Secular Buddhism
Subtitle: imagining the Dharma in an uncertain world
By: Stephen Batchelor
Publisher: YALE; Yale University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 285
ISBN-13: 9780300223231
Subjects: Doctrines; Buddhism; Dharma (Buddhism)
Description: As the practice of mindfulness permeates mainstream Western culture, more and more people are engaging in a traditional form of Buddhist meditation. However, many of these people have little interest in the religious aspects of Buddhism, and the practice occurs within secular contexts such as hospitals, schools, and the workplace. Is it possible to recover from the Buddhist teachings a vision of human flourishing that is secular rather than religious without compromising the integrity of the tradition? Is there an ethical framework that can underpin and contextualize these practices in a rapidly changing world? In this collected volume of Stephen Batchelor's writings on these themes, he explores the complex implications of Buddhism's secularization. Ranging widely-from reincarnation, religious belief, and agnosticism to the role of the arts in Buddhist practice-he offers a detailed picture of contemporary Buddhism and its attempt to find a voice in the modern world.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-271) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: In search of a voice; title: Looking for Ñāṇavīra. Existence, enlightenment, and suicide ; "A much younger man, but no less charming"; title: Buddhism 2.0: A secular Buddhism; title: Thinking out loud. Rebirth: a case for Buddhist agnosticism ; Creating sangha ; The agnostic Buddhist ; The other enlightenment project ; What's wrong with conversion? ; Limits of agnosticism ; A secular Buddhist ; A mindful nation?; title: Conversations. The eclectic cleric ; Study and practice ; After Buddhism; title: Art and imagination. A convenient fiction ; A democracy of the imagination ; Seeing the light ; A cosmos of found objects ; An aesthetics of emptiness.