I was on the way home a few nights ago. It was a dark, cloudless night and there were a million stars in the skies above rural Oklahoma. My son and I were coming back from a small town on a near deserted state highway and I was allowing myself to think.
I found myself in Paris again at the Buddha Bar with my wife. We loved that night. The food was awesome, the interior of the restaurant was beautiful and almost holy.
On a dais at the front of the large dining area there sat a giant golden Buddha. Above the Buddha, looking upstairs to his left there was a glowing neon blue bar area where people where having a wonderful time. My wife and I say in a dimly lit alcove to his right, beside us was a reclining Buddha. I really enjoyed the evening.
When we were leaving my wife wanted to buy a shirt to remember the night. We stopped in the gift shop to look around and the noticed the prices. A pretty baby-doll shirt was running around 85 Eruo and a simple halter was around 65 Euro. Not cheap; 85 Euro is like 110 USD. Crazy.
I didn’t really think about it that night, and not really for a long time, but now I wonder: does any of that money go to help anyone? Any chance any of that money we spent that night on sushi, drinks and dinner went to build an orphanage or repair a Tibetan monastery?
That can’t be good karma, profiting off the Buddha while doing nothing of merit with that profit.
I don’t know the answer to that question for this particular restaurant, but it makes me wonder about the rest of the companies that use The Buddha as a selling point. (Yes, I realize that I have Google AdSense on the sidebar…)
Not even for a minute do I think there could be a Jesus themed eatery. The Christian Right would go off. There used to be a Jesus theme park somewhere I think I remember, but not sure any more.
Walking back to the hotel that night brom the Buddha Bar we noticed a Buddha statue in a salon. In a salon! Any way, it makes me sad how commercial The Buddha is now, how commercial the thoughts he shared with the world 2,500 years ago have become. His enlightenment has helped countless sentient beings, of that I am sure. But how many are turned off from learning more about his ideas, ways and compassion by the Buddha statuary at Target and Pier One?
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