Glamour magazine showed a plus-size model with a belly! Stop the presses!

Photo!
(Click on the link to see it, because Glamour owns the photo.)

This seems like an incredibly lightweight (ahem) topic for a Buddhist blog post, but returning from almost a solid week on retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center, a good bit of it contemplating mindfulness of body, this news hit like a ton of bricks.

I’d spent a lot of time on that cushion at Shambhala Mountain Center feeling like I sure
didn’t want to be mindful of my body. Because the center is at an
elevation of 8,000 + feet, we attendees were told to drink 4 liters of
water every day, to combat dehydration and altitude sickness. Four liters of water a day!

I felt like a water balloon, sloshing my bloated self to the cushion
and back to my tent, back and forth to the restrooms. My midsection
expanded every time I sat down. I found myself unable to enjoy being
filled with dharma and clear mountain springs. And when they served us beans for two
meals in a row I realized I was more like a blimp than a balloon. The
Hindenberg, to be exact. As in don’t light a match, folks. Ahem again.

Minor discomforts to be sure, but oddly painful to this modern woman,
who’s been surrounded by images and exhortations to be smaller,
thinner, lighter, slimmer, less, and less of a body, since the day
she’s born. Expansion of size was painful not only physically, but
mentally. Mindfulness of that discomfort, examining the layers of
thought and feelings it generated: one day it seemed the clear blue sky
of mind had almost as many metaphorical clouds as the crazy
thunderstorm skies above SMC that week.

This passed; some other thoughts showed up.

Then I got back and read the discussions on the plus-size chick in Glamour, in Newsweek, Huffington Post, and Jezebel.
Is there any shift in societal mindfulness of body? Is this just
circulation-boosting self-congratulation in the media? Is this woman even plus-size? (She looks awfully fit and trim to me.) Maybe this media phenomenon is a little bit of
both. 

The first foundation of mindfulness that the Buddha taught was
mindfulness of body. (For a variety of discussions of the specific
sutra check out Nalandabodhi, Dhagpo Kagyu, and the Insight Meditation Society.)

For a variety of discussions on the plus-size chick in Glamour, I’d recommend the articles in Newsweek, Huffington Post, and Jezebel.

And I’d love to hear from readers on this one!