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A review by p9ng
Confession of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor
3.0
The author describes himself, with some humility, as a failed Buddhist - because he does not agree with some of the so-called fundamental Buddhist teachings. As he says, perhaps some of the traditional teachings are more indicative of Indian culture than the words of Gotama. He relies on the Pali Canon to construct a life history of the Buddha which is more complex than the Hagiography we are given in the traditional teachings. So for my part, I found that life history interesting. Personally, as a student of Buddhism, it does not matter to me that there is a historical record which has some differences to the mythology we create around the master. They could both be true, or neither.
It strikes me as puzzling that an author who seems to favor materialism (I mean a Western skeptical method of observation) takes umbrage at the idea of karma. Isn't karma cause and effect? It comes up in the context of reincarnation, but you could challenge the idea of reincarnation without discussing karma. We certainly are aware of times in our lives when previous actions we were unaware of caused events in our lives to occur.
This book lead me to read Poison is Medicine, by Dzongsar Khyentse, which discusses topics important for students of Tibetan Buddhism.
It strikes me as puzzling that an author who seems to favor materialism (I mean a Western skeptical method of observation) takes umbrage at the idea of karma. Isn't karma cause and effect? It comes up in the context of reincarnation, but you could challenge the idea of reincarnation without discussing karma. We certainly are aware of times in our lives when previous actions we were unaware of caused events in our lives to occur.
This book lead me to read Poison is Medicine, by Dzongsar Khyentse, which discusses topics important for students of Tibetan Buddhism.