Ten Years of Stephen Batchelor at Upaya
By Upaya Zen Center on January 8, 2020 in General, News, Upaya's Blog
Author of well-loved books including After Buddhism, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, and Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor has shared his powerful, paradigm-shifting perspective on the dharma at Upaya over six visits throughout the last ten years. We are excited to welcome Stephen back in 2020 for:
Autonomy, Imagination, and Care
February 26-March 1
Upaya is proud to share the rich archive of Stephen's ever-evolving spin on the dharma wheel from the first decade of the twenty-first century.
"Stephen suggests that instead of asking, 'What is the 'right' or 'wrong' thing to do?' the dharma practitioner asks, 'What is the wisest and most compassionate thing to do?'
"This advice reveals the true heart of Stephen himself, who trained in Tibetan Buddhism from the age of 19-27. He received full ordination as a Gelugpa Buddhist monk in 1974. Eventually, he became unsatisfied with some of the traditional, cultural Buddhist beliefs and left the lineage. After practicing in Korea for a while, he finally left monastic life altogether. For many decades, Stephen has been well known and highly respected as a translator, writer and teacher of the Buddhadharma."
—from "A Reflection on the Teachings of Stephen Batchelor," by Cyndi Lee, June 7, 2017. Read more here.
The Four Noble Tasks:
"If you think of dukkha, suffering, not as an element within a proposition, "Life is suffering," but as a task to be performed and the task in this case, as the Buddha says quite clearly… dukkha is to be fully understood, dukkha is to be embraced, dukkha is to be accepted in a deep, calm, insightful way.
"So you have, in other words, Four Tasks, and… of these tasks, I feel, leads to the next one. They're all interlinked. And, although this is slightly tongue-in-cheek, I think they can be reduced to the acronym ELSA, E.-L.-S.-A., ELSA: Embrace dukkha, Let Go of grasping, Stop grasping, [later: See its ceasing.] and Act!'
—from "Truth and Violence," a dharma talk offered October 19, 2011. Read more of this excerpt here.
The Present Moment:
"I would argue that there is really no present moment. The present moment is one of these things that Buddhists have become terribly attached to. If you think about it, you try to find the present moment, you will never find anything. The present moment is actually just a concept; it can be a very useful, strategic concept…
"I will often say when instructing in meditation, "Stay in the present moment." But I don't mean by that, try to find this elusive thing called the present moment and stay in it. It's basically a way of saying, Don't get caught up in the unknown future. Don't get caught up in reminiscing about the past. But confront the situation at hand. And the situation at hand is always unfolding. It's fluid. It's like water, it's like a stream. Things are constantly impacting your senses, constantly bubbling up in your thoughts, constantly emerging as emotions and feelings; it's always in motion, it's moving."
—from "On Making a Raft," a dharma talk offered October 21, 2009; read more of these teachings here
Check out these selected podcast series from the last ten years of Stephen's teachings at Upaya:
2017 ~ An Ethics of Care
Through seminars, discussions and periods of silent meditation, this retreat explores what it means to care. Regarded by the Buddha as the virtue that includes all other virtues, care (appamada) extends from care of the soul to care of the sick to care of the environment. Care thus serves as the guiding ethical framework for the practice of the dharma itself. In addition to examining classical teachings on care, we consider how these ideas might address the particular sufferings of our time. "Things fall apart," said Gautama as he drew his last breath, "tread the path with care."
Listen to the 2017 series here.
2015 ~ Being Completely Human
Stephen Batchelor and Roshi Joan Halifax rebuild the Four Noble Truths from the ground up — rendering them as "Noble Tasks" instead, for starters. They similarly probe the Four Great Bodhisattva Vows (which seem to have been based on the Four Tasks). Stephen sets aside orthodox interpretations of early Buddhist texts to discover a very human-scale, engaged Buddha, a man more concerned with prescriptions for full human participation than descriptions of metaphysical truths. Stephen renders the most famous prescription as ELSA for short: embrace life, let go of reactivity, stop (or behold the stopping of) reactivity, act.
2014 ~ A Culture of Awakening
Throughout its history, Buddhism has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to re-invent itself in response to new historical and cultural conditions. In this series, Roshi Joan Halifax and Stephen Batchelor explore together how the interaction of traditional Buddhist ideas and practices with the worldviews and values of modernity may be giving rise to yet another "culture of awakening." The talks and discussions focus primarily on a critical reading of the teachings attributed to the historical Buddha in the Pali Canon.
2013 ~ After Buddhism
What happens after Buddhism? This radical question opens up a new and fresh horizon that Roshi Joan Halifax and Stephen Batchelor explore.
Listen to this 2013 series here.
2013 ~Exploring Consciousness: Waking, Sleeping, Dreaming, Dying with Roshi Joan Halifax, Stephen Batchelor, Evan Thompson, and Sensei Al Kaszniak
At the core of Zen practice lies an intention to develop the ability to rest our attention in the broad field of conscious awareness and to observe the mental continuum without grasping, aversion, or judgment. In doing so, we can begin to examine the enormous range and subtlety of the mysterious phenomenon that we call "consciousness." In this ground-breaking Zen Brain retreat, neuroscientists, a philosopher, Buddhist scholars, and Buddhist teachers will explore the intersection of what philosophy, science, Buddhist scholarship, and meditation practice have contributed to our understanding of the variations of consciousness from waking to dreaming and the states that unfold in the process of dying.
Listen to this 11-part series here.
2011 ~ A Secular Buddhist Retreat
In this series, Stephen and Martine Batchelor explore what kind of Dharma practice might emerge in a Buddhism divested of the religious, dogmatic and patriarchal features that have often characterized its role in traditional Asian societies. Combining the study of classical Pali discourses with the practice of mindful awareness and concentration, we will seek to uncover what lies at the heart of the Buddha's teaching and ask how such ideas might be interpreted and put into practice in today's increasingly secular and interdependent world.
2009 ~ Godless Religion or Devout Atheism?
In this 14-part series, Martine and Stephen Batchelor unpack the complex overlap of Buddhism and atheism, specifically for practitioners in the West.
Start listening to this 2009 series here.
STEPHEN BATCHELOR is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. In particular, he regards the doctrines of karma and rebirth to be features of ancient Indian civilization and not intrinsic to what the Buddha taught.
Buddhism has survived for the past 2,500 years because of its capacity to reinvent itself in accord with the needs of the different Asian societies with which it has creatively interacted throughout its history. As Buddhism encounters modernity, it enters a vital new phase of its development. Through his writings, translations and teaching, Stephen engages in a critical exploration of Buddhism's role in the modern world, which has earned him both condemnation as a heretic and praise as a reformer.
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One Response to Ten Years of Stephen Batchelor at Upaya
Maggy May 8, 2020 at 12:32 pm #
These podcasts have given my quarantine a whole new purpose. Thanks!
Stephen Batchelor: Godless Religion or Devout Atheism? Part 8 of 14 – Session 4
Stephen Batchelor on the Four Noble Tasks
The Fourfold Task: Stephen Batchelor
Stephen Batchelor: 10-19-11: Truth And Violence
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