The iPhone makes voice calls, receives email, and accesses the Internet, but your 21st century tech toy can also usher in relaxation and tranquility. Several applications help find your bliss on the same device that plays YouTube.

We've tried six apps for contemplation, meditation, or just for peaceful fun. Some are a Buddhist’s delight, while others need another rotation on the wheel of life.

iZen Garden is a sandbox for your fingers

iZen Garden; $4.99
With iZen Garden, you get a virtual patch of sand to rake and a variety of objects to manipulate in the name of meditation--or as a time-waster. When you’re finished creating your masterpiece, shake the iPhone to clear the screen. Although the raked sand could look a bit more realistic, the objects--stones, shells, and fossils--are eye-catching and fun to play with. Tap on each element to reveal more choices, such as different fossils, in that category. And each time you turn on the app, you receive a quote of Daily Zen. Listen to one of three types of ambient sound while you draw squiggles and contemplate the nature of the iPhone. Overall, iZen Garden doesn’t do much to help you achieve Enlightenment, but it’s a cute little app.

Attaining Zen: like iZen Garden, only less so.

Attaining Zen; $1.99
Attaining Zen is much like iZen Garden, but less polished--and less successful. Double tap on the sand to reveal one of eight stones, and double tap on the stone to move and place it. The Information button in the bottom-right leads to directions, but you’re limited in how large or small you can make your stones. And while you can choose to throw your rock to make it land at random, our finger flicks caused the stone to entertainingly fly right off the screen. It’s hard to meditate when you’re busy puzzling over your app’s physics engine.

Can you achieve Enlightenment with each circle? With Zen Touch, perhaps not.

ZenTouch; $0.99
Trace your finger around the golden ring, and each word of the Heart Sutra, Buddhism’s most popular scripture, appears. With each revolution, your iPhone vibrates. That’s it. If you’re a Buddhist and familiar with the text, this is a handy app to help you attain Perfection of Wisdom. If you’re unfamiliar with the Heart Sutra or can’t understand the Japanese characters as they flash by with each swirl, your oneness with the universe will surely end up a zero.

Five, four, three, two, one. You may now commence meditating with Meditator.

Meditator; $3.99
Meditation can be physically demanding; try sitting cross-legged on a hard floor without moving for half an hour or more. We’ll wait. Many like to break up their routine with walking meditation, then go back to sitting. For them, Meditator is the perfect app. With parameters for three successive alarms, Meditator allows you to set a session’s start time, end time, and interval alert. You have eight alert sounds to choose from. If you like, you can add ambient sound, such as a forest or ocean, which is useful for beginners learning to block out street noise. Meditator is a useful tool for people who want to keep their minds on mindfulness and not on the clock.

With iRelax, time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.

iRelax; $0.99
Meditators select one of eight ambient sounds and set a timer. That’s all there is to iRelax. When your meditation ends, the sound ends abruptly, with no fade out, which can be rather jarring. Also, there’s no way to be alerted to as so how long you’ve been meditating without opening your eyes and checking the timer. As with all attachment, you can let this one pass you by.

Zazen. Because life is suffering.

Zazen; $1.99
What the…? Zazen takes the touch-screen interface a little too seriously; set your timer by moving three stones with your finger instead of typing numbers. At least you can switch to a keyboard interface in the Setting menu, which is good because we’ve always believed that meditation was supposed to clear your mind, not confuse it. Zazen lets you use your own music for meditation, a nice plus, and gives you seven interval gongs to choose from. But the interval gong doesn’t ring when you’re playing your own tunes, the screensaver is a blank screen, and a meditation chart offers more confusion than guidance. This is for people who really believe that life is suffering.