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Comment by michaelochurch | Hacker News Reader

I can relate to this "Jobs wasn't a real Buddhist" nonsense because I practice Buddhist meditation and still can have a difficult personality. (I'm extremely intense and opinionated, to the point of being moralistic.) I was a lot worse when I had no spiritual path. The fact that I still have personal difficulties (as nearly everyone does, including most Buddhists) does not mean that my practice has been without value.

Spiritual progress is intensely personal and hard to measure, but the existence of anger in a person doesn't make that person "a bad Buddhist". It's not like Western concepts of religion where you're a bad $RELIGIOUS_DEMONYM or a good one. There are skilled people and unskilled people. Steve Jobs was using Buddhist teachings and practices to develop skills that most people don't have and that he probably lacked, to some degree, even unto death. No shock there. Getting to Enlightenment takes a long time.

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sorry for not being clear in my choice of words (english is not my native language). i didn't mean that jobs wasn't a real buddhist, but on the contrary, that he was a very serious and dedicated practitioner. I would have liked to know a bit more about how he saw his personality and style, as he obviously more than often had to ponder that in his zen retreats. Yet the only thing we get from isaacson is jobs saying "that's the way i am". I think it's a bit of a missed opportunity, and shows that isaacson was in the reality distortion field for pretty much most of the book.

This is a bit off topic, but can you suggest accessible meditation resources for the beginner? Are books sufficient, or is a teacher necessary?

You don't need a 1:1 teacher but I recommend starting with a community of sorts, with classes led by a teacher. Find a Buddhist prayer center. Don't worry if you don't believe in God or religious dogma; none of that's important with the communities you're trying to enter. (Buddhism is theologically agnostic, and although the religious believes in past lives, you won't be rejected by Buddhist communities if you don't believe in past lives or reincarnation.)

Once you've gained a sense of what approaches work for you, it's a good idea to get some books and study them. One great thing about zen/meditation books is that you can read them every year and they're still fresh-- there are things in them that you didn't pick up the last time because you weren't ready for them.

The OP article is as good exposition of Buddhist thought and practice as you will find. Shunryu Suzuki mentioned in it was an exponent of the Soto school of Zen which emphasizes 'just sitting'. Just that, sit with straight back. Look up 'seiza' for more information if you wish, but no need to get too technical. Also, I believe there are online meditation support groups if none are available near you.

You can start practicing meditation using books. But joining a meditation group helps enormously.

While the instructions for meditation are truly simple, taming the mind is not :). There are some pitfalls we all walk into, like attachment to serenity that meditation can bring or getting discouraged by roadblocks. Having a teacher or joining a group helps you not getting stuck.

In cities, there are groups in different traditions (e.g. Vipassana, Zen, Diamond Way). These traditions have similar goals and methods, they can 'feel' very different. So, it's good to sit in with different groups once or twice to see where you feel at home.

With respect to books, I really enjoyed "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", but it can be a bit daunting. Philip Kapleau Roshi's "Three Pillars of Zen" is said to be a good introduction.

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