If “Dharma-Burgers” are incidents of Buddhism and/or Buddhist ideas colliding with mass culture, then certainly “Buddhify,” featured on the great Lifehacker site today, qualifies:

There’s not anything so new, in and of itself, about there being a meditation app. So why might Buddhify be notable? (more…)

Last night, Chef Jose Andres joined Coco to talk rum and other concoctions. While we’re told by the Conan’s Facebook page that “Buddha” appears in the segment, that’s not quite right. It’d be more accurate to say that it’s Hotei, aka, the “fat Buddha,” or the “happy Buddha” who makes the cameo here, at around the 5:20 mark. Also appearing are lots of disembodied replicas of his body parts — all made of Jell-O.

This is not the first time Hotei and rum have made a pop-culture appearance together; see the entry for Pyrat rum on this page of the Dharma-Burger archives. But it’s almost certainly the oddest.

Here on the Horse we often discuss Dharma-Burgers, or manifestations of the ongoing collision of Buddhist imagery and ideas with pop-culture. Such occurrences can run the gamut: sometimes they can be subtle, fleeting nods, and sometimes they can wallop you over the head. Sometimes they’re funny, and sometimes they’re not. Blogger Scott Mitchell (The Buddha is My DJ) sends on a remarkable new example. See what you think of it.

Thanks, Scott! And thank you, Mr. Pizza!

Thanks to reader/friend Blake Wilson for pointing his finger to the new Asus “Zenbook.” That’s right, the Zen laptop has arrived. Asus  — an unfortunate name, isn’t it? It reminds one of “Anusol“ — has even built a special web page that will tell you “All About Zen.”

Though it should be said that that’s a bit of a misnomer, because, well, the page won’t tell you ANYTHING about Zen.

I know. You’re totally shocked, right?

(Or Kanzeon, or Kannon, or Chenrezig, or Kuan Yin…)

Thanks to James Morgan for this one.

See also: Separated at Re-birth: Historic, Halloween Edition

This is a production still from the forthcoming remake of Total Recall featuring Colin Farrell.

Via IMBD; with thanks to Danny Fisher and others who have sent this on.

Thanks to John A. Graves for sharing this photo of a billboard for the new “sleep formula” product, Zazen:

“Calm your mind,” reads the copy. They even dared to put the little “TM” next to the product name. Sorry, Zazen Sleep Formula, I think you’re the ones infringing here.

Another day, another lazy co-optation of Buddhism. I’m going to pass out from boredom just thinking about it.

Hey, that stuff really works!

In addition to an extensive (and really good) interview with the Dalai Lama, the new (July 21, 2011) issue of Rolling Stone features Larry David on the cover. So what’s the “Buddhist connection” there? It’s slight, but check the headline:

“The Neurotic Zen of Larry David.” (Preview the article here.)

…Zen, Zen, Zen, Zen, Zen! Like it or not, it’s a “sell” word. (Though, as someone who works as a professional copywriter, you’ll never see me pulling one of these.)

Zen debuts on PBS tonight. The question is — as usual — what does this TV mystery called Zen, based on a mystery book character named Zen, actually have to do with Zen? And the answer is — as usual — pretty much nothing. But this isn’t a case of co-optation. “Zen” here is actually the character’s (Italian name.) The AV Club has the story.

But goodness knows, in many other cases shown here on the Horse, “Zen” sells! Just look at all the “Zen” you can buy!

Following the smashing success of the Wu-Tang Name generator, here comes “My Buddhist Name,” which seeks to, well, generate a Buddhist name for you.

Obviously, this is for silly/parody/entertainment purposes only. As for me? I got “The Monk Great Name.” That is not nearly as cool as “Tha Eurythmic King of Nowhere” (my Wu name) but if you want to try it yourself, click here. (And let us know what you got in the comments here.)

Hat-tip to my main man Barry Boyce.