Phil Toshio Sudo - Zen Computer

Atheneum Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

FIRESIDE
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Copyright 1999 by Philip Toshio Sudo

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

First Fireside Edition 2001

FIRESIDE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Designed by P.T.S.

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Simon & Schuster edition as follows: Sudo, Philip Toshio.

Zen computer / Philip Toshio Sudo.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. ComputersPsychological aspects. 2. ComputersReligious aspectsZen Buddhism. I. Title.

QA76.9.P75S83 1999

004dc21 99-10493

CIP

ISBN 0-684-85409-0

0-684-85410-4 (Pbk)

ISBN -13:978-0-6848-5410-6

eISBN -13:978-0-7432-1893-1

For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or business@simonandschuster.com

1 READ ME
RELEASE NOTES FOR ZEN COMPUTER, VERSION 1.0

2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
PREREQUISITES FOR ZEN COMPUTER

3 FAQ SHEET
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT ZEN COMPUTER

4 BOOT
PREPARING TO USE ZEN COMPUTER

5 INSTALL
THE SEVEN RULES OF ZEN COMPUTER

6 USERS GUIDE, PART I
WORKING WITH ZEN COMPUTER

7 USERS GUIDE, PART II
WORKING WITH ZEN COMPUTER

8 MAINTENANCE
UPKEEP FOR ZEN COMPUTER

9 TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE
FIXING ZEN COMPUTER

10 SHUT DOWN
BEYOND ZEN COMPUTER

Read Me
Release Notes for Zen Computer. Version 1.0

HANK YOU for choosing Zen Computer. May it give you a lifetime of good use.

This application marries the ancient principles of zen philosophy to the modern science of bits and bytes. Anyone who uses a personal computer can benefit, regardless of technical know-how. One run through the application and youll never look at your computer in the same way again.

IN AN AGE of rapid technological advances, in which 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 bringsespecially if the change seems overwhelming, as it can todaylies 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. Thats all the more reason we need Zen Computer.

We lose our humanity when we become an extension of the machinerigid in our thinking, unfeeling and uncaring, treating others as nameless, faceless numbers. We ignore common sense and begin uttering phrases like, I cant deal with you because youre 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.

Much as people may long to turn their backs on technology and return to a simpler life, in truth, we cannot retreat from technology anymore 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. There is where Zen Computer does its work.

We must accentuate the fact that were human and that, as such, we differ from other species in three distinct ways:

Zen Computer seeks to cultivate all three qualitiesimproving our communications to promote better understanding, turning our use of tools into an art, raising our self-awareness. In short, Zen Computer views the computer as a means of elevating our humanity, not squashing it.

The computer is perhaps the most powerful tool ever put in the hands of the individual. Only the gun may rival it. But if the pen is mightier than the sword, then PCs should outperform the Uzi. Think of the personal computers ability to amass and analyze information; present ideas in word, image, and sound; store, replicate, receive, and globally transmit those ideas instantly. These capabilities put enormous power in the hands of people. A lone voice can now communicate a message to thousands, even millions, with a few simple keystrokes, connecting with other computers in every corner of the globe.

Such power demands responsible use. Just as a gun can be put to ill purposes, so can a computer. There are people who would invade our privacy, spread untruths, embezzle money, even spread chaos by hacking into air-traffic control and other safety systems. Giving individuals more power does no good if they dont know the proper way to use it. Here is where Zen Computer offers a framework for living with such power.

For as much as technology transforms our lives and society, Zen Computer says true transformationthe kind thats authentic and profoundwill not come through technology alone, but through peoples souls. 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 first demands the self-discipline of each individual. To cultivate self-awareness through the use of tools and communicationsthis is the hard work Zen Computer seeks to support. Only then can we elevate our humanity.