Ed Brown at the Apple Store

Ed Espe Brown is an American Zen teacher, the author of The Tassajara Bread Book (see Tassajara Oatmeal Bread), and the subject of the 2007 documentary film How to Cook Your Life by Doris Dörrie. He is a Dharma heir of Sojun Mel Weitsman and was ordained as a Zen priest by Shunryu Suzuki (see Bluejay). He leads the Peaceful Sea Sangha in Marin County, California. 

He had this to say about his first visit to an Apple Store:

I head toward the back of the store.  It’s crowded with people, largely under thirty, and the energy is buzzing.  At the far back I can see the Apple “Genius Bar” which I’ve heard about from my young friend Eli who works as an Apple Genius in the East Bay:  tell the genius your problem.  Have him solve it.  A number of people are at the Bar, drinking in intoxicating computer savoir faire.  On my left is a sales counter.  Everyone seems to know who they are and what they want—purposeful, savvy, competent, hip—and isn’t it exciting?  Perhaps they are as clueless as I am, but I’m starting to feel very small and out of place.  I turn away from the counter toward the middle of the store where there are free-standing product display cases.  I can’t tell what any of the products are, and having long forgotten what I am doing here, I’m feeling bereft and out of place.

A woman with a name badge approaches me.  Casually dressed with an easy reassuring smile, she asks if she can help me.  “I don’t know,” I confess, “I’ve gotten overwhelmed with all the energy in the store, and I’m feeling small and scared.”

Cheerfully she inquires, “Have you tried meditation?”

[NOTE: Excerpted from the May 2011 issue of the Shambhala Sun].