Eliminating desire
A few years 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 whom 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 cue 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 is 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.” And it is really astonishing how he has been able to use Facebook to change the lives of millions of people around the globe. Through Facebook, Zuckerberg has succeeded in connecting more than half a billion people, he has been able to map social relations among them and also create a new system of exchanging information. He has simply been able to change the way people live their
lives including yours sincerely. As a fan of Facebook, I have been able to connect with friends I had not seen for 10 years or more. It has also been reputed as a quick avenue to get people’s opinion on any issue by journalists from different parts of the world. It is a community which has made it possible for to interact, share photographs and their thoughts instantly. All these are possible due to Zuckerberg’s ability to eliminate desire for things that do no matter. Perhaps if Africans leaders are able to eliminate desire for power things would have been different. A man like Laurent Gbagbo would not still hold on to power when the election results stated that he lost to the opposition party. Zimbabwean president, Mugabe and his Kenyan counterpart, Kibaki would have let go power while the likes Atiku, Babangida and Buhari should not desire to contest again, if only they could all eliminate desire. Perhaps if the Rivers State Assembly and the state governor would eliminate desire, the current battle in Rivers State wouldn’t have been. Just thinking.
FUNKE OSAE-BROWN