Alone with Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism Paperback – 8 February 1994
by Stephen Batchelor (Author), John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld (Foreword)
4.5
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$16.14
This uniquely contemporary guide to understanding the timeless message of Buddhism, and in particular its relevance in actual human relations, was inspired by Shantideva's 'Guide To The Bodhisattva's Way Of Life', which the author translated into English, the oral instructions of living Buddhist masters, Heidegger's classic 'Being and Time', and the writings of the Christian theologians Paul Tillich and John MacQuarrie.
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Top reviews from other countries
Ali
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 25 July 2017
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Not as good as Buddhism Without Beliefs. Kind of wordy to read.
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John Verdon
5.0 out of 5 stars Pragmatism and awakening
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 4 August 2018
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Here again Batchelor - bring secular clarity in a pragmatic 'culturally light' integration of the teaching of Buddha. Batchelor is always a worthy read.
Being-with-others is an essential structure, restricted to the dimension of possibility; but inthe process of actualization it assumes an existential structure through which we actively participate in the world with others.
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Ty Schultz
5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 9 December 2021
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This is a very enlightening exploration of what contemporary Buddhist thought is, can become and where it began, was born and developed.
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Janine Poley
5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable book by Batchelor
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 16 June 2018
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This is a great book to have beside your bed. Nice thoughts to go to 😴 sleep peacefully.ie: “A lack of being remains unaffected by a plenitude of having”
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Peter
4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile Read
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 4 June 2015
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Stephen Batchelor describes how the essence of Buddhism has become distorted by the various traditions that have stripped out the human connection with Shakymuni and replaced it with institutionalized religion.
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3.89
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 41 reviews
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Steve Woods
618 reviews
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January 13, 2013
I have been tired lately and not so well. I have opened myself to others and they have done what seems to pass for normal these days and I have been disappointed and hurt. As is my wont in any of those circumstances I experience a strong urge to withdraw behind my walls both physical and psychological and curse the human race in general and the offending parties in particular. At best I want nothing to do with people and at worst I want to rip off arms and legs and if I really give it a run the fantasies based on experience in combat kick in and I begin to entertain murder as an option. Not really, but that does reflect the extremity to which the aversion in me can rise.
Now I love to wallow in that shit, but unfortunately for the monster in me I have chosen another path and if all the work I have done counts for anything and the direction I have taken is to be true for me I have to let all that go as limiting to my spiritual growth. Not only do I simply become one of those whom I, in my righteous indignation, despise I cut myself off from the light.
Since I began this journey nearly six years ago I have often found that the message comes into my hand when I am most tightly wound up in a hard place. That has been the case here. I know that to move towards my personal liberation from the bondage of self, to experience the peace and gladness of life which I have glimpsed from time to time, I must be with others, extending love and compassion equally to all no matter what. This has been the task for me now for over a year, and it has not proven to be an easy one.
Batchelor's message here is timely and as always inspiring. Thankfully because today I need That.
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Lauren
1,651 reviews
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May 5, 2020
I am alone, and yet not alone, for I am together on this planet with trillions of living creatures, all as eager as myself for happiness, all as afraid of pain and sorrow as I am, all presumably the same right to grasp happiness and flee pain and sorrow to the maximum possible extent. How ought I to relate to these fellow sentient beings in a positive, constructive way?
Big questions and this book is full of them. Of course, with a subtitle that includes "Existentialist Approach...", I expected it. Not an entry-level text or survey, this book assumes a lot of philosophical and theoretical knowledge, and a good working history of Buddhism.
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Jasmine
668 reviews
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October 28, 2012
I originally started this book for a project for school I stopped reading it because I got bored, in fact
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I am bored. Very very bored, so bored in fact that thinking about this book makes me bored. Does Batchelor understand Buddhism? Really it is tough to say since he seems to be trying so hard to make sure buddhism sounds non-religious and modern that he has forgotten to say much about it at all. And his refusal to pick a buddhism inherently undermines him simply because if you don't pick one nothing means anything at all.
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I'm sure people would like this book...I will be sticking with Brad Warner.
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Craig
6 reviews
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January 18, 2013
This was a good book for me as a young Zen student, filled with doubts about religion, ritual, and hierarchy. I felt quite comfortable with Batchelor's secular/existentialist (b)uddhism. It probably influenced me to go to a Zen monastery to train. For this, I am grateful. Over the years I have had to drop my ideas about practice in order to practice. Mr. Batchelor's more recent books don't show a similar shift. While this puzzles me a bit, I am encouraged by his ability to bring unsuspecting people into this difficult practice.
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Alan
336 reviews
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June 25, 2018
Decent views on different modes in which humans go about their day, and the ultimate answer to that: existential Buddhism.
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Jerry Smith
381 reviews
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May 31, 2020
Another re-read but it's been years.
A good look at modern buddhism.
2020
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Joe Dwyer
17 reviews
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October 18, 2012
I'll put this book alone with the other insipidly banal mistakes i've read. Though the fact that Mr. Batchelor not only quotes but attempts to link the philosophies of Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Jaspers and Sartre (the most notable) to the prolific cut-and-pasting of fundamentally different branches of continental philosophy to establish what he claims to be Mahayana Buddhism (I.e a middle way between nihilism and eternalism) within 130 pages. He does however triumph in distorting each random excerpt, from Dostoevsky and Sartre to T.S. Eliot and R.D. Lang, to the point where I not sure if this is a clever mockery of existentialism; or, maybe the simple truth is that the most profound axioms are recited poetically faux-naïf as s/he surrenders herself to the aphorisms on the preverbal bathroom wall of divine omniscience. (As to no longer to "alone")
Professor Paul Williams, brilliant work Mahayana Buddhism writes: "The Doctrinal Foundations Thus enlightenment comes from ceasing to grasp even the most subtle sources of attachment, and this ceasing to grasp requires seeing those things which could serve as sources of attachment as empty, mere conceptual constructs. All things are empty. On the level of what is an ultimate, primary existent there is nothing. On such a level therefore there is an endless absence, an endless emptiness."
One last question, Mr. Batchelor:
Is the tathagatagarbha implying that enlightenment is predeterminable, but we as laymen taint and shroud its purity though the objectification of daily life which it demands or is it necessary to begin corrupted in order that we can see through the impurity of our existence?
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Aisling
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April 10, 2016
"Our present situation is fundamentally similar to that of the Siddhartha. In both cases life has come to be dominated by the unrelenting forces of material and secular values. The concern of man is utterly absorbed and lost in the depersonalised mass of the particular entities of the world. In both cases an existential reaction, motivated by a deeper and more compelling awareness of the question of life as a whole, has arisen. The story of the Buddha indicates that his seeing an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a wandering mendicant, impelling him to renounce his palatial life. This reaction is evident nowadays in the questioning of our basic values, our notion of progress, and our attitude towards technology. It reveals itself in Kierkegaard's study of anxiety, Marx's concern with alienation, Heidegger's analysis of inauthenticity and death. It is expressed throughout modern literature in the terrifying imagery of Kafka, the despair of elliot, and the nauseating pointlessness of life as described by Sartre. In this light, the 'awakening' of the Buddha should be seen as the actualisation of a meaningful answer to the questions implied within existence, and the teachings of Buddhism as a description of the processes involved in the realisation of authentic life."
Image (photography): Jennis Cheng Tien Li, 'Let's Be Together, Separately.', 2010
Let's Be Together, Seperately Jennis Cheng Tien Li
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Sasha
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September 1, 2017
I originally picked this up on-sale at a bookstore for the name alone. Not particularly interested in Buddhism, I started it more so for the existentialism aspect and insight into human relations. Many of the concepts, I found, were articulated clearly and communicated in such a way, one doesn't need to be thoroughly familiar with the Buddhist religion to make the connections to every day life. The text prompted so many "Mmhm" and "A-ha" moments, I travelled with a pen specifically to underline and make notes in the margins. I'd definitely recommend.
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Germaine Hypher
2 reviews
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September 9, 2012
Quite a convoluted style of writing that I found took a lot of concentration to keep on top of but this made me really focus on the text, often re-reading passages a few times until I felt I'd fully grasped them, so that I ended up absorbing the book more deeply than if it had been an easier read. Thankfully, the book was short enough for me to read it this carefully without giving up on it as I really appreciated it's teachings.
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