What would Buddha do? Drinking liquor, eating meat and, in general, spending huge sums on sensual indulgence would seem to conflict with the core Buddhist tenets of simplicity, vegetarianism and moderation. The Buddha wasn’t all that into cruising, either. “Men and women meeting each other without pure intentions violates mindfulness trainings,” says True Virtue, a fully ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Vietnamese Zen tradition, at the Green Mountain Dharma Center in Vermont.
Buddhism as a marketing tool is not new. Images of Buddha plaster items ranging from T shirts to $200 jeans to Victoria’s Secret tankinis (which were protested by a group of Vietnamese-American Buddhists). Stephen Starr, owner of Buddakan, didn’t really think about Buddhism when designing his restaurants. “I was looking for an image that felt good and safe,” he says. Gregory Levine, a University of California, Berkeley, associate professor and Buddhist-art expert, suggests that because Buddhism is seen as exotic, it’s easier to exploit. In other words, Americans who find Buddha-booze sexy might be offended by sipping martyr-tinis under a giant illuminated crucifix. But even some Buddhists have gotten into the act. Lama Surya Das, American Buddhist founder of the Dzogchen Foundation, is developing a flavor with Ben & Jerry’s called Jolly Lama–a gold-and-maroon-swirled sorbet that’s in the early stages of review–and plans to donate his profits to a Tibetan refugee project. “Buddha’s open-minded,” he says. “He taught the middle way, not a way of austerity or grim unworldliness.” And a good meal can be a religious experience, too. Starr says that right after he opened Buddakan, a group of Buddhist monks came in. Starr worried they would be offended. But one monk offered these words of wisdom: “This pad thai is better than my mom’s.”
