“Much of what animated me in those days I now recognize as the romantic yearnings of an idealistic, alienated, and aimless young… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“For me, Buddhism is like a living organism. If it is to flourish outside self-enclosed ghettos of believers, it will have to… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“Life is a groundless ground: no sooner does it appear, than it disappears, only to renew itself, then immediately break up and… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“By emphasizing doubt rather than belief, perplexity rather than certainty, and questions rather than answers, Zen practice granted me the freedom to… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
Buddhism, I think, is probably facing the single most difficult transition from one historical epoch to another, which is really the transition… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“[A] person is formed from a continuum of words and actions over time and cannot be reduced to a fixed “self” that… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
While 'Buddhism' suggests another belief system, 'dharma practice' suggests a course of action. The four ennobling truths are not propositions to believe;… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
Each time the dharma moved into a different civilization or historical period, it faced a twofold challenge: to maintain its integrity as… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“Gotama did for the self what Copernicus did for the earth: he put it in its rightful place, despite its continuing to… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
The individuation of dharma practice occurs whenever priority is given to the resolution of a personal existential dilemma over the need to… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“When my self is no longer the all-consuming preoccupation it once was, when I see it as one narrative thread among myriad… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“Mindful awareness is not presented as a passive concentration on a single, steady object, but as a refined engagement with a shifting,… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“Our religion, with its beliefs, rituals, and dogmas becomes another segment among all the other segments that constitute our linear and fragmented… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“[T]he changing, functional, causal, and conditioned world, present to ordinary sensory and mental experience, was what was ultimately real. To be real… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“One needs to be more vitally conscious of what is happening now. This is not to deny the reality of past and… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
The art of dharma practice requires commitment, technical accomplishment, and imagination. As with all arts, we will fail to realize its full… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“I was perplexed by the failure of teachers at school to address what seemed the most urgent matter of all: the bewildering,… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“Without relying on any deities, mantras, or mandalas, without having to master the intricacies of any doctrine or philosophy, I vividly understood… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“I was encouraged to ask in all seriousness what this life is for, what matters most for myself and others, what non-negotiable… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“What is it that makes a person insist passionately on the existence of metaphysical realities that can be neither demonstrated nor refuted?… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“The self does not exist “from its own side,” [...] as an object that can be isolated and defined. The more you… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“Did I live? The human world is like a vast musical instrument on which we play our individual part while simultaneously listening… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“I was more concerned with refining my sense of the sheer mysteriousness of life so that it infused each moment of my… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
In varying degrees, the authority of the dharma was replaced by the authority of the guru, who came, in some traditions, to… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
To preserve the integrity of the tradition, we have to distinguish between what is central to that integrity and what is peripheral.… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
A secular approach is not a dumbing down, it's not reductively identifying Buddhism with one or two particular techniques of meditation, but… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“We are participatory beings who inhabit a participatory reality, seeking relationships that enhance our sense of what it means to be alive.… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
The Four Noble Truths are pragmatic rather than dogmatic. They suggest a course of action to be followed rather than a set… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“No matter how hard I tried, I was incapable of giving more importance to a hypothetical, post-mortem existence than to this very… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“I am empty only in the sense that there is nothing fixed or intrinsically real at the core of my identity as… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
Expectations of goals and rewards (such as Enlightenment) are recognized for what they are: last-ditch attempts by the ghostly self to subvert… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“Gotama did for the self what Copernicus did for the earth: he put it in its rightful place, despite its continuing to appear just… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
“We perceive the world in a particular way and confidently expect it to conform to its appearance. But we fail to recognize that certain… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
“Anxiety, alienation, loneliness, emptiness, and meaninglessness are the fruits of living as an isolated subject admist a multitude of lifeless objects. Although our scope… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
“... We have to constantly confront our deepest anxieties, our emptiness, our despair, our doubts; and there is nowhere for us to escape and… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
“There is nothing one can have that one cannot fear to lose. Instead of living life in order to have more abundantly, live life… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
Buddhism, I think, is probably facing the single most difficult transition from one historical epoch to another, which is really the transition to modernity. — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
[Mindfulness] is not concerned with anything transcendent or divine. It serves as an antidote to theism, a cure for sentimental piety, a scalpel for… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
The art of dharma practice requires commitment, technical accomplishment, and imagination. As with all arts, we will fail to realize its full potential if… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
The denial of "self" challenges only the notion of a static self independent of body and mind-not the ordinary sense of ourself as a… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
While 'Buddhism' suggests another belief system, 'dharma practice' suggests a course of action. The four ennobling truths are not propositions to believe; they are… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
“The inner aim of thought is never fully realized until it ripens into vocal utterances through which others can have access- albeit indirect- to… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
“Our religion, with its beliefs, rituals, and dogmas becomes another segment among all the other segments that constitute our linear and fragmented existence. It… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
“For others, however, the significance of anxiety in disclosing a fundamental insight into human existence is grasped. At this point their consciences will never… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
“Wisdom that neglects method leads to excessive introversion and an inability to effectively communicate with others. Method without wisdom can produce well-intentioned but naive… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
So the Buddha is presenting awakening not as a single mystical experience that may come upon us at some meditation, some private moment of… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share
![“[A] person is formed from a continuum of words and actions over time and cannot be reduced to a fixed “self” that is either “enlightened” or “unenlightened.” quote by Stephen Batchelor](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/bf3/stephen-batchelor-5328_atheism_a-person-is-formed-from-a-continuum-of-w_1033885.png)
![“[T]he changing, functional, causal, and conditioned world, present to ordinary sensory and mental experience, was what was ultimately real. To be real [...] means to be capable of producing effects in the concrete world. Thus a seed, a jug, wind in the trees, a desire, a thought, the pain in one’s…” quote by Stephen Batchelor](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/6bd/stephen-batchelor-5328_atheism_t-he-changing-functional-causal-and-cond_2931131.jpg)
![“The self does not exist “from its own side,” [...] as an object that can be isolated and defined. The more you search for it, whether through meditation, philosophical inquiry, psychological analysis, or dissection of the brain, you will not, in the end, discover any “thing” that corresponds to…” quote by Stephen Batchelor](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/00d/stephen-batchelor-5328_buddhism_the-self-does-not-exist-from-its-own-sid_2408637.png)
