You wanna be rich?
You know, it’s strange, I’ve been saying this most of my life… and the good thing is, it’s applicable in whatever situation and to whatever background we come from religious or not. But I am so glad Steve Jobs says the same thing… he has wisdom.
In the end, it is what we have done and who we have done it with. Do good works for others and be true to everyone around you. Don’t live your life just to acquire this or that… objects and having more of them never fulfilled anyone… in fact it is a trap… wealth of objects wouldn’t help you when you really need it anyways… not necessary to listen to what the prevailing culture says that you should work and be filthy rich… be rich, but be rich on the inside too. HAVE A BALANCE… then you win both ways. Be a hero, be courageous and love, be honest, and be genuine with everyone around you. Never run or abandon those who trusted you. And from the innermost part of your being, be genuinely kind to everyone and all beings around you even a stray dog.
Life is to live… living is dependent on everyone around you… so live for them, with them and together with them in integrity. Spread the message of true integrity, honesty and kindness… then you will be the richest person, alive and dead. Do work that is beneficial to others no matter what society says. Be special because you are, be different. Think different.
Tsem Rinpoche
Undoubtedly one of the greatest people of our time. Thank you for inspiring so many lives in the world Steve. Thank you for sharing Rinpoche.
Being rich internally and externally is the most important and it makes live worth living. I guess that is happiness. What is living when we continuously search for money and neglect those we love around us? We can’t take our money to the grave with us, so might as well make other people happy and in turn, we will be happy.
I’m totally agree with u Will! Well said well said…..
Steve Jobs’ Mantra Rooted in Buddhism: Focus and Simplicity: http://yhoo.it/oUfISl
Steve Jobs didn’t think twice about making a buck at someone’s expense.
He set up all those near slave labor work shops in China where the employees were being harassed, forced to work long hours and commenting suicide, etc., to make cheap I Phones for the world.
His parts for his computers were over priced, and he hated competition.
Fuck Steve Jobs.
In the end, Jobs is like any other successful entrepreneur whose company outsourced to China manufacturers that offered low prices in the expense of their employees. I don’t think we can put the blame entirely on Jobs and other like-minded people who are price conscious. Consumers demand good yet cheap products. This demand puts pressure on companies to outsource to sweat shops in China that work their employees to death. Like we always say: when the buying stops, the suffering stops.
Pete you made a very good point, as consumers we make demands on our suppliers for constantly cheaper goods, so if people can blame Steve Jobs, all consumers are also part of the guilty bandwagon.
Yes.. I truly agreed with you Wanwaimeng…
No point blaming people and see the negative side of things.. cos we are to be blamed.. we always want the best, the most up-to-date..etc so Steve is only catering to people like Pete.. if only we stop wanting, grasping, desiring… all these will stop.
I always believe that the goodness in you, you will always see positive things and vice-versa…
O M P H
Connie
I really get it now, we live not only for ourself but for others around me too. When doing something good everyday instead for myself I also must think for others. I get it!!!!
We must not always say ME ME ME, is a selfish act too.
I have learn about SELFISHNESS today…
I wish I was special..
We all can be special, especially if we are spiritual its really makes us stand apart from the rest of the world. I suppose whats spiritual is a person like His Holiness the Dalai Lama his presence and charisma draws people to him. A person who thinks and acts on others welfare more than their own can be considered spiritual.
If we start to learn how to live our lives for others and not just thinking and action of ME and MINE, then we do not become selfish and self-centre.
Living for others does not mean giving up everything that we have or posses. We can always share part of our leisure time, part of our effort, an hour a week to help others. That is part of sharing. That is where “volunteering” helps us to find ourselves in the process to discover what life really means.
It is just like discovering back the “basics” of life. All we really need is a roof over our heads with 4 walls, a car to move around in, food to eat and clothes to wear, good body & health, clear mind. Anything more would be “extras” to comfort our desire.
Dear Rinpoche,
What strikes me the most about steve jobs is that he really actualized the death meditation practice successfully and lived his life based on that to be successful. It is really another example of how Dharma is always right.
Joey
We all want to be rich…… We all want to be filthy rich, but most important is we must be spiritually rich also.
My respect to Steve Jobs for being filthy rich materially and spiritually. May he rest in peace.
Thanks to Rinpoche for this inspiring article.
Its easy to forget what life is all about. Steve’s life and death has brought this message to the world. Even in death, Steve shows us how to THINK DIFFERENT.
Probably Jobs wasn’t a practicing Buddhist, but from his successful career, i can see the embedded influences by Buddhism in him. The way he speaks, his very meaningful quotes, and also how he thinks outside the box when it comes to invention of Apple products. He applied simplicity and zen into his design, one of the kind. I would say, all these are the results of what he had learnt from his spiritual journey that influenced and inspired him all the while.
Steve Jobs – whether he was a practising Buddhist or not – did contribute to society. He was a visionary and his eloquence positively influenced many. Of course he was not perfect, he was a human being like all of us and made business and personal decisions which may not have been the best, but overall, he did inspire people to think different and be better.
Thank you for sharing this quote and Rinpoche’s advice for living better, i love it!
Steve Jobs are look upon by many worldwide as a visionary Apple CEO who bring technology to everyone, and help connected the dot of communication in our life, and changes the way we are living our life now, how many of us realize that?? and to think deeply into what he had bring to many around the world through the Apple’s famous product, from Imac, Ipod to Iphone and Ipad which so many people now craving for, he brings Buddhism into a whole new level. he applied Buddhism into the core of the technology, and he apply Buddhism to inspire through his position.
He’s speech is very inspiring and meaningful and full of wisdom, which touches the hearts of many. though many negative feedback about him on the way he do business, i can say, he is still a normal human being, which sometimes things are out of his control. But if not for the creative, genius and wisdom, are we still the same today without the technology that he invented, and will he still be able to inspire many other if without the success of his invention. Steve Jobs is the Einstein and Picasso of our time. Doing something wonderful for others is still his passion. how many of us think and did that?
Thank You Rinpoche for sharing this with us.
Steve Jobs has shown clearly that irrespective of whether you are rich or famous, impermance rules. We all die and the time and way in which we die is beyond our control even though we may have billions. He stayed true to his beliefs, by making a difference to our lives for those who are fortunate enough to have used his inventions.
as a Buddhist it is soooooo easy to forget what we took refuge on: our potential for Buddhahood.
Then it is soooooooooo easy to take refuge in money, in fame, in good reputation, in a relationship, some even take refuge in gambling! One might say: refuge in gambling? How stupid! Not less so than taking refuge in anything else than Buddhahood, that is a simple fact.
Yet, by being CLEAR, VERY CLEAR about what our refuge is, one should not have any issue dealing with money, relationships, fame, or even gambling I dare say. But how CLEAR are we about this?
Now, if that is difficult to do for us buddhists, how much more difficult it must be for those friends who do not have a spiritual practice to rely on?
I say, their attachments win and they become their refuges: my house, my dog, my husband, my TV, my family, my job, my money, my friends, my little dinners, my travels…
Then when this fails, reality strikes: the refuge was not safe (what did we think anyway?)! The ride might have been nice, maybe even a business class ride, but at one point the champagne and hot towels run out and it is time to alight…
there is a reason why buddhists are asked to repeat their refuge 6 times a day: IT IS A REMINDER! It is to safeguard us.
The only way for true happiness for most of us is to live for others. Especially, in our daily activities; at work, at home…everywhere. We rely on others and others rely on us. If we think to escape for ourself only, the path is actually much harder.
For example, in life, we often think of working and acquiring wealth for our family and in doing so we actually sacrifice our time with the family. We are living for them and the paradox is we are not living for them. In earning this wealth we also often sacrifice our friendships. If we do not do this, we may think we are sacrificing the well being of our family. Now, refer to the above paradox! So we are trapped in this acquisition cycle. There is no winner here.
If on the other hand, we do whatever we do for the benefit of others, the cycle/paradox is broken. It doesn’t mean we give everything to our friends and family including all our possessions. It means taking others interest first. If we do this long enough, we will have success like in the case of Mr Steve Jobs or Mother Teresa. Then the money, possessions or fame doesn’t matter to us because we found true happiness. Those are just fringe benefit. Hehe!
Thank you Rinpoche for the post. Such a motivational quote.
Love his quote; being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. How apt.
Steve Jobs lived his life meaningfully, he knew what he wanted, set his priority right and saw to it that whatever he wished to achieved was done.
This was how he changed the telecommunication industry and touched many lives.
In the end, it is not how long we live but what we achieved and how we touched/benefited our fellow sentient beings that counts.
Steve Jobs, he is a Buddhist who practice buddhism putting what he believed in his life by contributing his talent and passion into his work or his world of machine which had inspired to the people who worked with him and the people who had benefited by him. Yes, we are all interdependent, what matter is our motivation of bringing the right attitude and energy towards others because what goes around comes around.
As much as I like what Steve Jobs have done to inspire so many and as much as I admire how he has set a new benchmark with the things he created, and as much as I like his lean towards Buddhism (regardless of whether he was a true Buddhist or not – it is not for anyone to judge)…I wonder where he is now. In what realm? Whether he did enough in his life (not his career) to take good rebirth. As much as I like him, it struck me that he is dead and everything “Apple” and everything he achieved in the corporate world may not be worth one karmic cent to him now. I hope not. I hope that whatever he did in the privacy of his own practice was adequate. I wish him the best karma. That is all I can do because it is too late to change now.
Whenever I am feeling under pressure finacially I make a big effort to practice generosity and make a donation of money or time or both and more. Within a short period of time things have generally worked themselves out.
Right to the letter,sam. At the end of the day, what matters most, is where are we? In what realm? Whether we did enough in this lifetime to accumulate enough KARMA and not money, to take a good rebirth. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me……… says Steve Jobs.” “Wealth of objects wouldn’t help you when you really need it anyways……..be rich, but be rich on the inside too. Have a balance……… Then you win BOTH ways!!….as our Guru, Tsem Rinpoche has taught!”
I would like to think that Steve Jobs lived his life with these two very Buddhist thoughts (re- the 2 quotes from him)consistently in his mind. I sincerely hope that, at point of death, he was ready for death, that he had been doing much reflection on impermanence and life’s fleeting experiences all along.
He gave the world so much. I’d like to think that he had all along sought to benefit others with everything he gave to the world.
R.I.P Steve, we Love you. Blessed Love Rinpoche, keep doing the good works.