Nirvana Beer

Reno Buddhist Matthew Fisher takes exception to Nirvana Beer, he feels like it trivializes the spiritual language (New York Post). He connects with a Hindu leader in an interfaith effort to express themselves, which is pretty cool.

I mean yea, but don't I really expect an intoxicant to be accurate with language. I tend to think you can't blaspheme Buddhism. Buddhism is inside me, to the extent that I try and live up to the ideals, and practice the path. What others do isn't irrelevant, because we're all one, interconnected. It's pretty hard to police the non-enlightened chaos inside us and outside us.

Trying to police myself is a full time job, and there's no reason not to bring that fight out into the world, but it feels like over reach to me. Not everyone has the commitments I do, we live in a multicultural society. Not everyone is Buddhist. Most people are secular hedonist conformists.

For a business to casually stroll into my sacred garden of words and exploit that language... I feel just as violated by the low minimum wage and other aspects of capitalist exploitation. I think if Buddhist ideals were really put into a righteous government, there would be a universal income. We need to do more to curb global warming and honor the sacrifice of Bruce Alan Wynn.

Everyone is free to comment on everything. I take more offense to policies that harm people, that lead to death. It was estimated that 40% of the Covid deaths were attributable to Trump's policy. USA loses so many people to lax gun control I honestly try to blot that from my memory because it's so upsetting.

The battle is everywhere and the misuse of language is a huge aspect in the wrongness going on in America right now. That lying is "legitimate political discourse", and not an antisocial fuck you, well, that's just plain wrong to me, and there needs to be more repercussions. There's almost a game of who can be more deceptive and exploitative. And people celebrate that. I find that pretty disgusting and trivializing.

Culture may trivialize spiritual language, a beer wishes it could lead to a transcendent state, inhabits the word is if to take over and absorb the power of that word. If it truly could, then I'd be set. But that's just not how things are.

There used to be a good blog that chronicled "Dharma Burgers" where businesses used the language of Buddhism and images with their products. I find inspiration in seeing Buddhist images, and I'm not really tempted to use a bank if they use a Buddha image. But I do like when a Asian restaurant uses Buddhas in their decor because that sets a kind of tone, and I just take the positive from the world as much as I can.

As someone who has struggled with addiction and is in recovery, I'm going to stay away from beer anyway. Staying away from intoxicants is an essential part of the path where mindfulness is valued.

I was never going to buy that beer, though I used to like that brewery. They had one of my favorite beers, "3 Philosophers". I wasn't offended as a former philosophy major at them using the word philosophers. It's all pretty superficial. I don't look to beer can labels for accurate representations of reality. I almost expect them to lie like intoxication does.

That people trivialize language and throw it around in a retail situation doesn't seem unusual. I don't feel the sacred there, but mindfulness about consumerism and capitalism is a worthy thing. Mindfulness about the dangers of intoxicants is important too. I wouldn't cherry pick the name out of all the offensive things going on, personally, but I wish Fisher well, and think it's cool he got into this right wing newspaper for insisting on accuracy in language.

If Ommegang wants to be fun with language they should call a beer Intoxicant, Loosening Inhibitions, or Don't Drink and Drive. Liquid Courage or A Temporary Solution to Social Anxiety.

For me that path of drinking drains my energy, money and clouds my vision, and it's a poor choice for me. I'm fairly selfish and substance use leads to greater selfishness, that's going in the wrong direction. Generosity, empathy, love and kindness is the direction I want to go in.




“Monks, if anyone should speak in disparagement of me, of the Dhamma or of the Sangha, you should not be angry, resentful or upset on that account. If you were to be angry or displeased at such disparagement, that would only be a hindrance to you. For if others disparage me, the Dhamma or the Sangha, and you are angry or displeased, can you recognise whether what they say is right or not?” -DN1

Last edited 1/21/23