Buddhism Without Beliefs
Stephen Batchelor’s new book proposes a profound and passionate agnosticism as an authentic approach to dharma.By Stephen Batchelor SPRING 1997
Crossing Aided by a Pillar of Light by Gloria Ortiz Hernandez, mixed media on masonite, 1996.If you go to Asia and visit a wat (Thailand) or gompa (Tibet), you will enter something that looks very much like an abbey, a church, or cathedral, being run by people who look like monks or priests, displaying objects that look like icons, enshrined in alcoves that look like chapels, revered by people who look like worshipers.
If you talk to one of the people who look like monks, you will learn that he has a view of the world that seems very much like a belief system, revealed a long time ago by someone else who is revered like a god, after whose death saintly individuals have interpreted the revelations in ways like theology. There have been schisms and reforms, and these have given rise to institutions that are just like churches.
Buddhism, it would seem, is a religion.
Or is it?
When asked what he was doing, the Buddha replied that he taught “anguish and the ending of anguish.” When asked about metaphysics (the origin and end of the universe, the identity or difference of body and mind, his existence or nonexistence after death), he remained silent. He said the dharma was permeated by a single taste: freedom. He made no claims to uniqueness or divinity and did not have recourse to a term we would translate as “God.”
Gautama encouraged a life that steered a middle course between indulgence and mortification. He described himself as an openhanded teacher without an esoteric doctrine reserved for an elite. Before he died he refused to appoint a successor, remarking that people should be responsible for their own freedom. Dharma practice would suffice as their guide.
This existential, therapeutic, and liberating agnosticism was articulated in the language of Gautama’s place and time: the dynamic cultures of the Gangetic basin in the sixth century B.C.E. A radical critic of many deeply held views of his times, he was nonetheless a creature of those times. The axioms for living that he foresaw as lasting long after his death were refracted through the symbols, metaphors, and imagery of his world.
Religious elements, such as worship of the Buddha’s person and uncritical acceptance of his teachings, were doubtless present in the first communities that formed around Gautama. Even if for five hundred years after his death his followers resisted the temptation to represent him as a quasi-divine figure, they eventually did so. As the dharma was challenged by other systems of thought in its homeland and spread abroad into foreign cultures such as China, ideas that had been part of the worldview of sixth-century B.C.E. India became hardened into dogmas. It was not long before a self-respecting Buddhist would be expected to hold (and defend) opinions about the origin and the end of the universe, whether body and mind were identical or different, and the fate of the Buddha after death.
Historically, Buddhism has tended to lose its agnostic dimension through becoming institutionalized as a religion (i.e., a revealed belief system valid for all time, controlled by an elite body of priests). At times this process has been challenged and even reversed (one thinks of iconoclastic Indian tantric sages, early Zen masters in China, eccentric yogins of Tibet, forest monks of Burma and Thailand). But in traditional Asian societies this never lasted long. The power of organized religion to provide sovereign states with a bulwark of moral legitimacy, while simultaneously assuaging the desperate piety of the disempowered, swiftly reasserted itself—usually by subsuming the rebellious ideas into the canons of a revised orthodoxy.
Consequently, as the dharma emigrates westward, it is treated as a religion—albeit an “Eastern” one. The very term “Buddhism” (an invention of Western scholars) reinforces the idea that it is a creed to be lined up alongside other creeds. Christians in particular seek to enter into dialogue with their Buddhist brethren, often as part of a broader agenda to find common ground with “those of faith” to resist the sweeping tide of Godless secularism. At interfaith gatherings Buddhists are wheeled out to present their views on everything from nuclear weapons to the ordination of women and then scheduled to drone Tibetan chants at the evening slot for collective worship.
This transformation of Buddhism into a religion obscures and distorts the encounter of the dharma with contemporary agnostic culture. The dharma in fact might well have more in common with Godless secularism than with the bastions of religion.
The force of the term “agnosticism” has been lost. It has come to mean: not to hold an opinion about the questions of life and death; to say “I don’t know,” when you really mean “I don’t want to know.” When allied (and confused) with atheism, it has become part of the attitude that legitimizes an indulgent consumerism and the unreflective conformism dictated by mass media.
For T H. Huxley, who coined the term in 1869, agnosticism was as demanding as any moral, philosophical, or religious creed. Rather than a creed, though, he saw it as a method realized through “the rigorous application of a single principle.” He expressed this principle positively as “Follow your reason as far as it will take you,” and negatively as “Do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable.” This principle runs through the Western tradition: from Socrates, via the Reformation and the Enlightenment, to the axioms of modem science. Huxley called it “the agnostic faith.”
First and foremost the Buddha taught a method (“dharma practice“) rather than another “-ism.” The dharma is not something to believe in but something to do. The Buddha did not reveal an esoteric set of facts about reality, which we can choose to believe in or not. He challenged people to understand the nature of anguish, let go of its origins, realize its cessation, and bring into being a way of life. The Buddha followed his reason as far as it would take him and did not pretend that any conclusion was certain unless it was demonstrable. Dharma practice has become a creed (“Buddhism”) much in the same way scientific method has degraded into the creed of “Scientism.”
Just as contemporary agnosticism has tended to lose its confidence and lapse into skepticism, so Buddhism has tended to lose its critical edge and lapse into religiosity. What each has lost, however, the other may be able to help restore. In encountering contemporary culture, the dharma may recover its agnostic imperative, while secular agnosticism may recover its soul. An agnostic Buddhist would not regard the dharma as a source of “answers” to questions of where we came from, where we are going, what happens after death. He would seek such knowledge in the appropriate domains: astrophysics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, etc. An agnostic Buddhist is not a “believer” with claims to revealed information about supernatural or paranormal phenomena, and in this sense is not “religious.”
An agnostic Buddhist looks to the dharma for metaphors of existential confrontation rather than metaphors of existential consolation. The dharma is not a belief by which you will be miraculously saved. It is a method to be investigated and tried out. It starts by facing up to the primacy of anguish, then proceeds to apply a set of practices to understand the human dilemma and work toward a resolution. The extent to which dharma practice has been institutionalized as a religion can be gauged by the number of consolatory elements that have crept in: for example, assurances of a better afterlife if you perform virtuous deeds, or recite mantras, or chant the name of a Buddha.
An agnostic Buddhist eschews atheism as much as theism, and is as reluctant to regard the universe as devoid of meaning as endowed with meaning. For to deny either God or meaning is simply the antithesis of affirming them. Yet such an agnostic stance is not based on disinterest. It is founded on a passionate recognition that I do not know. It confronts the enormity of having been born instead of reaching for the consolation of a belief. It strips away, layer by layer, the views that conceal the mystery of being here—either by affirming it as something or denying it as nothing.
A Pillar of Cloud by Day by Gloria Ortiz Hernandez, mixed media on masonite, 1996.In a famous parable, the Buddha imagines a group of blind men who are invited to identify an elephant. One takes the tail and says it’s a rope; another clasps a leg and says it’s a pillar; another feels the side and says it’s a wall; another holds the trunk and says it’s a tube. Depending on which part of Buddhism you grasp, you might identify it as a system of ethics, a philosophy, a contemplative psychotherapy, a religion. While containing all of these, it can no more be reduced to any one of them than an elephant can be reduced to its tail.
That which contains the range of elements that constitute Buddhism is called a “culture.” The term was first explicitly defined in 1871 by the anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Since this particular culture originates in the awakening of Siddhartha Gautama and aims to cultivate a way of life conducive to such awakening, Buddhism could be described as “the culture of awakening.”
Dharma practice is more akin to artistic creation than technical problem solving. The technical dimension of dharma practice (such as training to be more mindful and focused) is comparable to the technical skills a potter must learn in order to become proficient in his craft. Both may require many years of discipline and hard work. Yet for both such expertise is only a means, not an end in itself. Just as technical proficiency in pottery is no guarantee of beautiful pots, so technical proficiency in meditation is no guarantee of a wise or compassionate response to anguish.
The art of dharma practice requires commitment, technical accomplishment, and imagination. As with all arts, we will fail to realize its full potential if any of these three is lacking. The raw material of dharma practice is ourself and our world, which are to be understood and transformed according to the vision and values of the dharma itself. This is not a process of self- or world-transcendence, but one of self- and world-creation.
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 person distinct from everyone else. This notion of a static self is the primary obstruction to the realization of our unique potential as an individual being. By dissolving this fiction through a centered vision of the transiency, ambiguity, and contingency of experience, we are freed to create ourself anew. The notion of the world as an alien reality composed of stubborn, discrete things is likewise the primary obstruction to world-creation. In dissolving this view through a vision of the world as a dynamic and interrelated whole of which we are an integral part, we are likewise freed to engage with the world afresh.
To realize such visions requires acts of imagination. No matter how deeply we understand the transient and empty nature of existence, how vividly we experience the intrinsic freedom of reality, how passionately we long to appease the anguish of others, if we cannot imagine forms of life that respond effectively to the situation at hand, we will be limited in what we can do. Instead of finding a voice that speaks to the unique contingencies of our own situation, we repeat the clichés and dogmas of other epochs. Instead of creatively participating in a contemporary culture of awakening, we confine ourselves to preserving those cultures of a vanishing past.
Self-creation entails imagining ourself in other ways. Instead of thinking of ourself as a fixed nugget in a shifting current of mental and physical processes, we might consider ourself as a narrative that transforms these processes into an unfolding story. Life becomes less of a defensive stance to preserve an immutable self and more of an ongoing task to complete an unfinished tale. As a coherent narrative, the integrity of our identity is maintained without having to assume an unmoving metaphysical center around which everything else turns. Grounded in awareness of transiency, ambiguity, and contingency, such a person values lightness of touch, flexibility and adaptability, a sense of humor and adventure, appreciation of other viewpoints, a celebration of difference.
After his awakening, the Buddha spent several weeks hovering on the cusp between the rapture of freedom and, in his words, the “vexation” of engagement. Should he remain in the peaceful state of Nirvana or share what he had discovered with others? What decided him was the appearance of an idea (in the language of ancient India, a “god”) that forced him to recognize the potential for awakening in others and his responsibility to act. As soon as his imagination was triggered, he relinquished the mystical option of transcendent absorption and moved to engage with the world.
Thus the Buddha set out on a path that started from a vision, was translated through ideas into words and actions, and gave rise to cultures of awakening that continue to inspire today. This development is analogous to the process of creativity, which likewise starts from an unformed vision and is translated through the imagination into cultural forms. The course of the Buddha’s life offers a paradigm of human existence, which has been realized in diverse forms throughout Asia over the past two-and-a-half thousand years. The genius of the Buddha lay in his imagination. He succeeded in translating his vision not only into the language of his time but into terms sufficiently universal to inspire future generations in India and beyond. His ideas have survived in much the same way as great works of art. While we may find certain stylistic elements of his teaching alien, his central ideas speak to us in a way that goes beyond their reference to a particular time or place. But unlike ancient statues from Egypt or Gandhara, the wheel of dharma set in motion by the Buddha continued to turn after his death, generating ever new and startling cultures of awakening.
As Buddhism encounters the contemporary world, it discovers a situation where creativity and imagination are central to individual and social freedom. While Buddhist traditions have consistently affirmed freedom from craving and anguish as the raison d’etre of a culture of awakening, they have been less consistent in affirming the freedom to respond creatively to the anguish of the world. Both internally, through becoming religious orthodoxies, and externally, through identifying with autocratic and even totalitarian regimes, Buddhist traditions have inclined toward political conservatism. This has contributed, on the one hand, to a tendency to mysticism, and, on the other, to the postponing of personal and social fulfillment until a future rebirth in a less corrupted world.
At the heart of Buddhism’s encounter with the contemporary world is the convergence of two visions of freedom. The Buddha’s freedom from craving and anguish is converging with the autonomous individual’s freedom to realize his or her capacity for personal and social fulfillment.
In today’s liberal democracies we are brought up to realize our potential as autonomous individuals. It is hard to envisage a time when so many people have enjoyed comparable freedoms. Yet the very exercise of these freedoms in the service of greed, aggression, and fear has lead to breakdown of community, destruction of the environment, wasteful exploitation of resources, the perpetuation of tyrannies, injustices, and inequalities. Instead of creatively realizing their freedom, many choose the unreflective conformism dictated by television, indulgence in mass-consumerism, or numbing their feelings of alienation and anguish with drugs. In theory, freedom may be held in high regard; in practice it is experienced as a dizzying loss of meaning and direction.
Part of the appeal of any religious orthodoxy lies in its preserving a secure, structured, and purposeful vision of life, which stands in stark opposition to the insecurity, disorder, and aimlessness of contemporary society. In offering such a refuge, traditional forms of Buddhism provide a solid basis for the ethical, meditative, and philosophical values conducive to awakening. Yet they tend to be wary of participating in a translation of this liberating vision into a culture of awakening that addresses the specific anguish of the contemporary world. Preservation of the known and tested is preferable to the agony of imagination, where we are forced to risk that hazardous leap into the dark.
♦
Excerpted from Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening, from Riverhead Books.
Stephen Batchelor is a teacher and writer known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. His books include Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World and After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age. He teaches several online courses with Tricycle, including Secular Dharma and The Four Noble Truths.
Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening Paperback – 1 March 1998
by Stephen Batchelor (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 670 ratings
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A national bestseller and acclaimed guide to Buddhism for beginners and practitioners alike
In this simple but important volume, Stephen Batchelor reminds us that the Buddha was not a mystic who claimed privileged, esoteric knowledge of the universe, but a man who challenged us to understand the nature of anguish, let go of its origins, and bring into being a way of life that is available to us all. The concepts and practices of Buddhism, says Batchelor, are not something to believe in but something to do--and as he explains clearly and compellingly, it is a practice that we can engage in, regardless of our background or beliefs, as we live every day on the path to spiritual enlightenment.
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Batchelor...suggests that Buddhism jettison reincarnation and karma, thereby making possible what he calls an 'existential, therapeutic and liberating agnosticism. --Time magazine
Buddhism Without Beliefs is the kind of finely written primer about the concepts of Buddhism that even a heathen like me can appreciate and understand. For the non-Buddhist, or the aspiring Buddhist, it will be of much assistance. Filled with compassion, lucidly written, this is a book that explains much about an ancient, ever-living philosophy that has much to offer the stunned searchers of truth in our chaotic age of modernity. --Oscar Hijuelos, author of Mr. Ives' Christmas and The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
Radiant in its clarity, Buddhism Without Beliefs reminds us not just of Buddhism's true nature, but of our own as well. Freeing us from the notion of Buddhism as a religion, Stephen Batchelor shows us how necessary the Buddha's teachings are in today's world. It may not be what he intended, but he has made a believer out of me. --Mark Epstein, M.D., author of Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective
Though he is a former monk in both the Zen and Tibetan traditions, Batchelor is now associated with a nondenominational Buddhist community in England. He deliberately eschews elitist, monastic Buddhist traditions, which often make enlightenment appear all but impossible to attain. Throughout, simple meditation exercises acquaint readers with Buddhist principles that illuminate 'the nature of the human dilemma and a way to its resolution.' --Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Stephen Batchelor is a former monk in the Tibetan and Zen traditions and the author of the national bestseller Buddhism Without Beliefs. He lectures and conducts meditation retreats worldwide, and is a contributing editor for Tricycle.
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ASIN : 1573226564
Publisher : Penguin Putnam Inc; Reprint edition (1 March 1998)
Language : English
Paperback : 144 pages
ISBN-10 : 9781573226561
ISBN-13 : 978-1573226561
Reading age : 18 years and up
Dimensions : 14.02 x 0.99 x 23.24 cmBest Sellers Rank: 39,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)17 in Karma
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Stephen Batchelor
Stephen Batchelor is a former monk in the Tibetan and Zen traditions. He has translated Shantideva's A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life and is the author of Alone with Others, The Faith to Doubt, The Tibet Guide, The Awakening of the West, Buddhism without Beliefs, and Verses from the Center. He is a contributing editor of Tricycle magazine, a guiding teacher at Gaia House Retreat Centre, and cofounder of Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies and Contemporary Inquiry in Devon, England. He lives in southwest France and lectures and conducts meditation retreats worldwide.
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Dan McKinnon
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful bookReviewed in Australia on 14 August 2020
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This is a wonderful book that I could not put down. Brilliantly written and with millions of nuggets of wisdom
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Andrew G. Marshall
3.0 out of 5 stars What does it really mean to be agnostic?Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 May 2018
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Buddhism without beliefs seeks to reframe agnosticism as a creative place – seeking a truth ourselves rather than bowing to the authority of others. I’d always thought of it as being lazy, not having quite got round to thinking about the great questions about life. For the past three or so years, I haven’t got much further than beginning to formulate what these questions might be. I certainly don’t have any answers yet, so being agnostic – open and enquiring without lapsing into skepticism – feels a comfortable label.
It is good to read again how the Buddha identified the source of anguish and craving. The book’s meditation on death is both bracing and life affirming. Furthermore Batchelor’s description about how we divide experiences into good and bad – and how we try to have more of the good and banish the bad – is one of the most compelling I’ve read so far. He explains deftly not just how the impossibility of banishing the bad this habit is but how it keeps us trapped in ‘if only...’ Two of the most destructive words that I hear in my counselling room.
Batchelor concludes that ‘a culture of awakening simply cannot occur without being rooted in a coherent and vital sense of community’ and needs a ‘matrix of friendships’ that values individual creativity and rather than following the dogma of organised religion. It’s a great idea but somehow I can’t see it happening.
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Lorenz Fuchs
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it. Highly recommend for an inspiring read on Secular BuddhismReviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 January 2018
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I really loved this book. I felt very inspired and entranced as I read Stephen Batchelors explanation on Buddhism from a secular point of view.
There are parables, quotes which are broken down and explained, written meditations and paragraphs that put into words how you usually feel and think. I feel Stephen Batchelor, in this book, captured perfectly the distressed, distracted and confused part of our mind and how it affects our actions.
It looks like a short book and is written in a small ish font over 115 pages and took me two days of 'not constant reading' to finish
I will be reading more of his work!
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Rosemary
2.0 out of 5 stars Hard going: old fashioned use of English.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2022
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I was looking forward to reading this and learning more about the Buddhist approach to life. Not that far into the book, but I’m finding the language old fashioned and trite. I’ll persevere because I’m interested, but I think, so far, that it’s written poorly (and punctuation is questionable, at times)!
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Carno Polo
4.0 out of 5 stars a simple yet exhaustive guide to agnostic BuddhismReviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 February 2012
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This book immediately rang a bell with me. I have long felt close to Buddhism, among other reasons, because it does not require believing in any dogma. As someone who has been educated in science, I always felt uneasy with beliefs. I prefer to know, or to accept I don't know. I am an agnostic. This book spells out very clearly how Buddhism traces the path to inner peace without requiring anyone to "believe" in anything.
For example, we have no real answers to metaphysical questions (the origins of the universe and such unanswerable eternal open issues) so Buddha stopped asking them. On the ethical plane, the dharma is the logical conclusions one reaches by reasoning on what is good, not some kind of given commandment. The closest thing I can find in Western philosophy is the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant, whom I regard as the greatest thinker of Western civilization.
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Ja Hewitt
5.0 out of 5 stars buddhism without beliefReviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 November 2010
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This author has been a revelation to me. This book bridges the gap between western and western thought. It is written in succinct prose and is easily understandable to the lay person. There is nothing nihilistic or depressing about the arguments. You are not persuaded into a materialistic view of the world, although the author is not a believer in God in the accepted sense. You begin to grasp the extraordinariness of existence without going all airy fairy on it. However, I can also see that to reap the benefit of these understandings would require a lot of hard work on the part of the seeker. You've got to know yourself very deeply, and this won't happen without loads of self-discipline in meditation and such-like.
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Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
by
Stephen Batchelor
3.99 · Rating details · 9,217 ratings · 481 reviews
A national bestseller and acclaimed guide to Buddhism for beginners and practitioners alike
In this simple but important volume, Stephen Batchelor reminds us that the Buddha was not a mystic who claimed privileged, esoteric knowledge of the universe, but a man who challenged us to understand the nature of anguish, let go of its origins, and bring into being a way of life that is available to us all. The concepts and practices of Buddhism, says Batchelor, are not something to believe in but something to do—and as he explains clearly and compellingly, it is a practice that we can engage in, regardless of our background or beliefs, as we live every day on the path to spiritual enlightenment. (less)
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Paperback, 127 pages
Published March 1st 1998 by Riverhead Books (first published April 14th 1997)
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As an atheist and relatively new "convert" to meditation, I like the concept of this book. However, does it assume the reader already knows about Buddhism? I know nothing and would be lost if that assumption was made.
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Jun 01, 2010Greg rated it liked it
Shelves: buddhism
In my personal and soon to be trademarked ethical system, Don't be an Asshole, this book would garner a thumbs up and I'd recommend it as a guidebook for not being an asshole, with Meditation! Or if that is grammatically suspect using meditation to not be an asshole. Not how to use meditation in an non-assholically manner, but that might be the case too.
For some reason this book took me two months to read. At 120 pages, that means I averaged a whopping two pages a day. Yay, me! Not that I read it everyday, actually I didn't read it most days. It wasn't that the book wasn't interesting to me, it was, but it was pretty much just a feel good exercise of affirming that there is another way not being an asshole out there. One that sounds pretty alright, but which I'm not sure why one would embrace it necessarily.
From the scant bit I know about Buddhism there are lots of good things taught, and not all of the bad baggage that the Abrahamic religions have. There is some weird shit, but according to this book you can kind of push that stuff aside, or put it in an indefinite epoche and never phenomenologically touch them again. Actually the practice taught in this book isn't all that different from existentialism (yes I know he wrote a book on existentialism and Buddhism), but without all the drinking and smoking, and with some sitting cross legged on the ground. And it's sort of like Critical Theory, but without the Marxism; and it is sort of like the Situationists, again without the drinking, sex, and the constant banning of members; and it's like the anarcho strands of punk, i.e., the Crasshole brand, but maybe with more of a sense of humor, and no real stance on the issue of women who shave: collaborators or not? And which of course is like the early day of Riot Grrrl, and just about every organic DIY punk scene for about the first six months before all of the rules and hierarchies step in and eventually some of the people you know have turned into scenesters, and then into proto-hipsters and finally whom you hear are living in Brooklyn and are making synthesizer music with a Gameboy.
It's sort of like all these 'in-spirit if not quite so much in practice, or if in practice not necessarily for so long' types of ideas/movements/scenes what-not. But with sitting and being quiet. Which maybe is what I need, since I like the ideas espoused by all of these anti-authoritarian / anti-consumerist ideas and since I no longer like academics or punks and go for silence the way I once upon a time went for loud music this might be for me. But then I think why sign up for something new, why not just keep doddering about in my own little world and not find myself once again disappointed by others? You know when you realize that half of them are actually fascists in disguise just waiting to push their own brand of rules about what is and what isn't acceptable. Is it because a community is something that is needed for people? Or is it not even a community but a name that is important? Being able to say I am a (______), rather than just knowing you are what you are even if there is no name you can easily attach to it or ready made community to fit into?
But, all my whining here aside this is a nice book with many worthwhile things in it. And I'll probably want to disavow everything I've said above a week from now.
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May 21, 2008Kat rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 5-stars
Batchelor is not pro-Buddhism as a religion, or pro-religion at all. He advocates gently but incisively for a "passionate agnosticism"--admitting that you don't know and probably never can, but that this doesn't let you off the hook, since the attempt to find out is necessary to your mental/spiritual survival. He presents Buddhist techniques as common-sense, highly effective ways of dealing with existential problems, and Buddhist philosophy as a framework for understanding things that will become self-evident through doing the consciousness work.
This is the second or third time I've read most of this book before having to return it to the library. I don't identify as Buddhist, but keep coming back to this book for different reasons. In college, the book helped me become aware of the inefficacy of my thought patterns and try to begin to clear some of the clutter and use my mental energy more effectively. That point is exactly as salient for me as it ever was, but on re-reading I also found crucial new ways of thinking about mortality, which has really been anguishing me lately. Batchelor points out that a fixation on death's certainty and the mystery of its timing is a good thing, because it leads to the question "what should I do with my life?" Keeping that at the forefront of one's mind is basically impossible without an emotional/physical concern with life's finiteness. I'm also interested in Batchelor's explanation of meditation itself as a tool for translating thought into emotional/physical knowledge, and that the latter is necessary to get things done.
I don't always require groundedness and common sense from spiritualists, but this book achieves this admirably. I also find a lot of pleasure in reading Batchelor's exceptionally clear, elegant prose. (less)
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May 13, 2017Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition
Shelves: 20th-century, buddhism
Quite possibly my only reason for reading this was so that I could write a review saying that this book throws the Buddha out with the bathwater. But my delight in making poor, feeble jokes is a ridiculous basis for writing reviews particularly when the author's aspiration is to throw the Buddhism out with the bathwater while saving the Buddha as a person who had certain ideas.
Apart from the beginning and the end of the book, Batchelor more or less forgets his objective, so most of the book is an account of how one might practice Buddhism on a daily basis: what one is aiming to cultivate in yourself and how one goes about this.
I think I was most curious, given that it was written by a man born in Scotland, and in this edition published by Bloomsbury, by the Americanisms of side-walks and diapers in the text, in place of the more familiar pavements and nappies. Apart from this then I wondered why did Batchelor write the book - what was he aiming to achieve, why strip out the supernatural or metaphysical bits from the Buddhist system leaving us with something like a pre-Socratic philosophy with an ethical system? Fortunately I didn't have to break my brain over the question since the author kindly provided an answer or two himself.
It turns out that Batchelor envisions the creative collusion of Buddhism and "western" culture and thinks the different notions of freedom in both will be most mutually enriching by stripping out the idea of reincarnation in favour of an agonistic approach to the whole - in plain speech : 'I don't know', it strikes me this may satisfy him, but that some people may be attracted to or find meaningful exactly what he throws out with the bathwater, secondly I do wonder when you start to hack chunks out of a tradition, what you are left with - is tree surgery a success if after the operation there is no longer any tree?
Such a creative collusion one could call syncretism, it's interesting seeing a person setting about it in such a deliberate way.
The nature of faith is that even if you were practising Buddhism, but found it impossible to believe in the metaphysical aspects of it then you'd be pretty much in Batchelor's agnostic position without needing to read his book (view spoiler), equally if you were practising and had no problem with the metaphysics then I don't think that that Batchelor's book has any particular convincing or resounding argument for you either. But it is a nice enough summary of an applied Buddhist practise without metaphysics if that is what you are looking for. (less)
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Jun 08, 2008Adrian Rush rated it it was amazing
Shelves: non-fiction-general-knowledge, religion-spirituality
As this gem of a book points out, "Buddhism without beliefs" is a redundancy. Batchelor cuts to the heart of what sets Buddhism apart from other world religious traditions: It encourages practitioners to question, to penetrate, to rigorously examine everything -- even the Buddha's teachings themselves -- and not to take things on blind faith. In other words, just because a religious leader hands you a doctrine and tells you to believe in something, that isn't good enough. The goal of Buddhism, after all, is to slice through our daily illusions and see the world as it really is, not as we want or hope it to be. We can even take this approach toward such Buddhist cornerstones as karma and rebirth. Batchelor recommends an agnostic but open approach toward the concept of literal reincarnation, for example. That seems to be a healthy approach.
It's also an important message to convey as Buddhism tries to take a foothold here in the skeptical West, where casual observers might see Buddhism as esoteric or exotic. Buddhism has indeed accumulated many practices and rituals -- and even unfounded beliefs and speculations -- in the centuries since it left India, and Batchelor asks us to look through those trappings to return to the kernel of Buddhist teaching. Anything else threatens to sway us from the Path and throw us into the world of clinging to illusions. A fine job.
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May 14, 2021Jokoloyo rated it it was amazing
What a surprising little book. I know I am biased with my personal opinion when rated this book as 5 star, but how could I give less when this book discussed some topics that I had kept in my mind for years. I had rough ideas and questions about X but not clear definition yet, then when I read this book, this book describes X with pristine words.
I won't tell you what X is. But I highly recommend this book for introduction of Batchelor. A thin small book filled with Batchelor's understanding about Buddhism and he described them with simple English words, avoiding as much as possible Buddhism jargons. (less)
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Oct 04, 2010Eric added it · review of another edition
Shelves: zen
I might use this as my standard recommendation both for
1. Fellow atheists and sort of Reason-oriented folks with a mistrust of religion. Point isn't try Buddhism, it's Different; as getting the point across about what Buddhism is about/after.
2. Folks who have embraced Buddhism but seem to have gotten the wrong idea about it (ha! as if I knew what the right idea was)
Quotes I found helpful:
"Dharma practice can never be in contradiction with science, not because it provides some mystical validation of scientific findings, but because it simply is not concerned with validating or invalidating them. Its concern lies entirely with the nature of existential experience"
This is particularly important for me because I was never really happy with how people seem content to quote Einstein as saying Buddhism was the only science-friendly religion (apocryphal?), or the Dalai Lama saying that if science should contradict Buddhism the latter should change, or even the "be a light unto yourself" thing from the Buddha. Batchelor's "not because it provides some mystical validation of scientific findings" is a very good guard against that sort of fuzzy headedness. That's still not enough, IMHO; there's more to say, but what a wonderful start
Another nice one: "We should be wary of being seduced by charismatic purveyors of Enlightenment. For true friends seek not to coerce us, even gently and reasonably into believing what we are unsure of. True friends are like midwives who draw forth what is waiting to be born. Their task is not to make themselves indispensable but redundant"
Bingo. OK, this sort of thing has been said before, but what I like about the way Batchelor says things is that he anticipates where people could get the wrong idea about what you're saying and heads them of. His "even gently and reasonably" is an example of this, as his "not because it provides some sort of mystical validation"
I'm a bit uncomfortable with the eagerness to port Buddhism to modern Western liberal culture. Just a bit; it makes sense that it had to be ported to Chinese and other East Asian cultures, etc. It's a sort of "don't fuck with tradition" skepticism on my part, not because the traditions themselves have any inherent value, but because Tradition has a sort of virtue of being time-tested/robust (along with many flaws like noise, corruption [errors crept into the genes], inflexibility). But Batchelor himself acknowledges and anticipates this. I guess I just lean a little bit more on the conservative end of the spectrum, all the while agreeing heartily with what he says. (less)
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May 06, 2010DJ rated it it was ok
Reading this book was a bit like listening to my grandpa rant about LBJ's foreign policy decisions - he's probably right, but without the background to appreciate his frustrations, all I can do is listen and squirm awkwardly in my chair.
Batchelor's book is a polemic against the modern transformation of Buddhism into something as dogmatic and unquestioning as Western religions. He points out that Buddhism is a personal practice of continual awareness and questioning, not a set of beliefs, commitments, or rituals. His insights into Buddhist practices were thought-provoking but being a man of science (and therefore atheist, culturally bankrupt, anti-humanities of course), I didn't have the religious or historical background to appreciate many of his complaints about the disfigurement of Buddhism.
This short book is meant to be read slowly. Each chapter offers ideas worth taking the time to reflect upon and some also suggest particular meditations. Unfortunately, I was borrowing this from a friend at university and had to power through it in two evenings before leaving for the summer.
I likely won't return to this book again though, because my interests in Buddhism are related to cultivating continual awareness, not in defending it against a deplorable watering down for the masses. (less)
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Sep 08, 2013Richard rated it did not like it
Shelves: nonfiction, abandoned, religion-theology, not-gonna-read
See postscript for a possible replacement for this failed attempt.
Meh. Maybe I shouldn't have expected much, but I was beginning to be disappointed even before the first chapter began, and the opening lines of that chapter confirmed my suspicion.
The "without Beliefs" of the title is, frankly, a lie. Perhaps this is a description of Buddhism with something subtracted, such as the mystical mumbo jumbo that seems to inhere in anything as old as a major world religion (and, of course, especially in religions), but there are still plenty of beliefs.
For example, the Buddha was still the enlightened one.
That's the first thing that I was hoping to see dispensed with.
You see, I strongly suspect that the founder of any religion was a relatively enlightened genius — for the time. But over on the science side, anyone will acknowledge that while Aristotle — or Galileo, or al-Khwārizmī, or even Newton — is considered brilliant, they're no longer the font of all wisdom.
So why is every religious system so incredibly hung up on their founder? Isn't is more likely that someone studying the Buddha has surpassed the master in the understanding of some aspect of enlightenment, or whatever it is that the religion is supposed to be providing?
Naturally, if the founder is deified, that can't happen. But I was hoping for something better here.
As far as I can tell, Buddhism teaches a more psychologically and philosophically astute version of what the Stoics were working on, at least via the practice of meditation, for example. But if there is a way of learning these ideas without having to wade through and discard all the accumulated dross of centuries of mysticism and power politics between schisms, this doesn't seem to be it.
Postscript: According to the New Yorker article What Meditation Can Do for Us, and What It Can’t: Examining the science and supernaturalism of Buddhism, the arch-agnostic Robert Wright has written Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Enlightenment. The article includes—
Wright’s is a Buddhism almost completely cleansed of supernaturalism. His Buddha is conceived as a wise man and self-help psychologist, not as a divine being[….]
This is a pragmatic Buddhism[….] Nearly all popular books about Buddhism are rich in poetic quotation and arresting aphorisms, those ironic koans that are part of the (Zen) Buddhist décor—tales of monks deciding that it isn’t the wind or the flag that’s waving in the breeze but only their minds. Wright’s book has no poetry or paradox anywhere in it. Since the poetic-comic side of Buddhism is one of its most appealing features, this leaves the book a little short on charm. Yet, if you never feel that Wright is telling you something profound or beautiful, you also never feel that he is telling you something untrue.Joe Bob says check it out.
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Dec 23, 2021Lea rated it liked it
Shelves: 2021, non-fiction, religion-cults, zen-buddhism-and-mindfulness
The book is less straight forward than the title, and a little all over the place, but I still appreciated much of what Batchelor says. I think this could have been written better and I'm not sure how useful this book is for people who haven't read anything on buddhism yet - it's not really for beginners, even though it seems like it wants to be an introduction of sorts. (less)
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Jan 17, 2012Jeff rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: owned
It's long been a cause of great frustration that my attempts to investigate the Buddhist philosophy have repeatedly plunged me into the supernatural. Over the centuries, and in different ways in different areas, Buddhism has become a religion, collecting various ideas on the after-life, reincarnation, multi-incarnation karma, Buddhist hells, demons, and even a pantheon of near-divine once-humans to whom we are exhorted to chant or prostate or pray. Or any combination of the above.
And this was frustrating because I was also vaguely aware that, at its core, what the Buddha taught was not a series of beliefs but, rather, a series of practices to be undertaken in order to smooth one's passage through this life.
In this book, Stephen Batchelor strips out this accumulated religious baggage and leaves behind something more akin to those original agnostic teachings, neither demanding that non-material, spiritual aspects to existence be accepted as real, nor insisting that they are not. It concentrates purely on the practical, attempting to show how the Buddha taught "anguish and the ending of anguish", a means to end suffering. He admits that the Buddha himself appeared to have mystical beliefs but stresses that these were part of his cultural heritage and not in any way relevant to his teachings.
He sets out the Buddha's teachings of dharma practice in a clear and easily comprehensible manner, making the ancient concepts relevant to the modern reader. Even concepts normally regarded as difficult such as non-duality are introduced in a way that makes sense in a non-mystical world-view. In line with the original attitude of the Buddha, he doesn't deny a mystical dimension to our reality but nor does he discuss one; it is impossible from this book alone to gain any insight into the author's beliefs in this area, a sound achievement in this particular context.
I would assume that in a relatively short book like this one he has had to be somewhat superficial but in any case it provides plenty of food for thought. I already know that I will be re-reading this particular volume, probably several times, but it's also whetted my appetite for further exploration, both in book form an in a far more practical sense.
In short, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. (less)
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May 13, 2019Caroline rated it did not like it
Shelves: did-not-finish
I only got to about page 35 with this book. As a total newbie to Buddhism, I just found it too difficult to understand. The writing was quite simple, but ideas were just too difficult for me to grasp. I was left just feeling stupid (which may well be the case.) Here are a couple of examples of concepts which evaded me ....
"Likewise, the Buddha acknowledged the existential condition of anguish. On examination he found its origins to lie in self-centred craving. He realized that this could cease, and prescribed the cultivation of a path of life embracing all aspects of human experience as an effective treatment."
"As with understanding anguish, the challenge in letting go of craving is to act before habitual reactions incapacitate us. By letting go of craving it will finally cease. This cessation allows us to realize, if only momentarily, the freedom, openness, and ease of the central path. This sudden gap in the rush of self-centred compulsion and fear allows us to see with unambiguous immediacy and clarity the transient, unreliable, and contingent nature of reality."
For the time being, I don't think I am going to explore Buddhism further. (Mostly because I find meditating difficult, but also because this book has made me feel that Buddhism is something I am not going to be able to grasp.) (less)
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Jun 09, 2022Zoe Artemis Spencer Reid rated it liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: philosophical, non-fic
Great content with a lot of wise philosophical views, but with, unfortunately poor delivery and unappealing writing. It was a deep dive into many of the concept discussed here, so might be a bit hard to grasp for people who had no basic or prior understanding to the teaching of Buddha or dharma. But, Batchelor presented truly insightful wisdom not only to dharma but life and existence, individual struggle, ethic, value of compassion, integrity, social construct, culture and the relation between the practice of dharma and the contemporary world. (less)
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Dec 01, 2008Wayne rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: re-reads, buddhism-self-help
To join the Big Clubs or Cults of Catholicism, Hill Song, the Evangelicals etc. etc one must accept a certain set of so-called truths which in no way impinge on the ethical. (I've known plenty who swear by the Virgin Birth but cheat on their wives.)
Buddhism, shorn of its religious trappings of prayer wheels, exotic names, orange robes, priesthoods, hierarchies and consequent blinding fog etc. becomes no set of beliefs but a way of behaving, which we often stumble upon ourselves through sheer common sense.
I quote from the back cover:
"Buddhism Without Beliefs" demystifies Buddhism by explaining, without jargon or obscure terminology, what awakening is and how to practise it.
Stephen Batchelor points out that the Buddha was not a mystic and his awakening was not a shattering revelation that revealed the mysteries of God or of the universe - what the Buddha taught was not something to believe in but something to do. Buddha challenged people to understand the nature of anguish, let go of its origins, realise its cessation and create a certain way of life and awakening. This awakening is available to all of us, and Batchelor examines how to work realistically towards it, and how to practise and live it every day.
This book is an examination of Buddhism which will enable all readers, whether religious or agnostic, to grasp the fundamental meaning of Buddhism." (less)
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May 19, 2013Matthew Fellows rated it it was amazing
Very good. For those interested in finding a meaningful way of navigating existence without the dogmatic mystical nonsense of religion I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Incidentally, this philosophical approach provides a great alternative to the inane neo-hippie/hipster appropriation of Buddhist catchwords so prevalent in some parts of contemporary Western culture.
I was going to fault Batchelor for not explicitly pointing out the ways in which this secular Buddhism is so strikingly similar to Existentialism (of the Heideggerean and Sartrean variants, not that Victor Frankl psychotherapy nonsense which happens to be hard to distinguish from Western hipster Buddhism...) until I realized that he has dedicated a whole book to this perspective in his Alone with Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism. (less)
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Dec 12, 2015Marc rated it it was amazing
Shelves: for-the-soul, philosophy-or-philosophical, nonfiction, owned
It's probably been nearly two decades since I read anything by Stephen Batchelor, but few write with the kind of clarity and thoughtfulness as he does. Sure, this covers the basics, but he always manages to frame things in a different light, to use analogies that open up different perspectives, and to simultaneously convey both a simplicity and an awe about life and approaching it through Buddhism. Instead of rambling on, I'll just share a few choice passages:
"Agnosticism is no excuse for indecision. If anything, it is a catalyst for action; for in shifting concern away from a future life and back to the present, it demands an ethics of empathy rather than a metaphysics of fear and hope."
"A world of contingency and change can offer only simulacra of perfection. When driven by craving, I am convinced that if only I were to achieve this goal, all would be well. While creating the illusion of a purposeful life, craving is really the loss of direction. It is a process of compulsive becoming. It spins me around in circles, covering the same ground again and again. Each time I think I have found a situation that solves all my problems, it suddenly turns out to be a reconfiguration of the very situation I thought I was escaping from. My sense of having found a new lease on life turns out to be merely a repetition of the past. I realize I am running on the spot, frantically going nowhere."
"Instead of taking ourselves so seriously, we discover the playful irony of a story that has never been told in quite this way before."
"In today's liberal democracies we are brought up to realize our potential as autonomous individuals. It is hard to envisage a time when so many people have enjoyed comparable freedoms. Yet the very exercise of these freedoms in the service of greed, aggression, and fear has led to breakdown of community, destruction of the environment, wasteful exploitation of resources, the perpetuation of tyrannies, injustices, an inequalities. Instead of creatively realizing their freedoms, many choose the unreflective conformism dictated by television, indulgence in mass-consumerism, or numbing their feelings of alienation and anguish with drugs. In theory, freedom may be held in high regard; in practice it is experienced as a dizzying loss of meaning and direction."
Hard to believe this was written almost 20 years ago. The strength of his message has grown with time. (less)
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Sep 23, 2019Sarah Ames-Foley rated it it was ok · review of another edition
Shelves: non-fiction, religion, spirituality, philosopy
16 highlights
This review can also be found on my blog.
This was not a complete waste of time, but was close to it. The book detaches buddhism from religion and formats it not as a belief system, but a certain way of living. At first, I was really impressed with the ideas presented and felt I was getting a lot out of it. According to Dealing with “anguish” seems to be hinged on creating a perspective in which all is temporary: our “cravings” have not always existed, thus they will not always exist. It is turning our feelings into things we can watch ebb and flow rather than something that will overtake us entirely. Action is repeatedly emphasized as the key to dharma practice.
The formatting of the book seems to be without logical flow; it felt more like a general rambling than something coherently laid out. The chapters themselves confused me, as I felt like the author was talking himself around ideas and as soon as he began to approach what I thought was the point, the chapter would end unceremoniously. It was frustrating, since it started out explaining so many interesting ideas only to turn into something unstructured and unhelpful. It seems this may have made a better essay than an entire book. Also, the author is weirdly obsessed with someone they call S, who they refer to as their enemy and who apparently riles them up often. It was strangely distracting. (less)
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May 10, 2018Amy Sturgis rated it really liked it
Shelves: 20th-century, philosophy, buddhism
This was exactly what I was looking for after reading Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Enlightenment by Robert Wright. Stephen Batchelor investigates the background and meaning of the Buddha's teaching -- not Buddhism, Batchelor argues, but dharma practice -- and submits that the Buddha taught a method, not a creed. Or, as Batchelor puts it, "The dharma is not a belief system by which you will be miraculously saved. It is a method to be investigated and tried out." At the heart of this, Batchelor notes, is a foundation of true agnosticism, "a passionate recognition that I do not know."
I will be chewing on this for a while. I recommend it to anyone interested in what's often called "secular Buddhism." (less)
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Jul 20, 2021Dimitrios rated it it was amazing
Stephen Batchelor does an excellent job of extracting the core concepts of Buddhist teaching and applying them to the modern world. By setting aside hierarchic traditions and rigid institutions, he reminds us of Buddhism's agnostic roots, therefore making it much more accessible to the modern person.
Buddhism Without Beliefs is not one of those books that you rush through (even though it's only 127 pages, including notes). But rather, one that you only read a couple chapters at a time, allowing yourself to truly absorb each piece of wisdom.
I would recommend this book even to people that don't identify as Buddhists due to its practical and applicable advice for modern times. (less)
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Nov 10, 2015Jess Mukavetz rated it liked it
4 stars for content, 3 for execution and delivery.
Buddhism Without Beliefs was not a particularly easy read, despite its slight page count. Stephen Batchelor's prose was very, very, very dry. Although he clearly and concisely explained the concepts of Buddhism unlike I've previously read (Buddhism in Very Plain English would be an apt alternative title), his language was imbued with absolutely no sense of style, wit, or warmth. It's not a book to sit down and knock out in a day or two. I barely managed one chapter a day.
Batchelor's examination of Buddhism and how it has been transformed from a practice to an organized religion was—pun intended—enlightening. He wrote: "While Buddhism has tended to become reductively identified with its religious forms, today it is in further danger of being reductively identified with its forms of meditation." Yoga, anyone?
Batchelor broke down a lot of barriers that have been preventing me from committing too deeply to Buddhism, such as feeling like an outsider. If I view Buddhism as an agnostic thought practice, as Siddhārtha Gautama intended, then I don't have to feel intimidated by the formal religious aspects—temples, monks, worshippers, scriptures, and idols. Batchelor's description of desire, or craving, is one that I will remember for quite some time:
"'Letting go' is not a euphemism for stamping out craving by other means. As with anguish, letting go begins with understanding: a calm and clear acceptance of what is happening. [...] Without stamping it out or denying it, craving may be renounced the way a child renounces sandcastles: not by repressing the desire to make them but by turning aside from an endeavor that no longer holds any interest."(less)
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Nov 20, 2014Heidi The Reader rated it liked it
Shelves: buddhism, non-fiction
Batchelor starts his discussion with the idea that the Buddha didn't set out to found a religion. He was trying to impart a set of skills for the reduction or elimination of suffering. Most of the religious stuff came later after his death or as a response to questions that people asked while the Buddha was still alive. I found myself drawing parallels in my mind to Christianity. I wonder how much anyone really "intends" to start a religion. And, I definitely agreed with Batchelor in that organized religion tends to make everything more complex- be that practices, beliefs, community, and so on. Agnostic Buddhism is an interesting idea.
Batchelor then wanders off into concepts that I found to be fairly confusing compared to the simple organization and delivery of the first couple of chapters. I wish that the whole book had maintained the tone of the beginning. (less)
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Sep 21, 2015Marta rated it really liked it
Shelves: own-print, buddhism, sangha, nonfiction
Very good introduction to the four golden truths of Buddhism: that suffering is universal, that suffering can be understood, that suffering can end, and that there is a practice that can guide us to the end of suffering. He explains the teachings clearly and with modern examples from our daily, Western lives. He bogs down, however, whenever he talks about Buddhism as a religion or its place in modern society. Those parts are boring and opinionated - mercifully short, though. The whole book is short, a good intro into mindfulness practices and Buddhism without religion. (less)
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Buddhism Without Beliefs
A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
By Stephen Batchelor
Proclaims emptiness as the womb of awakening and agnosticism as a therapeutic way of acknowledging the limits of human reason and thought.
Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
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In Buddhism Without Beliefs Stephen Batchelor states: "The challenge is to imagine and create a culture of awakening that both supports individual dharma practice and addresses the dilemmas of an agnostic and pluralistic world." The author, who lives and teaches in a nondenominational Buddhist community in Devon, England, believes that the four ennobling truths (those of anguish, its origins, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation) solidify an authentic way of being in the world. Batchelor writes cogently about emptiness as "the womb of awakening" and agnosticism as a therapeutic way of acknowledging the limits of human reason and thought. Most of our troubles grow out of anguish, restlessness, lethargy, confusion, and thinking that life would be different "if only..." (which he calls the mantra of unconsummated desire).
Batchelor wants to move beyond Buddhism as a religion — something to believe in — and to emphasize instead its liberating and creative potential as a way of living — something to do. This excellent book enables us to see just what that means as individuals create themselves anew and engage in the re-creation of the world through compassion.
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