Stephen Batchelor Archives - Secular Buddhist Network

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Stephen Batchelor

Two misconceptions about secular Buddhism

Despite the claims of some critics, secular Buddhists are not anti-religious and the goal of a secular dharma is not simply stress reduction but a radical transformation of individuals and society.

Stephen Batchelor on coming out as a secular Buddhist

When Stephen Batchelor first self-identified as a secular Buddhist in 2012 he said that ‘I see the aim of Buddhist practice to be the moment-to-moment flourishing of human life within the ethical framework of the eightfold path.'

Secular versus traditional approaches to meditation

In his 2015 book After Buddhism Stephen Batchelor argues that the goal of meditation for secular Buddhists is not achieving nirvana but gaining an embodied understanding of our experiences from moment to moment.

Creating a Buddhist community – connections that work

Stephen Batchelor explains how ‘community is not something you join or something that you find. It’s something you create. Community is a practice of ... forging and developing connections and friendships and relationships.’

A review of After Buddhism – focussing dharma for years to come

Winton Higgins reviews Stephen Batchelor's 2015 book After Buddhism, discussing the book's key themes and its contribution to the development of a secular dharma for our age.

Jim Champion on meditation: what if I’m doing it wrong?

Jim Champion discusses the common view of meditators that they are somehow doing "something wrong" and argues that "what I’ve found so far in my practice of meditation (which most commonly involves sitting quietly, with the intention to meditate, in the morning and the evening) is that however much I want do it right, in fact I can't do it wrong.

Stephen Batchelor on ‘Buddhism in a nutshell’

Stephen Batchelor offers a summary of secular Buddhism: "I’m supposed to take a risk and say in 25 words or less what Buddhism is. That of course is a very arrogant presumption on one level. But what I have concluded tentatively in recent years is to identify four points that the Buddha taught that cannot be derived from the socio-historical context of his time, in other words that are distinctively and non-controversially his own ideas."