"Mommon issai no kyo"...

The fact that Steve Jobs studied Zen Buddhism and, more specifically, the works of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi is not surprising to me at all. From the early pages of Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, there is a clear desire for Jobs to know where he fits within the universe. Jobs has an overwhelming need to know who his birth parents are, even though he was adopted as an infant and never knew them. Just out of the pure fact that he heard his birth parents graduated from college gave him enough line to hold onto - maybe one day, if he was to meet his biological father and mother, he would be able to know and understand his true inner-self.

This "oneness" is what Jobs had been searching for since he began to realize he was smarter than his adoptive parents. He was lost in his own brilliance, and although he only confided in a select few about this lack of connectedness, he needed to express his desires for a place in this world, just as we all do. From Jobs' studies of Zen Buddhism, he was able to gain control over his environment; he learned to have a calmness and quietness, which proved to be a great advantage to Jobs. Jobs gained confidence in who he was through Zen Buddhism. Suzuki teaches of having value: each individual has value - their own value, which is none-other than their own. This value is then a part of the universe. If a lost child, adolescent, or adult in Jobs' case was to hear that no matter who they are or where they come from, they have value, that is sure to give oneself confidence. Jobs studied immensly under Suzuki's apprentice and even though Jobs left this relationship for his career advantages, under the guidance of this teacher, he remained friends with Kobun. Jobs had begun searching for englightenment throughout his life. Even though his found enlightenment may have not manifested itself in the normative values of a monk, Jobs took his newly found self into his life and embraced it fully. Through this strength and confidence in who he now was, Jobs was able to push people in directions they may or may not have gone originally. This made him into the master-mind or arrogant (as some individuals began to know him as) man that ran his ideas into a multi-million dollar company.

Zen Buddhism made Jobs into the man that he we all came to know. His brilliance made his designs, but his understanding of his self-worth and importance allowed his brilliance to come to the forefront.