design aesthetic via Eastern religion before choosing to identify only what he needs and leave the rest behind.
The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility.
We face such a big task, so naturally we sit down for a while.― Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi
