“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
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
Yet Gotama's Dhamma is more than just a series of axioms. It is to be lived rather than simply adopted and believed… — 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
So the Buddha is presenting awakening not as a single mystical experience that may come upon us at some meditation, some private… — 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
I reject karma and rebirth not only because I find them unintelligible, but because I believe they obscure and distort what the… — 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
Awakening is not a state but a process: an ethical way of life and commitment that enables human flourishing. As such, it… — 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
