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Quote by Stephen Batchelor

“Expectations of goals and rewards (such as Enlightenment) are recognized for what they are: last-ditch attempts by the ghostly self to subvert the process to its own ends. The more we become conscious of the mysterious unfolding of life, the clearer it becomes that its purpose is not to fulfill the expectations of our ego.”

Quote by Stephen Batchelor

Author

Stephen Batchelor

Stephen Batchelor is a renowned author and Buddhist thinker. Born on April 7, 1953, he is known for his contributions to the modern interpretation of Buddhism. Batchelor began studying Buddhism in the early 1970s and has received extensive Buddhist training in the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka. His work seeks to combine the core teachings of Buddhism with modern life, emphasizing personal practice and spiritual freedom. more

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“Exotic names, robes, insignia of office, titles - the trappings of religion - confuse as much as they help. They endorse the assumption of the existence of an elite whose explicit commitment grants them implicit extraordinariness.”

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Book:Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening

Source: Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening

“A compassionate heart still feels anger, greed, jealousy, and other such emotions. But it accepts them for what they are with equanimity, and cultivates the strength of mind to let them arise and pass without identifying with or acting upon them.”

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Author:Stephen Batchelor

“The greatest threat to compassion is the temptation to succumb to fantasies of moral superiority.”

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“Without a rigorous, self-critical discourse, one risks lapsing into pious platitudes and unexamined generalizations.”

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“A secular approach is not a dumbing down, it's not reductively identifying Buddhism with one or two particular techniques of meditation, but it is actually a complete world view and way of life in this world.”

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Author:Stephen Batchelor

“Consciousness is an emergent, contingent, and impermanent phenomenon. It has no magical capacity to break free from the field of events out of which it springs.”

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Author:Stephen Batchelor

“While 'Buddhism' suggests another belief system, 'dharma practice' suggests a course of action. The four ennobling truths are not propositions to believe; they are challenges to act.”

Believe Action Courses Belief Challenges Practice Four Buddhism Propositions Dharma Belief Systems

Book:Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening

Source: Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening

“Yet Gotama's Dhamma is more than just a series of axioms. It is to be lived rather than simply adopted and believed in. It entails that one embrace this world in all its contingency and specificity, with all its ambiguity and flaws.”

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Book:Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

Source: Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

“Evolution is unobservable. It's based on blind faith in a few dry bones and on unreliable dating systems in which the gullible trust. Kids should be allowed to make up their own minds about this issue, and not be censored to 'one side is all we will let you hear.'”

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Author:Ray Comfort

“Agnosticism is no excuse for indecision. If anything, it is a catalyst for action; for in shifting concern away from a future life and back to the present, it demands an ethics of empathy rather than a metaphysics of fear and hope.”

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