Few people think of computers as tools for spiritual enlightenment, but Philip Toshio Sudo has discovered that they can indeed open a window on a more mindful approach to life. Like the classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Sudo's own Zen Guitar, Zen Computer offers an eye-opening way of looking at life's contradictions and of dealing with a world that is in a constant state of change. Focusing on the qualities that underlie our interactions with our machines, Sudo reveals the Seven Rules of Zen Computer: -- Expect the unexpected-- It always takes longer than you think-- Do not waste time-- Learn and teach, teach and learn-- Warm heart, cool head-- Do good work-- Know when to turn the machine off From details as small as when to use the delete key to how to cope with such shattering events as system crashes and viruses, Sudo explains how to harness the power of computers to upgrade our spiritual lives.

Philip Toshio Sudois an award-winning journalist and the author of Zen Guitar. His background in Zen comes from the extensive study of Eastern philosophy, twelve years of living in Japan, and the study of the martial arts. He lives with his wife and children in New York City.

Chapter One: Read Me
Release Notes for Zen Computer, Version 1.0

Thank 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 you'll 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 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 an extension of the machine -- 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.

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 we're human and that, as such, we differ from other species in three distinct ways:

• our communication skills
  
• our ability to use tools
  
• our self-awareness
  

Zen Computer seeks to cultivate all three qualities -- improving 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 computer's 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 don't 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 transformation -- the kind that's authentic and profound -- will not come through technology alone, but through people's 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 communications -- this is the hard work Zen Computer seeks to support. Only then can we elevate our humanity.

Toward that end, the software in this package includes the following:

• The Seven Rules of Zen Computer
  
• A mindful way of looking at your machine
  
• Tips on responding calmly to program bugs and system crashes
  
• How to interface with people on the Internet and in the world at large

To install Zen Computer, read on.

Copyright © 1999 by Philip Toshio Sudo