In this guided meditation, Stephen Batchelor invites you to unconditionally embrace your experience of the moment, to simply watch all thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and notice the ground of nonreactive awareness. This guides you toward a path rooted in freedom, openness, and love.
About Stephen Batchelor:
Stephen Batchelor, a British former Buddhist monk and a central figure in secular Buddhism, has significantly shaped contemporary understandings of Buddhist philosophy by questioning traditional Buddhist doctrines and reinterpreting ancient teachings for the modern world. Batchelor, who received his ordination in India under Tibetan Buddhist masters like Geshe Rabten in Dharamsala and later studied Zen and Zen traditions in South Korea, has delved deeply into the Pali Canon and Mahayana texts. He lived in Switzerland for five years where he learned to read and speak the language of Tibet, studied Buddhist logic, epistemology, philosophy, and psychology, and ultimately translated Shantideva’s "Bodhisattva’s Way of Life" into English.
His works, including "Buddhism Without Beliefs," "The Faith to Doubt: Glimpses of Buddhist Uncertainty," "The Art of Solitude," and "Confession of a Buddhist Atheist," challenge the need for supernatural beliefs in Buddhism, offering a vision of the dharma grounded in human experience and science rather than metaphysics. Batchelor’s approach reflects his journey from the privacy of meditation retreats to public dialogues on the relevance of Buddhism in the West, integrating elements of skepticism and agnosticism in his teaching.
Through his writings and teachings, Batchelor has positioned himself as a critic of traditional Buddhist practices, advocating for a secular approach that strips away the ritualistic and metaphysical layers often found in Asian traditions. His concept of "Buddhism without beliefs" underscores his commitment to a pragmatic, non-dogmatic interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings and Buddhist doctrines, aligning them more closely with the realities of the human condition in the West.
In collaboration with his wife, Martine Batchelor, and through institutions like Bodhi College (of which he is a co-founder), Batchelor continues to explore how ancient Buddhist insights can be relevant to contemporary issues such as mental health, ethics, and the search for meaning. His nuanced understanding of Buddhist traditions, such as vipassana, are evident in his work and the way he guides those seeking enlightenment through a reflective lens. Batchelor’s unique Western perspective as a former Tibetan Buddhist monk turned secular skeptic challenges us to reconsider the very nature of belief, enlightenment, and the way we navigate our inner lives. Today, Stephen Batchelor lives in France and continues his work in helping human beings seeking to adopt Buddhism into a non-religious form.
Episode 158: https://www.skepticspath.org/podcast/...
Информация по комментариям в разработке