Stephen Batchelor
Scottish Buddhist teacher and author of Buddhism Without Beliefs; voice of secular Buddhism.
At a glance
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- Stephen Batchelor is a Scottish Buddhist author and teacher, known for arguing for a secular, naturalistic Buddhism without supernatural beliefs.
- He left England for India at eighteen, was ordained a monk in the Tibetan Gelug tradition, then trained in Zen in South Korea.
- He gave up monastic life in 1985 and teaches and writes as a layman, in books including Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997), Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (2010) and After Buddhism (2015).
- He lives in France with his wife Martine Batchelor.
Key facts
- Born
- 7 April 1953, Dundee, Scotland1
- Monk
- Novice in the Gelug tradition in Dharamsala in 1974, fully ordained under Geshe Rabten in Switzerland; Zen training at Songgwangsa, South Korea, from 1981 to 1984 under Kusan Sunim1
- Lay life
- Disrobed with Martine Fages in 1985 and married her; lived at the Sharpham community in Devon, co-founding the Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies (1996); moved to Aquitaine, France, in 20001
- Teaching
- Guiding teacher at Gaia House, Devon, from 1990; core faculty of Bodhi College1
- Books
- Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997); Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (2010); After Buddhism (2015); Secular Buddhism (2017); The Art of Solitude (2020); Buddha, Socrates, and Us (2025)1
Links
Sources
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