Quotessence
Home / Authors / Stephen Batchelor
Stephen Batchelor

Stephen Batchelor Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllWorldSelfBuddhismDharmaMeditationPracticeProcessActionBodyExistenceIfsMindVisionWayAgnosticismAwakeningAwarenessBeliefChallengesCommitment

Famous Stephen Batchelor Quotes

“Awakening is not a state but a process: an ethical way of life and commitment that enables human flourishing. As such, it is no longer the exclusive preserve of enlightened teachers or accomplished yogis. Likewise, nirvana-the stopping of craving-is not the goal of the path but its very source. For human flourishing first stirs in that clear, bright, empty space where neurotic self-centredness realizes that it has no ground at all to stand on. One is then freed to pour forth like sunlight.”

WayFirstsHumansSelfStatesProcessGoalRealizingSpacePathClearTeacherSourceCommitmentEmptyAwakeningPreservesAccomplishedEnlightenedEthicalSunlightStoppingCravingExclusiveNeuroticFlourishingEmpty SpaceYogi
Author:Stephen Batchelor
Create image

“We could decide simply to remain absorbed in the mysterious, unformed, free-play of reality. This would be the choice of the mystic who seeks to extinguish himself in God or Nirvana—analogous perhaps to the tendency among artists to obliterate themselves with alcohol or opiates. But if we value our participation in a shared reality in which it makes sense to make sense, then such self-abnegation would deny a central element of our humanity: the need to speak and act, to share our experience with others.”

IfsNeedsSelfPlayRealityWould BeArtistValuesHumanityChoicesSpeakShareElementsDenyAlcoholTendenciesMysteriousMake SenseParticipationMysticOpiatesAbnegationFree Play
Author:Stephen Batchelor
Create image

“The denial of "self" challenges only the notion of a static self independent of body and mind-not the ordinary sense of ourself as a person distinct from everyone else. The notion of a static self is the primary obstruction to the realization of our unique potential as an individual being. By dissolving this fiction through a centered vision of the transiency, ambiguity, and contingency of experience, we are freed to create ourself anew.”

MindPersonsSelfBodyIndividualChallengesFictionVisionPracticeUniqueOrdinaryIndependentNotionRealizationPrimariesDenialMind And BodyAmbiguityStaticObstructionContingencyDissolving
Author:Stephen Batchelor
Create image

“The art of dharma practice requires commitment, technical accomplishment, and imagination. As with all arts, we will fail to realize its full potential if any of these three are lacking. The raw material of dharma practice is ourself and our world, which are to be understood and transformed according to the vision and values of the dharma itself. This is not a process of self- or world- transcendence, but one of self- and world- creation.”

IfsWorldArtSelfValuesThreeProcessRealizingImaginationVisionPracticeFailingCreationMaterialsUnderstoodCommitmentAccomplishmentOur WorldTransformedLackingTranscendenceDharmaRaw MaterialsFull Potential
Author:Stephen Batchelor
Create image