Fashion and the Buddha: What Buddhist Economics and Mindfulness Have to Offer Sustainable Consumption

Abstract

While consumers increasingly expect fashion companies to be bastions of social and environmental causes, they also aspire for fashion in ways known to erode human well-being, evidencing an ethics–behavior gap. The purpose of this conceptual article is to explore how Buddhist economics (BE) and mindfulness could narrow this gap; a spiritual consciousness making consumer ethics more consequential. Classical economic theory is contrasted with BE, a moral framework, including moderation and nonviolence. Mindfulness practice is explored as a practice used to temper consumption. It is concluded that on the topics of human nature, self-identity, and the role of possessions, fashion epitomizes human suffering, from a Buddhist standpoint. This article’s contributions include educational guide points for consumers, a proposed definition of mindful clothing consumption, and identification of theoretical blind spots in fashion consumer behavior research considerably in need of attention to better understand the relationship between clothing and human well-being.

Can a connection with the indigenous cultural values encourage sustainable apparel consumption?

“…This contradicts the extant literature which mentioned that people who perceive nature as self and have high self-transcendence protect the environment to become one with God (Johnson et al, 2017;Perera and Hewege, 2018) or Culture and sustainable apparel consumption attain self-fulfillment (Fraj and Martinez, 2006;Pekkanen et al, 2018). Our findings also contradict with the findings of the recent studies which found that spirituality influences green purchase behavior (Chairy and Syahrivar, 2020) and spiritual consciousness and mindfulness contribute to sustainable apparel consumption (Armstrong, 2021). Religious values are often externalized through rituals and rites whereas spiritual values are internalized as personal realizations.…”

“…the belief system that one's present deeds influence fate in the future) and spirituality influence green purchase behavior where spirituality mediates the relationship between karma and green purchase behavior. Armstrong (2021) suggested that spiritual consciousness and mindfulness could contribute to sustainable apparel consumption. Other studies by Elhoushy and Jang (2021) and Minton et al (2020) indicated that religiosity positively influences food waste reduction.…”

Towards customer-centric sustainability: how mindful advertising influences mindful consumption behaviour

“…The materialistic approach can adversely affect not only the well-being of an individual but also collective well-being. Buddhist Economics and mindfulness can help reduce the gap between intention and behaviour (Armstrong, 2021).…”

“…Thus, MC is a relatively new concept in comparison with mindfulness. Subsequently, many scholars opined that mindfulness had potential to influence MC behaviour (Armstrong, 2021; Bahl et al , 2016; Dhandra, 2019; Ericson et al , 2014; Gupta et al , 2021; Wamsler et al , 2018; Wang et al , 2023). However, the illustration of how mindfulness shapes mindset and translates it into consumption choices seems to be missing in most of these research papers.…”

Corporate Nirvana: The Buddhist way to social sustainability and business innovation

“…Second, further research is called for in the context of Buddhism's impact on individuals' consumption patterns and behaviors (Armstrong, 2020;Gentina et al, 2021;Scherer & Waistell, 2019).…”