Stephen Batchelor

The voyage we are going to start here is a lot more far-reaching than we may think. I am from a culture in which secularism is not synonymous to the French concept of “laïcité.” In my culture the standard religion, Catholicism, we even have three types of clergy: the regular clergy that lives in monasteries or convents, the secular clergy that performs their duties within the walls of a church and the secular clergy that performs their duties outside the walls of a church as priests and nuns working in normal businesses or social institutions. They can or could be teachers in non-religious schools if they have or had the standards degrees to do so. They can teach in schools managed by the church only if they do have these degrees. Today the distinction between regular and secular has tremendously changed and most teachers and professors in catholic schools or universities are neither regular nor secular clergy. But I insist on the fact that any person who has the agrégation or the CAPES in France has the choice, unluckily irreversible, to teach in Catholic schools or in State schools. In fact what we call “école laïque” in France is nothing but “a state school system” that has a priest attached to all secondary high-schools and universities, and that even has religious education in some regions covered by a Concordat with Rome. […]

11- Paper in English
12- The Powerpoint presentation
13- The French article for publication in France
14- An assessment of the conference in Cergy, May 30-31, 2013
15- ANDREW OLENDZKI – UNLIMITING MIND – 2010
16- STEPHEN  BATCHELOR – CONFESSION OF A BUDDHIST ATHEIST – 2010
17- STEPHEN BATCHELOR – LIVING WITH THE DEVIL, A MEDITATION ON GOOD AND EVIL – 2004
18- DALAI LAMA FOUNDATION – STUDY GUIDE FOR “ETHICS FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM” BY HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA – LOS ALTOS STUDY GROUP – MARCH 2004
19- JOHN PEACOCK – THE TIBETAN WAY OF LIFE, DEATH AND REBIRTH, THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO TIBETAN WISDOM – CHARTWELL BOOKS INC. – NEW YORK – 2003
20- BARDO THODOL – THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, OR THE AFTER-DEATH EXPERIENCES ON THE BARDO PLANE – ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY LAMA KAZI DAWA-SAMDUP – COMPILED AND EDITED BY W. Y. EVANS-WENTZ - http://www.summum.us/mummification/tbotd/

This is a formatted version (for e-book readers or printing) of a very long blog post about secular and radical Buddhism. It discusses Stephen Batchelor's secular Buddhism, Seno'o Giro's radical Buddhism (as well as its roots in Mahayana philosophy; Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra in particular), and several related topics.

Forms of thought and practice like current “Secular Buddhism” are beholden to the identical transcendental norm as the most flagrantly religious and conservatively orthodox forms of Buddhism. In itself, this feature is not disqualifying. But when a system, such as Secular Buddhism, grounds itself in a rhetoric of immanence, or of “scientific” empiricism and philosophical phenomenology, this feature is extremely problematic.

The following text originated in my encounter with I Stephen Batchelor’s “A Secular Buddhist.” This short piece was distributed in advance of a public discussion between Batchelor and Don Cupitt, a self-described “secular Christian,” on May 20, 2012 at London Insight Meditation. Here, offer a raw reader-response account of my reading of Batchelor’s statement.

Recently, secular Buddhists have begun a quest for the
historical Buddha. They turn thus onto roads where
generations of New Testament scholars have walked –
through centuries! In this study I will analyse Stephen
Batchelor’s project to find the historical Buddha. I will
discuss not only his premises, methods and use of
sources, but also the Buddha construct he ends up with.
Finally, I will show how insights from the historical
Jesus research can provide a new and deeper understanding
of Batchelor’s project.

This chapter traces the intersection between the language of Keatsian negative capability and the discourse of Buddhism in its ongoing encounters with Western traditions. Although largely associated with the Beat Movement, Buddhist thinkers from both the East and West, including D. T. Suzuki and Stephen Batchelor, have drawn on Romantic concepts in general and Keats in particular to articulate spiritual experience and meditation practice. The second half of the essay examines the work of Reginald Horace Blyth, particularly Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics, as an exemplar of a ‘negatively capable’ reading practice attentive to resonances between textual traditions that attempts to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western spirituality.

The Secular Buddhist attempt to get back to an “original” form of Buddhism is riddled with issues pertaining to originality and authorship – especially given the emphasis on change and reconfiguration throughout the history of Buddhist thought and practice. The conceptual notion of "remix" provides a unique lens through which we might explore and reconsider such an inherently problematic venture.