After Buddhism, Stephen Batchelor
After Buddhism, Stephen Batchelor
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After Buddhism
Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age

Author: Stephen Batchelor

Narrator: Stephen Batchelor

Unabridged: 17 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/27/2015

Synopsis

Some twenty-five centuries after the Buddha started teaching, his message continues to inspire people across the globe, including those living in predominantly secular societies. What does it mean to adapt religious practices to secular contexts?Stephen Batchelor, an internationally known author and teacher, is committed to a secularized version of the Buddha’s teachings. The time has come, he feels, to articulate a coherent, ethical, contemplative, and philosophical vision of Buddhism for our age. After Buddhism, the culmination of four decades of study and practice in the Tibetan, Zen, and Theravāda traditions, is his attempt to set the record straight about who the Buddha was and what he was trying to teach. Combining critical readings of the earliest canonical texts with narrative accounts of five members of the Buddha’s inner circle, Batchelor depicts the Buddha as a pragmatic ethicist rather than a dogmatic metaphysician. He envisions Buddhism as a constantly evolving culture of awakening whose perpetual survival is due to its capacity to reinvent itself and interact creatively with each society it encounters.This original and provocative book presents a new framework for understanding the remarkable spread of Buddhism in today’s globalized world. It also reminds us of what was so startling about the Buddha’s vision of human flourishing.

About Stephen Batchelor

Stephen Batchelor is former Buddhist monk in the Tibetan and Zen traditions. A writer, translator, and artist, his most recent publications are After Buddhism, Secular Buddhism, and The Art of Solitude. He is a contributing editor of Tricycle magazine, and cofounder of Bodhi College, where he teaches Secular Dharma. He lives in southwest France and lectures and conducts meditation retreats worldwide.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Frederik on March 01, 2016

It would be a mistake to cast Stephen Batchelor as Buddhism’s version of Harris, Hitchens, or Dawkins. Unlike the so-called New Atheists, his objective is not to destroy or ridicule but rather to reclaim the Buddha’s teachings from metaphysical distractions grafted on throughout Buddhism’s 2500 year......more

Goodreads review by James on March 12, 2016

There is something strange about a “Secular Buddhism” that is self-consciously modern, non-dogmatic, that purports to be a scientifically and critically informed Buddhism, and which harks back 2,500 years to the “true” words of the Master. Yet this is what Stephen Batchelor seems to do. Seeking to d......more

Goodreads review by James on May 06, 2018

This was for me an exceptionally enlightening (pun intended) and enjoyable read--and listen: for parts of the book, I listened to parts of the iBooks audiobook narrated by the author and found his voice and tone to be suggestive of both care (with proper enunciation, pronunciation, and inflection) a......more

Goodreads review by Jenny on April 18, 2019

Phenomenal (in all senses of the term). I’m on board with Batchelor: Buddhism as a pragmatic ethics rather than metaphysics is the way to go.......more

Goodreads review by Sertaç on April 24, 2023

I was excited to read this book and see what a secular future for Dharma and Buddhism could look like. But it ended up being an eye-opening insight into the ancient events of Buddha's time, with countless accounts recorded in history - not exactly light reading but definitely worth the effort! It go......more

Quotes

“Zen teacher Batchelor argues that both sanitized and orthodox approaches to Buddhism undermine the ethical practices and intellectual rigor of what he considers to be the core of the religion…Those looking for a serious, secular reexamination of Buddhist ethics that acknowledges religiosity will find this book highly intelligent, rigorous, and absorbing.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An audacious disquisition on Buddhism, universal dharma, reality, and suffering for the twenty-first century. Batchelor posits that for the deep wisdom of Buddhism to serve humanity fully in our time, it may have to transcend itself.” Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Full Catastrophe Living

“Brilliant, illuminating, and thought provoking, After Buddhism deserves the ultimate compliment for a work of this kind: it is useful. In probing the ancient scriptures in search of a Buddha we can relate to, Batchelor makes his dharma come thrillingly alive. A masterful achievement.” Mark Epstein, MD, author of Thoughts without a Thinker

“In this remarkable book, Stephen Batchelor transcends Buddhist dogma to surface a vision of the dharma that goes right to the heart of our contemporary global culture. Through diligent scholarship and years of practice, the author sheds new and revelatory light on the dharma. This is a must-read for all students of Buddhism.” Joan Halifax, PhD, Abbot, Upaya Zen Center

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