Confession Of A Buddhist Atheist (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
This is about four books in one-- it is a autobiography of a monk turned lay Buddhist meditation teacher, it is a telling of the historical Buddha's life, it is a travel guide to the "holy land" of Buddhism, it is a discussion of a methodology for creating a secular Buddhism.The autobiography was pleasant to read, it is a good story. The story of the historical Buddha's life as reconstructed from the Pali texts using, of all things, a reference dictionary of names, to reassble the jumbled story line in the pali cannon. The historical Buddha lived in a "Game of Thrones"-like world with rival kings, kingdoms, everyong trying to get favor of the king, including Gautama with surprises and back stabbing along the way. This is the most human story of the Buddhas life and has disloged all others I've read in my preferred way to think about Gotama.I say Batchelor presents a methodology because the book is light on specific advice with respect to practices (outside of applying the methodology of substracting out brahmanism, hindism from Buddhism and applying doubt and scepticism), this is a mild criticism because what does fill the book is good content.The entire book is readable and light reading, unlike Batchelors more serious earlier existential books. I learned a good bit from Batchelor's discussions of Buddhism, a subject he has studied to a depth that far exceeds what I will ever put into it. His clarity was refreshing. Buddhist concepts of emptiness, and even karma, are really complex, and I have more a sense of what they mean now than before reading Batchelor.Still not entirely clear to me why he chose to be a Buddhist atheist instead of, say, a humanist one. Perhaps for reasons similar to why I think of myself as a Christian atheist, rather than a humanist one. I think I was sort of hoping he would answer this question for me, but he didn't. Still a worthwhile read, though.If one just wants to understand the basics of Buddhism, there are probably better books.
What do You think about Confession Of A Buddhist Atheist (2010)?
A fascinating personal journey entwined with astonishing insights into the historical buddha.
—bluebabu94
Excellent. Thank God (somebody, anybody, nobody?) for Batchelor.
—Roman
Mostly memoir, partly historical. Dabbles of reflection.
—shanae
A compelling read and extremely thought provoking.
—Kayla
I loved this writing. No words to express.
—23imprinted
