Someone asked: about using a Buddha image as a phone wallpaper — since a phone sometimes needs to be placed on the floor or carried in a trouser pocket, though the screen is always turned off first before pocketing it — is this practice beneficial, or should it be avoided?

Using a Buddha image as a wallpaper for the purpose of recollecting the Buddha (buddhānussati) is correct and worthwhile, because every image we see appears again in the mind. A poor image tainted by lust, aversion, delusion, or greed opens a door for the unwholesome to overlay and induce further trouble. But a wholesome image, once seen and reflected in the mind, opens the door for the wholesome to take hold as master of the house, drawing in merit and refined treasures along with it — benefiting both ourselves and anyone else who happens to see it.

Don't Name Objects After Revered Figures

As for naming things, one should not use names connected to revered figures, since our founder once forbade this — because human behavior can sometimes be possessed by the unwholesome, which can create bias toward that name. If that name becomes tied to the name of a figure of great power, then instead of the wholesome arising when the name is recalled, the unwholesome may arise instead. In the case of a phone wallpaper, though, this is entirely appropriate — seeing the image of someone worthy of reverence repeatedly gives rise to faith, drawing merit in, serving as a reminder to recall a figure of great virtue, much like a sticker placed to remind oneself to be still or mindful of body and mind.

What Matters Is Intention, Not the Object's Height

A follow-up question raised concern about placing the phone in a low position. The answer is that intention is what matters most; whether high or low depends on cultural belief — Westerners, for instance, don't observe taboos about the head, while Thais do. If there's no intention to invite the unwholesome or induce demerit, there is no consequence. The essential question is whether what we're doing tends to favor the unwholesome or the wholesome; without bias, the unwholesome cannot take hold.

Images That Carry the Energy of Faith Are Genuinely Beneficial

Pra Ajarn gave the example of Westerners who use Buddha images purely as decoration for their beauty, without reverence — unlike Buddhists, who use them for worship, evoking faith. Using an image merely as decoration without faith yields no real benefit, and placing it somewhere inappropriate can even cause harm. He recalled seeing a painting of Jesus once — though not a Christian himself, simply seeing the image evoked faith in him, because the artist had channeled good, faithful energy into the work. Images of this kind, capable of evoking faith, are worth having. Even when a non-Buddhist Westerner, seeing a Buddha image and feeling faith arise, chooses to set it up for veneration, that is a good thing. But when it is used only as decoration and placed somewhere unsuitable — such as in an advertisement that Buddhists once protested as inappropriate — that is not fitting, since it opens a door for the unwholesome to seize on as a pretext and induce demerit. The standard for judging appropriateness, then, is whether something opens a door for the unwholesome to use as a pretext to induce demerit.