Our conceptions of the world affect our perceptions of the world which, in turn, condition the way we subsequently conceive the world. — Stephen Batchelor Perception 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? (176) — Stephen Batchelor Atheism Copy Share Image
“When there is great doubt,” says a Zen aphorism that Kusan Sunim kept repeating, “then there is great awakening.” This is the… — Stephen Batchelor Doubt Copy Share Image
Living from our deepest understanding requires an enormous effort, especially when it goes against the stream of our instinctually programmed perceptions of… — Stephen Batchelor Effort Copy Share Image
“To pose a question entails that you do not know something. To ask “Who is the abbot?” means that you do not… — Stephen Batchelor Birth and death Copy Share Image
Failure to summon forth the courage to risk a nondogmatic and nonevasive stance on such crucial existential matters can also blur our… — Stephen Batchelor Action Copy Share Image
Erotic names, robes, insignia of office, titles- the trappings of religion- confuse as much as they help. — Stephen Batchelor Erotic Copy Share Image
“Such altruism, generated in the seclusion of one's own thoughts, becomes a subtle means of evading concrete inter-personal responsibility and of justifying… — Stephen Batchelor Compassion 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 Assuming 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 Atheism 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 Atheism Copy Share Image
...inner spiritual transformation is just as dependent upon the effect of our economic life upon the world as transformations in the world… — Stephen Batchelor Change Copy Share Image
“In pride we consciously elevate our own standing and concerns and look down upon others as essentially inferior.” — Stephen Batchelor Pride 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… — Stephen Batchelor Accepting 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 Buddhism Copy Share Image
“Loneliness is not only positively characterized by a certain degree of isolation, but is negatively characterized by a deficiency of participation.” — Stephen Batchelor Loneliness Copy Share Image
“Not only are we inescapably alone in the realms of our private thoughts, perceptions and feelings, but we are also, paradoxically, inescapably… — Stephen Batchelor Philosophy of Mind Copy Share Image
The problem with certainty is that it is static; it can do little but endlessly reassert itself. Uncertainty, by contrast, is full… — Stephen Batchelor Certainty Copy Share Image
The greatest threat to compassion is the temptation to succumb to fantasies of moral superiority. — Stephen Batchelor Compassion Copy Share Image
“The astronaut in his technical and complex machine, effortlessly orbiting the earth, alone and weightless in the emptiness of space, is the… — Stephen Batchelor Computers 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 Atheism Copy Share Image
Without a rigorous, self-critical discourse, one risks lapsing into pious platitudes and unexamined generalizations. — Stephen Batchelor Critical Copy Share Image
“Habitually, as we anxiously flee from the responsibility of our existence as a whole, we place our hope in the particular objects… — Stephen Batchelor Fear Copy Share Image
To embrace suffering culminates in greater empathy, the capacity to feel what it is like for the other to suffer, which is… — Stephen Batchelor And love Copy Share Image
How extraordinary it is to be here at all. Awareness of death can jolt us awake to the sensuality of existence. Breath… — Stephen Batchelor Air Copy Share Image
