| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xiv, 302 pages : map ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Monk. A Buddhist failure (I) ; On the road ; The seminarian ; Eel wriggling ; Being-in-the-world ; Great doubt -- Layman. A Buddhist failure (II) ; Siddhattha Gotama ; The North Road ; Against the stream ; Clearing the path ; Embrace suffering ; In Jeta's Grove ; An ironic atheist ; Vidudabha's revenge ; Gods and demons ; Tread the path with care ; A secular Buddhist -- Appendixes. The Pāli Canon ; Was Siddhattha Gotama at Taxilā? ; Turning the Wheel of Dhamma ; The Buddha's India : map. |
| Summary |
Written with the same brilliance and boldness that made Buddhism Without Beliefs a classic in its field, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist is Stephen Batchelor's account of his journey through Buddhism, which culminates in a groundbreaking new portrait of the historical Buddha ... Charting his journey from hippie to monk to lay practitioner, teacher, and interpreter of Buddhist thought, Batchelor reconstructs the historical Buddha's life, locating him within the social and political context of his world. In examining the ancient texts of the Pali Canon, the earliest record of the Buddha's life and teachings, Batchelor argues that the Buddha was a man who looked at human life in a radically new way for his time, more interested in the question of how human beings should live in this world than in notions of karma and the afterlife. According to Batchelor, the outlook of the Buddha was far removed from the piety and religiosity that has come to define much of Buddhism as we know it today. |
| Subject |
Batchelor, Stephen.
|
|
Buddhists -- Biography.
|
|
Spiritual biography -- Great Britain.
|
| ISBN |
9780385527064 alkaline paper $26.00 |
|
0385527063 alkaline paper |
|
