Erotic names, robes, insignia of office, titles- the trappings of religion- confuse as much as they help. — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“Every attitude we assume, ever word we utter, and every act we undertake establishes us in relation to others.” — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“The collapsing of an empire. This changing word moves inexorably on. Thoughts bubble and the stiller the mind the more palpable the… — Stephen Batchelor Change Copy Share Image
Our conceptions of the world affect our perceptions of the world which, in turn, condition the way we subsequently conceive the world. — Stephen Batchelor Conceptions Copy Share Image
Without a rigorous, self-critical discourse, one risks lapsing into pious platitudes and unexamined generalizations. — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
It has taken four billion years of evolution to generate this kind of organism with this kind of brain, and yet we… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
The idea that there will be something spiritual or subtle, some sort of consciousness that can escape the collapse of the body… — Stephen Batchelor Body 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
“Life is a groundless ground: no sooner does it appear, than it disappears, only to renew itself, then immediately break up and… — Stephen Batchelor Buddhism Copy Share Image
“Much of what animated me in those days I now recognize as the romantic yearnings of an idealistic, alienated, and aimless young… — Stephen Batchelor Buddhism 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… — Stephen Batchelor Emptiness Copy Share Image
“... We have to constantly confront our deepest anxieties, our emptiness, our despair, our doubts; and there is nowhere for us to… — Stephen Batchelor Anxieties Copy Share Image
A compassionate heart still feels anger, greed, jealousy, and other such emotions. But it accepts them for what they are with equanimity,… — 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… — Stephen Batchelor 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
We took a bus to the nearby monastery of one of the last great Tang dynasty Chan masters, Yun-men. Yun-men was known… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
We could decide simply to remain absorbed in the mysterious, unformed, free-play of reality. This would be the choice of the mystic… — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“The root of all inauthentic manifestations of being-with-others is the attitude of self-concern. It is in this state of mind that, either… — Stephen Batchelor Authenticity 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
So the Buddha is presenting awakening not as a single mystical experience that may come upon us at some meditation, some private… — Stephen Batchelor Awakening Copy Share Image
The Buddha described his teaching as "going against the stream." The unflinching light of mindful awareness reveals the extent to which we… — Stephen Batchelor Awareness 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 Buddhism 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 Buddhism 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
“Life does not mechanically alternate between aloneness and participation, rather it embraces them both in an undivided unity.” — Stephen Batchelor Life 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
While 'Buddhism' suggests another belief system, 'dharma practice' suggests a course of action. The four ennobling truths are not propositions to believe;… — Stephen Batchelor Action 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 Isolation Copy Share Image
The origin of the conflict, frustration, and anxiety we experience does not lie in the nature of the world itself but in… — Stephen Batchelor Anxiety Copy Share Image
In taking the everyday details of life for granted, we fail to appreciate the extraordinary fact that we are conscious at all. — Stephen Batchelor Copy Share Image
“Wisdom that neglects method leads to excessive introversion and an inability to effectively communicate with others. Method without wisdom can produce well-intentioned… — Stephen Batchelor Root cause 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 Approach Copy Share Image
“What lies ahead is revealed to us through our being confronted with possibilities. Our possibilities, however, are not unconditional and infinite but… — Stephen Batchelor Existence 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 Buddhism Copy Share Image
“It is only when the question ceases to be identified with the subject-verb-predicate structure of grammar, and is recognized within its original… — Stephen Batchelor Existence Copy Share Image
“Nowadays, the tendency to be preoccupied with having, at the expense of losing touch with the dimension of being, is becoming ever… — Stephen Batchelor Life 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 Atheism 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… — 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 Aliens 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 Atheism Copy Share Image
![“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/quotes/i/00d/stephen-batchelor-5328_buddhism_the-self-does-not-exist-from-its-own-sid_2408637.png)
![“[Mindfulness] is not concerned with anything transcendent or divine. It serves as an antidote to theism, a cure for sentimental piety, a scalpel for excising the tumor of metaphysical belief. (130)” quote by Stephen Batchelor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/04b/stephen-batchelor-5328_antidote_mindfulness-is-not-concerned-with-anythi_151409.png)
