Zen and the Art of the Gas Station

One day, as I was driving home from a podcast recording, I briefly stopped at a gas station to get some tea. At the store’s entrance, I immediately noticed a surprising item among the typical highway bouquets that people grab along in case they’ve forgotten a present for those they’re visiting. As if they were the most obvious addition to that kind of merchandise, several Buddha heads were on offer.

As you might expect from takeaway ‘art’ in a gas station, those Buddha statues were not exactly examples of refined beauty. Wrapped in plastic and neatly arranged between a few bland green plants and industrially grown roses, they could perhaps be more easily classified as kitsch.

It made me think of a comparison. What if we noticed that young people in Japan, when visiting their mothers for their birthdays, presented them with a head of a Mary statue as a token of good luck? Wouldn’t that strike us as rather odd? Or suppose a Quran was displayed in the toilets of a Korean cafe in an attempt to create an atmosphere of spiritual tranquility. Wouldn’t that feel a bit bizarre? However, in Belgium, where I live, you regularly come across Buddha statues in the restrooms of restaurants, along with a few scented sticks — just like in many other Western countries.

Such phenomena could certainly lead to a vigorous discussion about the problematic appropriation of cultural and religious practices, but that wasn’t what concerned me at the time. The Buddha heads did not stir any moral outrage in me because I consider religious mixing (or what is sometimes called ‘syncretism’) to be an inevitable dynamic. Sure, certain instances of religious mixing may be intertwined with problematic power relations, and those should be scrutinized, but the simple fact is that the phenomenon itself can be witnessed throughout history. Just think of how ancient Celtic customs were incorporated into Christmas rituals or how voodoo mythology transformed African gods into Christian saints. What I saw at the gas station was just a modern example of a similar process.

What intrigued me, however, was how ‘ordinary’ these Buddha heads looked and how generally accepted the symbolism surrounding the Buddha has become. Without much social or theological debate, Buddha has now become widely revered as a symbol of wellness. Many people feel that a Buddha statue in their garden exudes positive vibes and, therefore, reflects a pursuit of bliss.

These kinds of fascinating processes of religious transformation are seldom examined in depth, even though they are very significant for our perception and understanding of the world. If some Belgians thought they still lived in a Christian country, they might want to reconsider, as they will no longer find a statue of the Virgin on the cupboards of countless households. Now, they are far more likely to find a stone Buddha head on the shelves. And if other Western Europeans thought they lived in a secular part of the world, they might also need to rethink, as people seem to integrate mythological figures and spiritual symbols into their lives time and time again. Whether they do so deliberately or because they are influenced by the sales practices of a gas station makes little difference, since it doesn’t make the phenomenon any less real.

Precisely because these dynamics take place beneath the surface, most people often don’t realize how extraordinary all of this is. They don’t give much thought to the sale of Buddha heads in a gas station because such products might seem rather commonplace in today’s globalized consumer society. However, they carry significant meaning and are very telling in many respects. Perhaps this will become clearer when I include two other images, because these kinds of processes in our society ensure that many see the next photo as an example of conservative, problematic religion — and often, they are relieved that we have moved away from it.

Yet, when people travel through Thailand, the following image is often seen as an example of captivating, inspiring spirituality.

This discord is extremely fascinating. In the end, it doesn’t say much about the photographs themselves, but it speaks volumes about our contemporary (and confused) approach to religion and spirituality.