Zen Computer: Mindfulness and the Machine - Hardcover

Sudo, Philip Toshio

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684854090 ISBN 13: 9780684854090

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1999

Synopsis

A philosophical blending of the principles of Zen, with its emphasis on serenity, and modern technological change, with all of its potential frustrations, offers exercises designed to focus the mind.

About this title

Review

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat "Values and Visions" Wonderfully practical and wise.

From the Author

Read Me
(Release Notes for Zen Computer, Version 1.0)

Zen Computer is software for your head, whether you're a computer novice, workaday user, or veteran hacker. Its function: to upgrade your life every time you turn on the machine.

The program works by applying the ancient principles of zen philosophy to the modern science of bits and bytes. One run through the application and you’ll never look at your computer the same way again.

In an age of rapid technological advance, where computers keep changing the way we work and play and even think, Zen Computer offers a way of living calmly amid constant upheaval. The very underpinnings of zen philosophy assume a world of continuous, unbroken change, in the cycles of day to night, season to season, birth to death. "You never step in the same river twice," goes the zen adage, for in zen thinking, everything flows and changes at every moment. How to live with constant change, manage it, and deal with the fear it brings--especially if the change seems overwhelming, as it can today--lies at the heart of zen study, and thus, at the heart of Zen Computer.

Visionaries may paint a fantastical future driven by technology, a wired planet of cyberspace and virtual worlds with unprecedented access to information and knowledge. But cyberspace and virtual reality will offer no escape from the problems of the human heart. Information and knowledge will not supplant the need for wisdom. Rather than create a user-friendly virtual world, Zen Computer seeks to make a real world of friendly users.

Luddites fear that technology will dehumanize us, even enslave us, as we become increasingly dependent on machines for our way of living. That's all the more reason we need Zen Computer. We lose our humanity when we become rigid in our thinking, unfeeling and uncaring, treating others as nameless, faceless numbers. We ignore common sense and begin uttering phrases like, "I can’t deal with you because you’re not in our computer," or, "The machine says the answer has to be this." We stop acting from the heart and start becoming drones. Zen Computer is the antidote for those forces that make us drones.

People may want to turn their backs on technology and return to a simpler life, in truth, we cannot retreat from technology any more than we can unlearn how to split the atom. If we are to live in this brave new world and retain our humanity, our true battle lies not with technology, it lies within.

For as much as technology transforms our lives and society, Zen Computer says true transformation--the kind that’s authentic and profound--will not come through technology alone, but through the transformation of people’s souls, one by one by one. It says salvation arises from self-awareness, not better tools and faster communications; that world peace stems from inner peace; that freedom for all people demands first the self-discipline of each individual.

I hope you'll give Zen Computer a read and drop me a line at psudo@zencomputer.com when you're done.

Thanks for your interest.

May you follow the Way wherever it leads.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684854090
• ISBN 13: 9780684854090
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 216