I'm a bit late discussing the passing of Steve Jobs, but I just found an article online that discusses Jobs's relationship with Buddhism, written by someone who actually seems to know something. Steve Silberman, the author, writes with the perspective of someone with intimate acquaintance with Zen.
According to Silberman, in the 1970s Jobs was a "serious, diligent practitioner" who sat sesshin several times at Tassajara, a Soto Zen monastery in California. He was a student of Kobun Chino Otogawa (1938-2002), who also conducted Jobs's wedding in 1991.
Of Walter Isaacson's new biography of Steve Jobs, Silberman says Isaacson does a good job showing that Zen to Jobs "was more than just a lotus-scented footnote to a brilliant Silicon Valley career." However, Isaacson's portrayal of Kobun Roshi is "clownish," Silverman says.
Describing Jobs's wedding ceremony, for example, Isaacson says Kobun Roshi "shook a stick, struck a gong, lit incense, and chanted in a mumbling manner that most guests found incomprehensible." Well, yes, and that would be called "Japanese," Mr. Isaacson. Silberman wonders how Isaacson would feel if someone described Jewish liturgy as "incomprehensible wailing."
I think I'll skip the biography. Good journey, Steve Jobs.
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