《心是莲花》缘起
心是莲花是由居士自发组织建立的一个佛学平台。
《莲心论坛》交流
论坛事务区》 《莲心佛音区
莲心研修区》 《莲心红尘区
佛教人物
高僧|法师 大德|居士
信仰
菩萨信仰 诸佛信仰
您所在的当前位置:主页 >> 英语佛教 >> Practice >>

Zen in the art of troubleshooting. (systems library techniqu

分享到:

  
      "Terry, could you come over and look at this?" As university systems
      librarian I hear such requests seven times in an average day. Five
      or six of these can be, handled in seconds because they are common
      mishaps and the solutions are in my bag of tricks. But once or twice
      a day, I face the unknown and must solve a problem with a machine I
      know little about that won't perform a work procedure that I know
      nothing about.
      Although I nod reassuringly as a colleague describes the problem,
      secretly I am terrified. My problem-solving reputation is on the
      line. Clinging to the proper state of mind is crucial. According to
      Zen masters, such things cannot be written. However, Westerners rely
      on words, so here is a list that describes this state of mind:
      1. The problem can be solved;
      2. It is my job to solve it, so the buck stops here.
      3. Once it is solved, that will be one more thing that I know how to
       do.
      The first tier
      Suppose the message on the screen reads "!![at]Memory device hung on
      line 44. Buffer overload exceeds density threshold." No cursor is
      visible and pushing the escape key does not work. The first tier of
      problem solving is simply turning the machine off and then on again
      to let it reboot. The second step is checking all of the cables.
      Anything that connects one part of the computer to another can shut
      down the whole operation if it is just a tiny bit unplugged. The
      final step on the first tier is turning the tables on the person
      reporting the problem--asking a lot of questions that are a
      variation on the theme of "Where does it hurt?" Caution is necessary
      in this questioning because it is easy to be led astray by wrong
      assumptions made by the person describing the problem, and a wrong
      turn may lead light years away from the solution.
      Zen and the limber mind
      That is where Zen comes into the picture. My wife frequently kids me
      about my habit of reading about Eastern religions. "You're not a Zen
      Buddhist. What do you think you're doing?" she'll say. Reading such
      material keeps my mind limber, I reply. Besides, following the Zen
      principle of nonattachment is a reminder to be slightly suspicious
      of all incoming information.
      Those pitfalls are there even when I should know better. Recently, I
      was asked to look at an OPAC terminal that had gone completely
      blank. "This happened right after I swivelled the machine. I think