Bad Karma

This is a repost for a fellow buddhist blogger. I wanted my fellow buddhists to be aware of this trend towards commercialization religion. Of course this has been going on for some time, but we must do our best to steer towards a better and more respectful path. Here is the repost.

Rinchen Gyatso wrote:

I was just perusing Dreaming of Danzan Ravjaa (see link under "Blogger Buddies"at left) and saw a rather odd image: a woman wearing jeans with a Buddha on her backside. There is a jeans company called True Religion that has put these jeans out. Oh, brother.... Here's the short e-mail I sent them just a moment ago:

"I just came across an image of someone wearing your jeans with a Buddha (Vajrasattva with Consort) on the bum. I have to say, as a Buddhist, this really bothers me. Buddhas and bodhisattvas are not fashion statements, and sitting on one is offensive. Victorias secret got into hot water a while ago by putting Buddha images on bras and panties. While these jeans don't go that far, it is still wrong to appropriate a religions' sacred images in such a manner. I think the general rule should be, 'If you can't do it with Jesus Christ, you can't do it with other religious images or personages.' I urge you to discontinue this product immediately and recall those that have been shipped.

Buddhists generally aren't into screaming at people, but if word gets out into the Buddhist community about this, I wouldn't be surprised if some Buddhist government lodged a formal protest."

Now, I'm not the karma police, but sitting on a Buddha's face can't be good karma. I'd love to hear of others sending a note of protest as well.