The Buddha described his teaching as "going against the stream." The unflinching light of mindful awareness reveals the extent to which we are tossed along in the stream of past conditioning and habit. The moment we decide to stop and… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
We can be consicous of how we tend to ignore or escape anguish rather than understand and accept it. We can be aware that even when we gain insight into these things, we rarely behave differently in the future. Despite… — 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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“... 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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
[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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image