Eliminating desire

Some days ago, I was going through my blackberry when I came across an article on Time Magazine website. In the last few years, I have taken interest in who Time would name its person of the year.

And there he was, Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook. His unassuming face sits well on the cover page of Time Magazine with Person of the Year boldly printed on it. There were no facial cues on what was going on his mind as at the time his portrait was taken. It was just as expressionless face.

At 26, Zuckerberg is the Time Magazine youngest Person of the Year since the first one chosen, Charles Lindbergh. He was 25 when he was so named in 1927. Zuckerberg also beats Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II by just two weeks. She was 26 when she was named Time Person of the Year in 1952. It’s amazing that a young man ranked among the world billionaire could live such a humble life with a life principle anchored on the famous Buddhist phrase: “Eliminating desire for all that doesn’t matter.”

And so, one of the interests he lists on his Facebook page is eliminating desire. “I just want to focus on what we are doing,” he told Time Magazine. “When I put it in my profile, that’s what I was focused on. I think it’s probably Buddhist. To me, it’s just — I don’t know, I think it would be very easy to get distracted and get caught up in short-term things or material things that don’t matter.”

It’s rather shocking to discover that someone of his age with that kind of stature will adhere strictly to this philosophy in a society like America where most top musicians live in luxury apartments, own estates and drive posh cars. He’s just a different being who doesn’t want to get caught up with material things. This is a virtue that is not very common among men of his age group. This quote from the report sums up his lifestyle:

“As for money, his indifference to it is almost pathological. His lifestyle is modest by most standards but monastic for someone whose personal fortune was estimated by Forbes at $6.9billion, a number that puts him ahead of his Palo Alto neighbour, Steve Jobs. Zuckerberg lives near his office in a house that he rents…. He drives a black Acura TSX, which for a billionaire is the automotive equivalent of a hair shirt.”

For him, Facebook is the realisation of a dream. “He didn’t build Facebook so that he could have a social life. He built it because he wanted the rest of us to have his.”

 By: FUNKE OSAE-BROWN