Stephen Batchelor

Stephen Batchelor

Stephen Batchelor was born on April 7th, 1953 and is currently 73 years old. Stephen Batchelor was born in Dundee, Scotland.

Stephen Batchelor is a Buddhist scholar and teacher from Scotland known for his meditations and writings on Buddhist topics. He is one of the leading proponents of secular or what is sometimes referred to as agnostic Buddhism.

Just three years old, his family moved from Dundee, Scotland to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Soon after arriving in the city, his parents’ marriage went downhill and they separated. Batchelor’s mother took him to England where they lived in Watford, Hertfordshire in a humanist environment.

When Stephen Batchelor was eighteen, he traveled to India where he lived in Dharamsala and studied at the Library of Tibetan Archives and Works under Ngawang Dhargyey. In 1974, he became a monk who drew much of his practice from S.N. Goenka, the Indian teacher of meditation.

He has worked with Geshe Rabten, an expert in Buddhist doctrine and philosophy. During his time studying, he worked with Geshe Rabten, and together, they established Rabten Choeling, which then was called Tharpa Choeling. He was ordained as a monk in 1978 before he left to work as a translator in Germany.

Upon returning to England during the 1980s, he lived in Sharpham where he worked with the Sharpham Trust as a coordinator. Stephen Batchelor has worked at the Channings Wood Prison as a Buddhist chaplain, taught at a meditation center, and was a Tricycle: The Buddhist Review contributing editor.

Batchelor has over the years become a self-designated scholar, teacher, and author who teaches the earliest teachings of Buddhism.

In Confession of Buddhist Atheist, Stephen Batchelor draws from the seminal collection of Buddhist writings from the Pali Canon.

He shows how the Buddha was a regular man who only stood out for how he looked at his world. He also shows his everyday doubts and challenges on the devotional journey from training in India to meeting the Dalai Lama and becoming a teacher of Buddhism in Europe.

In 1997, Stephen Batchelor published Buddhism Without Beliefs, in which he gives his perspective on the Buddha.

He claims that the man was not mystic esoteric and privileged knowledge but one who understood the nature of anguish. Through the Buddha and his life, Batchelor says that the practices and concepts of Buddhism are something to do rather than to believe in, regardless of our belief or background.

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Stephen Batchelor: F.A.Q