Buddhism without Beliefs

August 5, 2002
The truths Buddha articulated are not strictly religious beliefs, but experiences that can be tasted by everyone in everyday life, says Batchelor, a respected author, translator and teacher. Here, the Scottish-born author, a former monk in Tibetan and Zen Buddhist traditions, leads listeners to question life as the Buddha questioned it—really tasting the mystery of our existence, wondering what true happiness and freedom might be, considering that everyone is inexorably shuttling towards death. Batchelor captures the spirit of his brilliant 1997 book, expanding the guided meditations, which capped the chapters of the original. He instructs listeners in the classic technique in meditation on the breath, for example, advising them to avoid "eyeballing the breath" and encouraging them to go beyond external observation to find the "question within this primary act of breathing." In the print version, Batchelor was dazzling in his ability to cut to the chase, rendering the experience of awakening and the means of getting there with such eloquence and precision that the reader felt it was a radical new discovery. The more conversational audio version is also more intimate. Guiding listeners in breathing meditation, he describes how "the veneer of familiarity can be peeled away and we can become awestruck that this is happening at all, that we are alive and drawing nourishment from the environment." Listeners will feel they have discovered not just a wonderful mind, but a trustworthy spiritual friend. An excellent companion to the book, this work also stands alone as proof of the special power of oral instruction. Based on the Riverhead hardcover.

March 31, 1997
Batchelor's latest concise volume explores the practical fundamentals of Buddhism and how they can be relevant to both religious and secular-minded Westerners. Batchelor makes several controversial, but thoughtfully argued, points central to his "existential, therapeutic" and agnostic interpretation of Buddhism: that Buddhism is not strictly a religion, since it does not adhere to a belief in God; that the Buddha did not consider himself a mystic or savior, but a healer; and that Buddhismis less a "belief system" than a personal "course of action" that naturally instills morality, compassion and inner peace in the practitioner. Though he is a former monk in both the Zen and Tibetan traditions, Batchelor is now associated with a nondenominational Buddhist community in England. He deliberately eschews elitist, monastic Buddhist traditions, which often make enlightenment appear all but impossible to attain. Throughout, simple meditation exercises acquaint readers with Buddhist principles that illuminate "the nature of the human dilemma and a way to its resolution."