After Buddhism

Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age

De: Stephen Batchelor

Narrado por: Stephen Batchelor

Some 25 centuries after the Buddha started teaching, his message continues to inspire people across the globe, including those living in predominantly secular societies. What does it mean to adapt religious practices to secular contexts? Stephen Batchelor, an internationally known author and teacher, is committed to a secularized version of the Buddha's teachings. The time has come, he feels, to articulate a coherent, ethical, contemplative, and philosophical vision of Buddhism for our age.

After Buddhism, the culmination of four decades of study and practice in the Tibetan, Zen, and Theravada traditions, is his attempt to set the record straight about who the Buddha was and what he was trying to teach. Combining critical readings of the earliest canonical texts with narrative accounts of five members of the Buddha's inner circle, Batchelor depicts the Buddha as a pragmatic ethicist rather than a dogmatic metaphysician. He envisions Buddhism as a constantly evolving culture of awakening whose perpetual survival is due to its capacity to reinvent itself and interact creatively with each society it encounters. This original and provocative book presents a new framework for understanding the remarkable spread of Buddhism in today's globalized world. It also reminds us of what was so startling about the Buddha's vision of human flourishing.

©2015 Stephen Batchelor (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

must listen for all traditions

Excellent review of the historical Buddha. In addition, this book is invaluable for a deeper, or new, understanding of layordination and/or the western practice of Buddhism in general.

Such a deep and thorough explanation

This is the kind of book that clarifies the subject. You learn things You didn’t know you didn’t know. There were questions about Buddhism I never thought to ask.
This book answered those questions. Questions about the early disciples and information about the evolution of the practice. Stephen batchelor covers all of it.

Spirituality sans the dogma

Great representation of the Buddha's teachings without leaning to heavily on the dogmatic/religious side of Buddhism. Provides a path to spiritual understanding that leaves out the ritual.

great history lesson and insightful

loved the historical analysis. a lot of detail and logical in it's presentation. Nirvana inspiring!

Great insights

In presenting his secular interpretation of the Buddhist canon, Stephen Batchelor provides a lucid understanding of the core insights of the teachings. One of the best books expounding on Buddhist belief and practice I have read. Especially helpful for those with some exposure to the canon in one or more of the Buddhist traditions—it helped me make sense of many things I’d only grasped in fragments.