The Buddhist Work Ethic: The Influence and Role of Buddhism in Silicon Valley
Similar to how Catholicism imbued a spiritual quality to capitalism, Buddhism can be seen as a pillar in the ideological foundation of Silicon Valley
The Beginnings: Steve Jobs’ Pilgrimage
Following the psychedelic era of the 1960s, the eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism began to gain popularity for a generation seeking deeper existential meaning. Among this generation was 19 year old college dropout Steve Jobs, who in 1974 traveled to northern India in search of the famous Hindu guru Maharaj-ji.
Unfortunately for Jobs, Maharaj-ji passed away shortly before his arrival — and thus began Jobs’ seven month wandering experimentation of different Eastern practices. Jobs was said to have been attracted to the idea of being a sadhu, a Hindu ascetic monk, but was not sure he wanted to leave his worldly ambitions. This led him to discover Zen Buddhism, a philosophy that suited him to reconcile the spiritual ideals of simplicity and empathy with his drive to innovate in the material world. Jobs embraced Zen Buddhism, practicing mindful meditation for the rest of his life and developing a life-long relationship with Zen Buddhist monk Kobun Chino Otogawa (who was quite an iconoclastic monk in his own right).
Understanding Jobs’ spiritual life reveals to us a novel perspective on how Zen Buddhism influenced his career, from the minimalist design of Apple products to his dharma-like motto for the original Mac team — “The journey is the reward”.
While the influence that Buddhism had on Jobs is alone worth exploring, a more interesting discussion lies in the process by which Steve Jobs is revered as an icon and father of Silicon Valley. The lasting cultural result happens when you fuse the western cult of the individual with said individuals’ interest in Eastern religious traditions. The story of a visionary innovator going to seek spiritual meaning has become part of the Silicon Valley lore, and even a rite of passage — Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page have also since traveled to the very same ashram that Jobs went to. Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey notoriously took a 10-day vipassana meditation retreat in Myanmar (later, tweeting about it). Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff has a spiritual advisory board of Zen monks who live at his house, goes on meditation retreats frequently, and installed meditation rooms throughout Salesforce offices. A couple of the more peculiar articles I came across while researching for this paper was a Business Insider piece titled, “Marc Benioff relies on these monks for guidance — here are their tips for holding better, more mindful meetings”, and a Wall Street Journal opinion piece titled “Can Mark Zuckerberg Find Enlightenment? Facebook shareholders could benefit if the company’s CEO takes up Buddhism”. Perhaps these headlines capture the zeitgeist of Buddhism in Silicon Valley best.
The narrative of Silicon Valley is to use technology to make the world a better place. We can see this in the mission statements of companies: Steve Jobs’ original mission statement for Apple was: “To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind”. Facebook’s is “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” Google’s is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Microsoft’s is “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.“ These mission statements seem to almost take on a spiritual quality, and they reflect the Buddhist ideal of reducing suffering and spreading wisdom and compassion.
The Protestant Work Ethic Turned Buddhist
In 1905, German sociologist Max Weber coined the phrase “the Protestant work ethic” to describe how hard work and frugality gained a spiritual quality under Calvinism, where worldly success was a sign of eternal salvation. Just as Weber told the story of capitalism through the influence of the Protestant faith, I seek to investigate how Buddhism has and will continue to shape the story of Silicon Valley. The Buddhist work ethic is one that holds a spiritual calling to improve the world, using practices like meditation and mindfulness to work more effectively. There are two important caveats to make here: First, while Weber claims the Protestant work ethic to be the origin of capitalism, I do not argue this to be the case with Buddhism and Silicon Valley. Second, one would rightly question whether it is appropriate to call this the “Buddhist work ethic” when many are not traditionally Buddhist. This is correct, and I use “Buddhist” in a similar manner to how one doesn’t have to be Catholic to hold the qualities of the Protestant work ethic.
What Buddhism is this? A Brief Lineal History from India to China to Japan to America
A common critique of Western Buddhist modernism is authenticity — that the emphasis on the practice of individual meditation isolates Buddhism from the greater religious tradition, and thus is inauthentic. Some describe this as reappropriation, as VICE writer Ankita Rao wrote after Jack Dorsey conducted his Vipassana retreat, “Silicon Valley is exploiting age-old spiritual practices for the benefit of tech companies”. This is an important but nuanced critique, and to paint the full picture we need to understand what the greater Buddhist religious tradition is referencing. This is no small task, and for the sake of this paper we will trace Zen Buddhist practice from America, back to Japan, back to China.
We often associate Zen Buddhism with Japanese Buddhism, but its origins lie in Chan Buddhism in 6th century China. The foundational narrative of Chan Buddhism is the Flower Sermon, which tells the story of one of the historical Buddha’s (Shakyamuni) last sermons. As the story goes, Shakyamuni gathered his disciples and silently held up and twirled a rare udumbara lotus flower that blooms once every 3,000 years. Only the disciple Mahakasyapa understood the true meaning of this silent sermon, smiled at Shakyamuni, and walked away. Shakyamuni verbally confirmed Mahakasyapa’s understanding of the sermon.
From the story of the Flower Sermon, we see an emphasis on the direct transmission of wisdom without language or scripture. The lotus flower symbolizes how rare enlightenment is, but that it is also right in front of you and all you have to do is see it. The Chan tradition has a radical break from scholastic, scripture-based practices, and instead bases its foundation in the relationship between Chan masters and disciples. The masters teach disciples wisdom, the disciples non-verbally demonstrate their understanding through action, and the master authenticates the achievement with language. This dynamic created a characteristically Chinese lineage of masters and disciples that we will see as we continue through the Chan lineage. As Zen scholar John McRae notes, “The Chan genealogical model implies that the most important aspect of spiritual cultivation takes place in the encounter between teacher and student” (8). McRae explains that the Chan practice is thus relational in that it is not based on individual effort, generational in how it is organized by Confucian-esque teacher-student relationships, and reiterative in how it is intended to be emulated by future teachers and students. We will keep these qualities in mind when we return to Buddhism in Silicon Valley.
The historical origin of Chan Buddhism is credited to a Indian monk named Bodhidharma, who was a disciple of the patriarch of the 27th generation of Chan monks in India. In the 6th century CE, Bodhidharma left India for southern China to transmit the “true” teaching of Chan Buddhism. Here we get the famous dialogue between Bodhidharma and Emperor Liangwudi of the Liang dynasty, known for his devoted patronage to Buddhism in China. Liangwudi shows Bodhidharma all the temples he built, and asks how much karmic merit he has, to which Bodhidharma responds, “None.” Liangwudi then asks what his teaching is, and Bodhidharma responds, “There is no noble truth, just emptiness.” Liangwudi finally asks who he is, and Bodhidharma responds “I am nobody”. From this exchange, we learn that Chan Buddhism is relentlessly about attaining wisdom in this body and in this lifetime, not gaining karma for future reincarnation. Bodhidharma then went to live in a cave and meditate for nine years, demonstrating the hardcore meditative practice that Chan monks endure. Bodhidharma began to attract disciples, and when it was time to pick his successor to the Chan patriarch in China, he asked his disciples to demonstrate their understanding. Three monks stepped forward and articulated their understanding of Chan, but it was the monk Huike who simply bowed deeply in silence who Bodhidharma deemed suitable to become the 2nd patriarch of Chan Buddhism. Similar to the Flower Sermon, we see a theme of wisdom transmitted through performance rather than language.
While the essence of Chan Buddhism is not based on scripture, there does exist a corpus of new Chan literature that is wholly originated in the Chan tradition (not Mahayana scripture). The most prominent Chan scripture is the Platform Sutra of the Sixth patriarch. The Platform Sutra tells the story of Huineng, an illiterate peasant from Southern China who travels to Northern China to find the monastery of the Fifth Chan patriarch, Hongren. Hongren is selecting his heir, and asks the interested monks to demonstrate their understanding. The top monk in the monastery at the time, Shenxiu, writes a verse on the monastery wall: “The body is the bodhi tree. The mind is like a bright mirror’s stand. At all times we must strive to polish it and must not let dust alight” Hongren reads this and is unimpressed. Huineng hears of the verse, and knows that Shenxiu is still trapped in dualism. So, Huineng gets someone to write his verse on the wall: “Bodhi originally has no tree. The mirror has no stand. The Buddha-nature is always clear and pure. Where could dust alight?”. Huineng showed his fundamental understanding of the buddha-nature and the doctrine of original enlightenment, and would later become the sixth patriarch. The idea of the Buddha-nature for Chan Buddhists is that all sentient beings have the potential for enlightenment. The potentiality is to discover our “True Nature”, where the terminology of trueness emphasizes that everyone’s foundational nature is the Buddha-nature. McRae writes, “the only difference between buddhas and ordinary people is that the latter do not perceive this inner source of strength due to their foolish discrimination and sensory activity” (29). The oneness of the Buddha-nature democratizes the practice to all, which enables it to spread unlike other Buddhist traditions with a more clear religious professional and laymen divide.
There are three main themes from the Chan tradition that hold relevance modern day Silicon Valley. First, the doctrine of original enlightenment collapses the distinction between the provisional truth and absolute truth — all one has to do is let go of all delusions to see nirvana in the everyday. Second, wisdom and knowledge of the Buddha-nature is demonstrated through performance in the material world. Third, anyone can realize the Buddha-nature to achieve enlightenment in this body, in this lifetime. The Chan tradition can somewhat unscientifically be summarized by the fact that Shakyaminu attained enlightenment without reading scripture, but rather through meditation alone. Sola praxi, if you will.
Zen Buddhism in Japan was formed In the 13th century by a Japanese monk named Dogen. Dogen was a monk on Mount Hiei, the center for Tendai Buddhist learning in Japan, but he questioned why one must train so rigorously to realize the Buddha-nature when the sutras say that all human beings are endowed with the Buddha-nature. Believing in the doctrine of original enlightenment, Dogen decided to travel to China to study with Chan Buddhist masters, which he would then bring back to Japan. One story of Dogen’s experiences in China has lived on to explain the essence of Zen. As the story goes, Dogen arrives in China and meets an old Chinese monk on a boat. It turns out that the Chinese monk is the cook at a Chan monastery, so Dogen joins him to go there. When they get to the monastery, the cook begins laying out mushrooms that he just bought to be dried out in the courtyard. Dogen asks why the cook is doing this menial task instead of meditating, when surely the younger monks could help. The cook responds to Dogen, “Who else but me? When else but now?” Dogen realized that he hadn’t understood the essence of Chan Buddhism, which is performed and expressed through all of your day to day actions — including cooking, cleaning, and eating. The cook had taught him that laying out mushrooms to dry was his practice, a way of meditation that lives outside the meditation hall. As Zen Scholar Yuho Yokoi writes, “Zen is a religion that must be expressed in our daily lives” (19). Just as with Chan Buddhism, the essence of Zen is to realize the Buddha-nature of our mind through practice as awakening. Yokoi notes that Zen was originally used to train samurai as it provided them with a standard for their daily actions, but then continued to be a strong influence on other aspects of Japanese culture — architecture, sculpture, gardens, and the tea ceremony. We see Zen in the performative dimension of Japanese craftsmanship, evoked by imagery of Jiro Dreams of Sushi and the like. Lastly, core Zen meditative practice of “zazen” is a sitting meditation that attempts to clear the mind such that one “just sits” with correct posture, and nothing more. This practice may sound familiar to users who have tried popular meditation apps.
Zen Buddhism was introduced to the United States in the early 20th century mostly through the English language essays and books of D.T. Suzuki. Buddhism became popular in the 1950s among the Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. In the 1960s, Soto Zen monks Shunryu Suzuki and Taizan Maezumi were highly influential is spreading Zen across California. Suzuki wrote the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, which was highly influential to Steve Jobs in his discovery of Zen Buddhism. Jobs also was said to have frequented Suzuki’s San Francisco Zen Center and the associated Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in Big Sur.
Reappropriation or Skillful Means?
With this understanding of the origins of Zen, we can return to the Buddhist work ethic of Silicon Valley. I argue that the Zen theme of mindful practice in the material world paves the way for individuals to pursue work with a spiritual calling, while also experiencing its mental benefits. Zen Buddhism as colloquially understood by the West conjures images not of shamanistic chanting of mantras, but rather the peaceful tranquility of Japanese Zen gardens. Both of these are true to different Buddhist traditions, and thus it is a mistake to immediately conclude that the various forms of Buddhism we see in the West are inauthentic. Contemporary literature tends to unfairly slap the word reappropriation onto any idea that is transmitted from one culture to another (remix culture?). Of course, many of these instances are justified to be labeled reappropriation — but I wonder if Chinese or Japanese scholars would call their schools of Buddhism “reappropriations” of the native Indian Buddhism.
Over the past couple decades, we’ve seen tech founders like Steve Jobs, Jack Dorsey, Marc Benioff all espousing the benefits of meditation and spirituality in their work. The trickle down effects are highly visible across Silicon Valley — meditation became the hottest new trend, by way ofmimesis but also efficacy. Early Google employee Chade-Meng Tan’s internal “Search Inside Yourself” program has developed into its own movement. As the website says, the program “teaches practical mindfulness, emotional intelligence and leadership tools to unlock your full potential at work and in life”. Marc Benioff installed meditation rooms in all Salesforce offices, and even had a “Dreamforest Mindfulness Zone” with Plum Village monastics leading spiritual sessions at the annual Dreamforce conference. As a 2018 Boston Consulting Group report titled “Unleashing the Power of Mindfulness in Corporations” captured, companies across the US are increasingly using meditation and mindfulness practices to train their employees in mental awareness. Meditation apps like Headspace and Calm have racked up millions of paid users. The other important ongoing conversation that we must consider is the increasing amount of research on the mental benefits of meditation, which just adds momentum to the meditation train.
The cynical take here is that meditation and mindfulness as practice has been extracted from Eastern religious traditions for the sake of Western rationalism. But let us remember the Buddhists’ goal is to achieve enlightenment, reduce suffering, and spread compassion. A key concept originating from the famous Lotus Sutra is skillful means, which is the idea that there are many different paths to enlightenment, and each individual needs to hear what they can understand. Modern capitalist life is full of distractions, temptations, and materiality. Perhaps all these meditation apps, meditation rooms, and retreats at the Esalen Institute are just a new form of skillful means. For the better, the Buddhist work ethic has given us a refreshingly spiritual spirit of capitalism.
