Should You Push The Zen Button? Mu.

John Biggs

Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... → Learn More

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

When the nun Chiyono studied Zen under Bukko of Engaku she was unable to attain the fruits of meditation for a long time.

At last one moonlit night she put a single blue button into an aluminum case and connected it to a simple USB controller. When she pressed the button Chiyono was set free!

In commemoration, she wrote a poem:

In this way and that I tried to make an accessory
Since it is important to experiment with USB devices
Until at last I pressed the button.
No more finger on the button!
No more keypress registered!

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