In San Francisco, its not uncommon
to see people living with only what they need & nothing more.
Showing the most generosity while leaving the smallest footprint, this is the inspiration for the Buddha Box.
Buddha Box was designed to
encourage mindfulness & moderation.
We based the project off of the Buddha quote, “Walk softly upon this earth -- giving what you can, and taking only what you need”
The rules are simple:
Take what you need.
Leave what you don’t.
Have a good day.
The idea was to leave a “free library” inspired box in a public place that cultivated a “take what you need and leave what you don’t” mentality.
Our ideal scenario would play out something like this: A person finds a poncho, bobby pins, and gum inside the box on an unexpectedly rainy day
In that moment, they need a poncho. However they may not need the mini hand sanitizer in their bag. Realizing what their actual needs are, the person takes the poncho, but leaves the hand sanitizer in the box with the other items.
After the box was set out we begin to curate an
Instagram account to help gain awareness of the project.
Shortly after
the Buddha Box went public we had a set back...
While checking up on the site the box was no where to be found. As this was tragic to us, we decided that our faith in what the project stands for was too strong to give up on.
Buddha Bags
were introduced
Rather than leaving items in a box, we decided put smaller items in little bags and place them around the city.
Where Buddha Box relied on reciprocation, Buddha Bags simply lead by example.
The results of the Buddha Bag we're very positive, as we we're gaining ample traction on Instagram.
That's when something unexpected happened
After weeks of wondering what happened to our beloved Buddha box. We received a comment that the box had been recovered, and was waiting for us at the maintenance yard at a near by park. The Buddha project is an on going experiment we hope will inspire us and those around us to live mindfully.
If you would like to see current updates on the project you can follow us on Instagram @BuddhaBag.SF or use the hashtags #buddhaboxsf #buddhabagsf.
