• Buddhism Without Beliefs

  • A Contemporary Guide to Awakening
  • By: Stephen Batchelor
  • Narrated by: Stephen Batchelor
  • Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (498 ratings)

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Buddhism Without Beliefs

By: Stephen Batchelor
Narrated by: Stephen Batchelor
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Publisher's summary

Before it was a religion, a culture, or even a system of meditation, what was Buddhism? On Buddhism Without Beliefs, celebrated teacher, translator, and former Buddhist monk Stephen Batchelor takes us back to the first years after the Buddha's awakening to reveal the root insights of Buddhism hidden beneath centuries of history and interpretation.

In eight compelling sessions of self-inquiry - including many fascinating exercises and practices - we learn how to awaken and refine our senses, introduce the essential spirit of curiosity into the practice of awareness, and comprehend with both our hearts and our minds the Buddha's astonishing (and often misunderstood) revelations on emptiness, compassion, and the self. Before he died, the Buddha did not appoint a successor. He simply remarked that each of us must be responsible for our own freedom.

Buddhism without Beliefs is an invitation to hear what the Buddha taught - and to trust yourself on your own path to liberation.

©1997 Stephen Batchelor (P)2013 Sounds True

What listeners say about Buddhism Without Beliefs

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Disingenuous.

I expected this would be the text of the book, presented in audio. This is something else. Not happy about the bait-and-switch. I'm sure the material is terrific, it's just not what was promoted, and not what I was looking for.

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21 people found this helpful

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Not the book. Something else.

I read the book and hoped to listen to it again. However, this is not the book. Some of the material is similar but it goes into meditations. Not what I was after. Usually when you buy an audiobook it’s the book. Not something else. Would not recommend this. Difficult to listen to given the speech pattern of the author/narrator.

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19 people found this helpful

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Wonderful!

Any additional comments?

I am not a buddhist, even though I'm interested in buddhist "themes": impermanence, emptiness, mindfulness, loving kindness, death and dying, etc. I've read a number of authors of many different traditions (Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, etc.), and Stephen Batchelor was the only one I felt wasn't speaking in riddles or trying to convey a sense of mystery that I never felt was necessary. And here I don't mean, for instance, Zen koans or Zen stories - I mean the convoluted and pasteurized speech of some Western buddhist teachers.
As an atheist, this is as close as I'll ever get to a real experience of spirituality. Wonderful book.

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16 people found this helpful

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What you wondered about but were afraid to ask ...

Stephen Batchelors guide is truly educational. I found his breakdown of Buddhism to be so simple and inspiring. I was concerned that Buddhism would be a complicated thing to understand. Immediately my mind was put to rest as Stephen speaks with authority and expertise. Buddhism as a belief system (it is not a religion for those who may not know) is all that I hoped it would be. I've listened through twice and plan on sharing it with other interested parties. So if you too may be wondering what this thing called Buddhism is all about but are afraid it's too complex, I highly recommend Buddhism Without Beliefs.

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The Breath is ironically the problem

I want to read Batchelor's work and I started here, but I can't get past his very strange breathing pattern here. Many times, he seems to struggle for air, taking breaths between each work, or every other word. It isn't just cadence either. It is the sound of the breath. He's recording engineer (if he used one) is largely to blame for this. He is clearly positioned talking directly into the microphone (instead of slightly to the side or above) which makes it sound like he's gasping at the air right next to your ear. Now if it were at a constant cadence perhaps I could look past it, but the mix of normally-read and oddly-read finally caught up to me a couple of hours in and I put it down. The irony is that the breath is so important in meditation. I even tried to meditate on his breath and note my aversion to the pattern but I just couldn't do it. In the passages where he talks about the importance of the breath, I tried to find the meta-level understanding, but I couldn't. Perhaps I'll try again when I'm closer to enlightenment.

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6 people found this helpful

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Talks, not the book.

This is a series of talks with partially overlapping content as the audio/book of the same title. But it was enough different and indeed more provocative that I was glad I had bought both (probably by mistake).

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6 people found this helpful

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Gets to the heart of why Buddhist teaching matter

Cuts through it all and helps reader make sense of teachings and practice just about better than anything I have read so far.

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6 people found this helpful

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Mostly about Meditation

When I think of Buddhism without beliefs, I think of Buddhism without literalism. I still expect to hear an elaboration upon the eight fold path, buddhist myths, metaphysics, ethics, and so on in addition to meditation. Since the book was mostly about meditation and the self I gave it four stars - four stars due to the missing content - but no less than four stars because Stephen is very informative no matter what aspects of Buddhism he speaks upon. I’m not sorry I read the book although I was a little disappointed that the topics I looked forward to were not there.

P.S. I sincerely hope that western Buddhism does not simply become meditation. There are many socio-political ideas in Buddhism, amongst other functions of religion - the sacred, ritual, morality, tradition, etc - wouldn’t it be just like us Westerners to strip out any commitment to change and extract whatever we can devour for the self alone? Ha!

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Bedtime for Bonzes

Calm and thoughtful discussion of what Buddhist practices can do in our lives. well suited to listening in bed. This is a westernized. Buddhism stripped of reincarnation, karma, or literal celestial or infernal beings. Would appeal to secular or atheist readers, though I as a Christian found it delightful. I will listen to it again.

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Well done!!

I have numerous of buddies teaching audio books and this one is one of the best and Stephen Batchelor's voice is very pleasant/easy listen to. It's also as a wonderful gift to families and friends too.

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