“Wat Phra Dhammakaya in Pathum Thani province on Monday stirred an internet controversy when it released an article on its website referring to the afterlife of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, claiming the American legend has been reincarnated as a mid-level angel dwelling not far from his Apple office in a parallel world,” The Bankok Post reports. “According to the temple’s website (www.dmc.tv), the article named ‘Where is Steve Jobs?’ was in answer to questions about Jobs’s afterlife that had been asked by a man identified as Tony Tseung, a senior engineer at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. It claimed Mr Tseung sent a letter asking Phrathepyanmahamuni (Luang Por Dhammachayo), the abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, whether he knew where Jobs went after his death and how he was faring.”
The Bankok Post reports, “The website said the answers to Mr Tseung’s questions resulted in knowledge gained from Phrathepyanmahamuni’s long-time practice of meditation. The abbot claimed Jobs is now “a half Witthayathorn, half Yak (Thai word for ‘giant’), which is a mid-level angel. Witthayathorn is the term representing one of the angel types who love to seek knowledge in various sciences. Another trait of his angelic character was a hot temper, he said.”
“Before Jobs died, he was worried about many things such as his family and work projects, and his life after death,” The Bankok Post reports. “Jobs is living in a big heavenly palace, the height of a six-storey building, made of white, silver metal and crystal glass, located not far from where he worked when he was alive. He has 20 servants as a result of his worldly virtue, the abbot said.”
The Bankok Post reports, “The content in the article was from a Phrathepyanmahamuni sermon that had been aired on the temple’s cable television channel Dhamma Media Channel (DMC) last week. It was intended to teach the law of karma to Dhammakaya followers, not meant to defame or insult any parties, the website explained.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Attribution: New York Daily News. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Ahem…
Sounds like he’s living in a huge Apple Store.
10
For narration and pictures please see the links below:
Steve Jobs Part 1 : Where is he now?
http://www.dmc.tv/pages/en/Where-is-Steve-Jobs/20120822-The-Hereafter-News:Steve-Jobs-where-is-he-now-Part-1.html
Steve Jobs Part 2 : What made him so innovative ?
http://www.dmc.tv/pages/en/Where-is-Steve-Jobs/20120823-Steve-Jobs-Part-2-what-made-him-so-innovative.html
Steve Jobs Part 3 What caused Steve Jobs to be a successful businessman?
http://www.dmc.tv/pages/en/Where-is-Steve-Jobs/20120822-The-Hereafter-News-Steve-Jobs-Part-3.html
Pathetically unimginative and unfulfilling as an eternal resting place.
I’ll have what Wat’s smokin’……
That’s awesome! RIP, Steve.
I did a research project on reincarnation for a Death & Dying class in college. I didn’t know much about it ahead of time but a lot of it seemed to make sense. The professor was a minister and gave me an A on the paper so at least he had an open mind, too.
“a lot of it seemed to make sense”
Really. Easy to make an unqualified statement like that without any backup.
@Angelus.. and the “he had an open mind”
Don’t open yours too wide, or your brain will fall out!
I hope they aren’t too upset about all the dents he made in the universe…
“Jobs is living in a big heavenly palace, the height of a six-storey building, made of white, silver metal and crystal glass, located not far from where he worked when he was alive. He has 20 servants as a result of his worldly virtue, the abbot said.”
Nice to hear he’s faring so well, but a mega-mansion with myriad servants doesn’t sound like our Steve.
AS a mid-level angel you can only obtain what you need from the Company Store and you are limited to roaming inside the walled garden. Still, Steve loved that sort of iLife.
Heaven is the ultimate walled Garden of Eden.
Nice to know he’s doing well.
You can bet he’s already brainstorming how to improve that parallel world. No way he’s gonna sit on his ass and take it easy.
Dent that shit Steve.
People will believe any old crap won’t they?
I agree, I’ve been to a Southern Baptist church so I KNOW that’s true
To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny. – Joseph Addison, The Spectator, March 8, 1711
…if you are fvcking idiot, maybe.
Experience speaks.
It never ceases to amaze me how those of faith try so hard to encapsulate atheism in their own belief systems, constantly proving that their belief systems are baseless in the process.
There is no faith in atheism. There is only cold, rational reason. Atheism is not a “belief” system or a system of beliefs. The funny thing is, it isn’t an “ism” at all. In fact there should be no word for atheism were we living in a rational world.
Religions require faith in the utterly ridiculous, no matter how unsupportable, unbelievable, and inane the faith may be. That is what faith is. It is by definition irrational, and completely antithetical to atheism.
Make no mistake about it, faith is a powerful motivator. It assumes control of the rational portion of people’s minds. It can motivate otherwise sane individuals to forgo life saving medical treatment for children. It can motivate seemingly rational individuals to forgo the use of machines and electricity on one day of the week. It can convince otherwise good people to go on slaughtering sprees killing incomprehensible numbers of other people because of their equally irrational but different “faith.”
Someday we will be free of it. Unfortunately not in my lifetime.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/08/atheism
Well said.
I bow to your word use. Very well put.
Logic is making inroads, but irrationality does seem to be t center stage in most places.
The oddest argument I can imagine is two people screaming that thier imaginary deity is better than the others. Both are based on love and both will kill to prove they are right.
Yup. Describing atheism as a belief system is like calling bald a hair colour. Steve isn’t experiencing “life after death” … he is not “experiencing” anything, anymore. Just like everything that lives will. Before you were conceived you didn’t exist or experience anything because, uh, you didn’t exist? It’s like that. Sad, but inevitable. Open to evidence to persuade me otherwise, but no one seems to really have any. And the best reason to live life richly and to treasure every moment.
Pffft…it IS a belief system the way you are couching things above. It is NOT a belief system if you don’t believe in something.
I have Atheists friends who simply say, “I don’t know. I don’t ascribe to any faith.” Those folks would say Steve “might be experiencing something…might not…I don’t know.”
You stated, unequically, “Steve isn’t experiencing ‘life after death’ … he is not ‘experiencing’ anything, anymore”
How do you know? What proof do you have? You don’t and you have none. Thus, for you to make the statment you did, you must believe it dispite the lack of any empirical evidence. That certainly sounds like a belief system to me.
But here’s the thing… being an atheist is a piece of cake! See, it doesn’t require a person to adhere to a set of beliefs, to a certain dogma. As an atheist a person doesn’t feel the need to actively “practice his faith” in any manner whatsoever. It’s a state of mind that is just there, certainly based on a set of premises (which may actually vary among individuals), but that’s all there is to it. Once you’ve adopted the notion that there is no higher being or entity, it’s the easiest thing in the world. I suspect that personally, my atheism stems from not only some form of what is commonly regarded as rational thinking but also the fact that I don’t view the act of dying as a particular sad or tragic event. It’s part of a natural cycle and hence I just accept it without trying to clinch to a hope of there being something else beyond death, be it good or bad. In fact, I find it rather comforting NOT having to ponder about an existence in some kind of after-life… And of course, ultimately, isn’t a non-existence precisely what buddhism at its most authentic also strives for? As an atheist I just happen to think that it’s the default state waiting for us all at some point, heh, no need to strive for it per se.
Okay, carry on, never mind me, lol. English is not my native language and thus it’s a bit hard to make my point as well as I’d like to…
I was an atheist… Now I’m more agnostic. Atheism seems like a huge cop out.
There IS a place for spirituality, or Gaia, or whatever. Formalized, organized, strict religion IS bullshit, but it’s stupid to suppose there is no higher power.
Can a fish conceive of a man?
“Can a fish conceive of a man?”
What the hell does that even mean?
That fish statement is amazing. It’s on the scale of, F*cking magnets, how do they work?
In wondering how it is possible for fish to never conceive men, he’s expressing a sense of awe and wonder for the natural world. A particular sense of wonder which is only a possible through ignorance of very basic well known biology that explains why reproduction is species specific. Why don’t dogs conceive birds? Why don’t spiders conceive jaguars? It’s so incredible!
“… I have Atheists friends who simply say, “I don’t know. I don’t ascribe to any faith.” Those folks would say Steve “might be experiencing something…might not…I don’t know.”
Those are not atheists.
What you have described in your “atheist” friends, is not atheism at all, but agnosticism.
Agnostics are open to the possibility of a god, but are not sold on it.
This is what I am.
I haven’t seen proof for or against the existence of God, and unlike others, I will never state implicitly that one or the other is the truth, because I do not know.
If proof did exist, there would be no need for faith.
I am happy for those who have faith, but I do not share it.
“Describing atheism as a belief system is like calling bald a hair colour. ”
Most excellent.
Thelonious Mac wrote:
>There is no faith in atheism. There is only cold, rational reason.
>Atheism is not a “belief” system or a system of beliefs. The
>funny thing is, it isn’t an “ism” at all. In fact there should be no
>word for atheism were we living in a rational world
In point of fact, atheism is in fact a religion. Like other religions, it makes faith-based statements about a deity (in this case, “There is no god”), and requires belief in this statement of faith in order to continue as a member of the religion.
(The statement is a proposition of faith, rather than a proposition of reason, because the existence of a deity can neither be proven nor disproven by reason; therefore, the proposition falls into the domain of faith rather than the domain of reason, no matter who is advancing the proposition and no matter which side of the proposition the proponent takes.)
In fact, atheism could even be considered the most “blind faith” of religions, because while there exist inductive (i.e., non-conclusive) proofs of the existence of a deity, it is a logical impossibility to prove a negative. A belief in a negative, while claiming that it stands on reason, is possibly the most logically fallacious system that one could imagine.
As with religion, that “To be an atheist…” quote makes no sense. Otherwise it would also apply to you too if you deny the existence of Santa Claus, Leprechauns, Unicorns, Genies, and Gnomes. Or apply to everyone who has faith that bananas don’t taste like oranges. They’re just denying themselves the delicious prospect of an orange flavored banana.
In other words, It’s not my fault that I don’t believe in the ridiculous concept of a God, and it’s not up to me to prove that something DOESN’T exist. If you believe that something exists and want me to believe that that something exists, then the burden is on you to prove it exists. Solid proof, not some metaphysical bullshit like, “Look all around you, how do you explain all THIS if there isn’t a God?!”.
I know this little slap in the face won’t bring any of the believers back down to reality, and if the cuddly blanket of having a magical man in the sky grant wishes to you when you pray to him works for you, then go for it. Just don’t get bent out of shape when someone rolls their eyes at you when you spout your religious nonsense. Oh, and please keep it out of politics. Policy based on religion is a downward spiral. Just take a look at the middle east. “She blasphemed and must be executed!” All religion does is cloud judgment with dogma.
For those that question the existence of God, welcome back to reality. The REAL truth is, that love, goodwill, and honesty are all inside you and with the family and friends around you, not out there with some magical man in the sky, or in some ancient book that people insist is “The Truth!.
Oh! and I shouldn’t say that God doesn’t exist. God does exist, in the fact that he’s humanity’s greatest delusion.
Sounds like he has in much in common with the teachings of the Buddha as a typical televangelists states does with Jesus.
By the way, there’s no record of the Buddha ever talking about a literal reincarnation after death, or anything supernatural for that matter. Literal reincarnation actually contradicts some of the Buddha’s teachings, such as the idea that the self doesn’t really exist (except as an illusion created by the mind), and everything in universe is constantly changing, becoming something new every moment.
You guys must know that Thai Buddhist operate on a different theology compared to normal Buddhist .
For them they believe that their Kings is a reincarnation of Vishnu who is Buddha …
20 servants?
I have to wonder what they did in a previous life to be reincarnated to wait hand and foot for Steve Jobs?
Is that the fate that awaits Michael Dell and Steve Ballmer?
Karma’s a bitch.
Michael Dell will be reincarnated as a mole (squinty eyes).
Steve Ballmer will be reincarnated as a cockroach.
Bill Gates will be reincarnated as garden slug.
Making sh!t up is fun…
Watching the mooks eat it up is even more fun.
Christians put RIP on their tomb stones. Buddhists must put BRB.
heh.
Best post!
On a side note.. I’d take a religious person over a condescending atheist any time. We’re emotional beings, we put faith in things, it’s more of an impulse than an actual thought. Whether its god, or something else. Most of the atheists I’ve come across like to put their faith in government, and they’ll go through any measure of intellectualization or rationalization to back up that emotional need. No matter how corrupt, wasteful, or innefectual, many people continually vote to increase the power of this entity. This not only makes them atheists, but hypocrites as well. And if you really think about it, agnosticism is the only true rational religious philosophy.
Agnosticism (another stupid word) simply says I haven’t bothered to put any thought into it. I haven’t put any reason into it. So I dunno. Ask someone else.
Agnosticism is more rational than faith for sure, but less rational than pure atheism.
People of faith see proof of god everywhere, and answer any question with about the nature of the universe with “god’s will.”
Agnostics are just afraid they might miss out on some afterlife.
Atheists just use reason. I see no proof of god, not one iota, hence there is no god.
Wrong. You can’t disprove the existence of god. Our minds can’t fathom certain concepts, such as infinity. Agnosticism is the only logical religious philosophy. Anybody that says differently is trying to prove something.
Not necessarily so.
Atheism is a definitive statement that there is no god or other named divine creator being. Agnostics only say there is no proof. Why beat a dead horse?
You’re coming in a little late in the conversation to be making statements about beating a dead horse haha.
Doesn’t matter if it’s a “definitive” statement or not, it’s still not proveable, thus not fully logical. I would suggest reviewing my statement above, that everyone is geared to have faith in something, and how *intellectualization* is one of the several psychological defenses to back up this faith, whether it be faith in a god, or a belief (e.g. atheism), or an entity (e.g. government.
I prefer to think of Steve as one of the great Mimbari souls from Babylon 5: reborn as an human to save us from the peril of user antagonistic technology, to show us the enlightened way forward, and to help our civilization ascend to greater heights. His work here is done and he has now travelled to another world in even more urgent need of his help.
Heh. That at least has the quality of being somewhat rational. Pretending everyone becomes an angel king in the afterlife…
You’re right. He’s dead. Move on.
I figured he would at least come back as a 35th-level magic user with a 20 Charisma.
Or perhaps he would come back as Steve Jobs the White.
heheh
Im Thai and I call this BS. This temple is one of the misleading and marketing-oriented temples in Thailand. They promote a lot through various means which is actually against the Buddha’s teachings.
does iCloud work better in that universe? Are 20 servants the equivalent of 40 virgins in another universe?
Just 20 Servants!! Steve Jobs had 20,000 Apple servants when he has alive in this world.
To me all that makes a LOT more sense than 99% of the apple stuff from:
Enderle, Henry Blodget and the dozens of financial analysts that cover apple stock…
And he knows this, how?!?
Religion for Dummies.
Jobs is living in a big heavenly palace, the height of a six-storey building, made of white, silver metal and crystal glass, located not far from where he worked when he was alive. He has 20 servants as a result of his worldly virtue
This is the plot for another South Park baloney ‘religion’ exposé, right? ‘The Book of Jobs’?
I have a lot of respect for Buddhism. But I think this guy has had a bit too much grain ergot with his Absinth. 😯
parallel world? Hmmmm, this is something for Apple’s Fringe Division!
So THAT”S what the space ship in Cupertino is for!