Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

Having been a practising 'Buddhist' in a Tibetan Tradition, reading this book has left my heart-racing, my brain-bending and my spirit-soaring. It has managed to clearly articulate the doubts and reservations that I have had about the Religious, dogmatic elements of 'Buddhism' that seem to be at such odds with the undogmatic teachings of the historical Buddha. This book is so well-researched and well-written and goes into the Suttra teachings or discourses of Buddha to flesh out the man behind the myth, and his teachings on how to best weather the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.One of my favourite passages of the book is where Batchelor quotes an altercation between Buddha and a disgruntled, former monk of his called Sunakkhatta. Sunakkhatta dismisively declares: "The recluse Gotama teaches a Dhamma hammered out by reasoning, following his own line of inquiry as occurs to him, and when he teaches the Dhamma to anyone, it leads him when he practises it only to the ending of pain." On being told of this criticism Gotama remearked: "Sunakkhatta is angry and his words are spoken out of anger. Thinking to discredit me he actually praises me." (p.183)For me this beautifully encapsulates what the gist or kernel of Batchelor's book is. The Buddha taught a path that led to the end of pain; this is something that in the midst of grand Mytical assertions can easily be forgotten. That the Buddha taught a path that led to the end of pain is something truly worthy of celebration and dare I say it 'worship'. All the add ons, and cultural colour that his teachings have acquired over the centuries as they migrated through various Asian countries are unnecessary and in some regards only serve to hide the strikingly simple, but profoundly important teachings that Gotama gave, teachings that set out how one can best live a life in balance and harmony with the world around them.I thank Stephen Batchelor from the depths of my heart and hope that his pragmatic wisdom can go some way to tempering the superstitious, ritualistic worship that is currently being endorsed in Buddha's name.Strive diligently and be a refuge unto yourself. x x

In January 2015, I made a new year's resolution to start exploring spirituality. I had always told myself that I'd answer the question 'what happens after death' at some point in the future, so I changed the question: 'when if not now?' That was a much easier one to answer, and over the past three and a quarter years I've read widely on religious topics. However, I'm beginning to wonder if I should change tacks and perhaps come at my central questions from a different way - perhaps philosophy or myth.So why the change? I recently read 'Why Buddhism is true' which sought to strip away the supernatural parts of Buddhism and leave behind the guide to life. It seemed an interesting goal and I bought this book and Batchelor's other book: Buddhism without beliefs. I decided to read this autobiography first so I had a better idea of the man behind the book.Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist is really the biography of two men. Batchelor was one of the sixties generation who 'dropped out' and went travelling and in India stumbled across the Dali Lama and his community of exiled monks from Tibet. (This was only a few years after China invaded the country and long before the Dali Lama became a global religious super star.) Batchelor learnt Tibetan and became ordained as a monk and enjoyed the endless questioning of Buddhism until he realised he was never supposed to truly question the beliefs and authority of his teacher. Next he transferd to Japanese Zen Buddhism but this is not his true home either. He became increasingly close to a fellow nun and they decide to renounce their vows, become lay people and marry.The second biography - which often runs concurrently with the first - is of Sihdhattaha Gotama (the man who became the Buddha). Batchelor has gone back to the Pali cannon - an oral tradition which kept alive the Buddha's teaching until they were written down about 500 years after his death - to try and piece together his life story. Unfortunately, the early priests were more interested in the teachings than the man who gave them. There is no clear chronology and obviously other texts have found their way into the cannon. Batchelor has tried to find the gems - which to him - speak to the character of the real man, rather than the idolised god of the regular biographies. He backs up his reading of the text with travelling through India and researching the politics of the time and how it impacted on Gotama. His goal is separate the original teachings from the layers of interpretations that have been subsequently added. Like Christianity, there are many different branches of Buddhism and I found it interesting to discover they are just as antagonistic as Protestants and Catholics and the disputes seem just as strange to outsiders.Since disrobing, Batchelor has taught meditation, lead retreats and become an atheist Buddhist - which he describes as using the teaching of Buddha to lead a better life today without having to believe in reincarnation (and trying to have a better life tomorrow or ultimately to becomes so enlightened that you step outside the cycle of death and rebirth). There is some discussion at the end of the book about whether you can be spiritual without beliefs and whether there is a need for organised religion to keep spiritual ideas alive.However in both books I've read about Buddhism without the mysticism - instead of relying on the proof offered by tradition or insights during meditation from a guru or master, the authors find something else on which to hang belief. In the case of 'Why Buddhism is True' the author draws on the 'proof' of evolutionary psychology. In this book, Batchelor uses his interpretation of the flesh and blood man who became a monk and ultimately the Buddha to base his practice and his life.I will read Buddhism Without Beliefs next but I think the author has set himself an impossible task. Belief is at the centre of being human and even if we don't have a spiritual belief, we seem to need believe... be it in science or love or democracy or the nation state or art or simply in progress.