Nice App.
But adding a Buddhist monk is very bad. You can't do that. It's shame.
You may not be an Buddhist. But for us this is like jesus as my mascot.
This is shameless marketing you are trying to do with insulting a religion.
I don't like to discuss here something like this. But this is bad.
Yes. I'm a buddhist and yesterday was our Vesak Festival where it is our holy festival. I feel so bad by looking this.
You all might seems this is not a bad thing. Because what I was talking here is not your culture. If the author of this product is a real buddhist he would understand this.
You don't sound like a Buddhist, and you certainly aren't acting like one. You're acting like what a Christian would think a Buddhist would act like. Holy festival... that is not the language of a Buddhist. Nor would a real Buddhist blame someone else for how they feel, nor would they treat Buddha as if he were Jesus; Buddha is not a god to be worshiped.
If this upsets you, and you're really a Buddhist, then go meditate on why you're allowing your mind to make you feel this way and leave this guy alone. Trying acting less like what you think a Buddhist is and more like Buddha would. Buddha would not feel insulted by a cartoon of a Buddha, Buddha would probably laugh.
Forget his language, he may not be a native English speaker and the difference in the way he acts, that based on our perception of how a Buddhist should be.
I may not be a Buddhist but as some one who love Buddhist philosophy, I find no reason to get offended at the picture, Actually I myself love seeing pictures of Buddha at more and more places (as long as its not used in profane ways) It actually cheers me up.
The whole thing here is that profane has many different definitions and someone who is an actual Buddhist has reported that this is profane for him.
As I said above, Buddhism is only a philosophy in the western world.
Buddhists may not see much of a difference between a Buddha (or a monk) and a Jesus.
It's not an issue with Buddhism only, some muslim in France eat pork and drink alcohol and don't see why it should be an issue with their faith. They wouldn't be offended to see a cute pork on a website called resumepork.com still millions other muslims may be offended and would leave the page right away.
Reality check time. In most Therevada Buddhist countries, Buddhism is closer to a religion than it is to a phylosophy.
To go even further, the western world has a very romantic view of Buddhism and strong opinion on what is and what is not Buddhism. In many Buddhist countries, you'll simply be answered "mind your own business and respect my faith."
> Trying acting less like what you think a Buddhist is and more like Buddha would.
How about you do that too?
> Buddha would not feel insulted by a cartoon of a Buddha
You seem to know a lot about Buddha's opinions on things that concern him.
Either way, the point is not Buddha but the fact that the picture is touching a sensible thing for millions of potential customers which, marketing-wise, is not a good idea.
He most certainly should not let the opinion of a single person influence his branding. What's next, the Burning Judas Bar has to change it's name because some Christian is offended?
Not too mention the fact that this potential minority of users is just not interesting if this branding results in a large share of the vastly larger (for at least the next decade) Western market
Yes of course he would laugh.
And now I feel I also need to laugh at you :)
I don't want to talk anyone on this here since, this is a not a place for such.
I felt this is my duty to raise my voice. I did it. Thats enough for me.
But I would like to hear from the guy who build the app for the intention to this?
Are buddhists sensitive about imagery? Somehow I don't think buddha would be upset over images of himself - why should he be? As for other monks, why should they be? Why should an image be considered an insult?
Having a image on Budda on a website does not matter. But this is a mascot of having a image of buddha and the author reproduced the buddha's image as a joke.
We don't like it.
Ask your self? Would you like this product to be named as resumejesus? and a picture of jesus with a girl kissing him?
We don't like that tooo. Because it is insulting a religion.
I know most of here are not aware of Buddhism, So I may get unvoted. But I feel I'm right.
I don't see how taking someone as a mascot is insulting to that person. It's not even a depiction of Siddhartha Gautama, anyway -- it'd be more analogous to a picture of a Dominican monk than of Jesus.
Besides, the Buddha was a very smart guy, and much-admired, but that doesn't mean his image need be jealously guarded. I don't see the harm in a little irreverence -- if anything, light-hearted treatment of idols serves as a helpful reminder that nothing should be taken too seriously... can you explain why, in this case, it provoked the reaction in you that it did?
If he had used the image of a Christian monk, that would have been fine with the vast majority of people. In general, a cartoon impression of a monk is not considered insulting, nor is it considered bad taste[1]. The image is used to associate the service with all that is considered 'good' about monks. As this reminds people that monks are generally seen as 'good' people, this in turn benefits the view people have of the religion in question.
If the net effect of him using this image is that people are favourably reminded of Buddhism, isn't that a good thing?
[1] Consider the number of hotels, restaurants, cafes and bars named after monks (/friars/priests/popes/apostles/...)
I don't like to discuss here something like this. But this is bad.