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A Twist on the Wrist
This
month, Jesus won't be alone anymore on the wrists of millions of spiritually
minded Americans.
Ten years have passed
since a Holland church began distributing wristbands labeled "WWJD" for "What
Would Jesus Do?" The simple idea swept across the nation just as Americans were
starting to feel more comfortable about publicly expressing their religious
preferences.
It's a sign of the
county's growing religious diversity that members of another faith are now thinking
about wearing their spirituality on their sleeves.
This month, California-based
Ulysses Press will start selling books and wristbands labeled "WWBD" - for "What
Would Buddha Do?"
"I think it's a good
idea," says the Rev. Sukha Haju Sunim, resident priest at the Ann Arbor Zen
Buddhist Temple. "In Buddhism there's a real emphasis on being mindful about
what we're doing in each moment of our lives."
Such simple reminders
of a person's faith can become lifelines in overwhelming situations, says the
Rev. Geri Larkin, another Ann Arbor Buddhist priest who has written two books
on Buddhism.
Last year, Larkin also
came up with the "WWBD" idea, independently of Ulysses. She didn't write a book
about it or make wristbands. Instead, she embroidered the four letters on cotton
handkerchiefs as year-end gifts for friends.
Recently, she carried
a "WWBD" handkerchief on a grueling pilgrimage with her friend Haju to remote
monasteries in the mountains of South Korea. "It was an incredibly difficult
trip and I pulled out that handkerchief all the time as a wonderful reminder
not to worry about what was ahead of me, " Larkin says.
Bryce Willett, marketing
manager for Ulysses in Berkeley, Calif., says he hopes that his firm's $15 book
and wristband will appeal to people from many religions backgrounds. Each book
has a coupon to mail to Ulysses to receive the band.
"Does someone need
to be Buddhist to read the book or wear the band? No, " says Willett. "That's
the key to religious diversity today. Americans feel free to look for spiritual
wisdom in many different traditions. They use different spiritual practices
that they find meaningful. And the Buddhist tradition has a lot of good advice
for people's daily lives."
The book, which will
be featured in bookstores and in several national book clubs this month, offers
105 answers to common "WWBD" questions.
For instance, first
thing in the morning, what would Buddha do about a coffee addiction? He'd switch
to tea. It's more soothing.
When driving to work,
what would he do about road rage? He'd "steer away from anger" and make sure
he did not contribute to the problem by driving too aggressively.
However, it's debatable
whether some of this advice will actually work on a nonspiritual plane. What
would Buddha do if his boss complains that he's late? Well, he might say, "Time
is now; now is both what and when. In this sense, we are always on time."
Franz Metcalf, the
Los Angeles-based Buddhist scholar who wrote the book, chuckles over that line,
too. "There is a certain grain of humor in that, it's true."
But he defends that
basic principle. Buddhist employees do have responsibility to provide their
employers with a good day's work - but, in the ultimate scheme of things, should
our lives be ruled by the precise tracking of a clock?
"In our lives, there's
both this ultimate level of absolute truth and this practical level on which
we live. I think it's lovely if people can balance these two different views,"
He says.
However, achieving
that balance is very difficult, says Larkin, especially when a person feels
overwhelmed by life.
In late August, Larkin
set off from Ann Arbor with Haju to spend a month touring 30 isolated Buddhist
monasteries in South Korea along with two male Buddhist priests.
"It was so tough," says
Larkin. "Here we were, these two middle-aged American women who didn't have
a clue about the protocol in many of the monasteries. We were the first Westerners
some of the monks had ever met - and we were the first women ever to go inside
some of these monasteries. That meant we got many things about the protocol
all wrong."
The idea was to deepen
their understanding of Buddhism, but Larkin says she often found herself more
concerned with simply staying alive.
"We were climbing mountains
like the Alps in our Keds and Buddhist robes. Our backpacks would get caught
in the trees. And we had to watch every step we took, because there were places
we could easily slip off the path and fall to our death," she says.
Then it rained - and
not just a shower, but a typhoon that lasted for days. "It was very hot already.
These pouring rains and high winds came on top of that. It was really easy to
get lost in worrying about how hot and wet and exhausted I was - and to wonder
what I was missing back home on 'Ally Mcbeal' that week."
To calm herself, Larkin
often pulled out her "WWBD" handkerchief.
Concentrating all of
her senses on each step she was taking along the narrow paths helped calm her.
Soon, she was climbing more easily and confidently.
"When people are stuck
in tough situations," she says, "it's really important for them to find something
that will help them stop the way they're thinking about their problems - and
to start thinking about their situation in a whole new way."
A similar idea, from
a Christian perspective, was in the mind of Janie Tinklenberg in 1989. At the
time, she was a youth minister at the Calvary Reformed Church in Holland and
was looking for a way to remind teenage Christians of their faith on a daily
basis.
"I wanted to give the
kids in my church something that would remind them that they were living their
lives with a commitment to something special," says Tinklenberg, who now works
for a church near Columbus, Ohio. In 1989, an advertising executive in the Holland
congregation put her in touch with a wristband manufacturer. Kids loved the
idea and soon the bands were flying out the doors of the church.
Tinklenberg did not
expect her simple idea to explode into a nationwide Christian craze and now
almost regrets that the "WWJD" bands became a fad.
"I think it diluted
the message, " she says. "People were wearing these bracelets who didn't even
understand what it meant."
She has no objection
to Buddhists developing their own version. At this point, the Christian craze
is winding down, she says.
It's fine that the
Christian fad is fading, she says. "I want this to fade, so it will end up where
it belongs - back with people wearing them who know what these little nylon
bracelets really mean."
  Viet
Economic Daily News, U.S.A.
Detroit
Free Press, U.S.A. |