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a guide to the bodhisattva way of life
misecmisc1
I am a HinduIndia Veteran
Hi All,
I read the pdf file containing - a guide to the bodhisattva way of life by stephen batchelor. It is very insightful, so thought of sharing with you that you can also try to read it, if you have not already read it. its pdf file can be searched on the google search.
one link for it is in below url:
http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/A - Tibetan Buddhism/Authors/Shantideva/A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life - Stephen Bachelor tra/A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life.pdf
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Comments
I've had the book for years, I think it's a good translation, very inspiring.
Shame he went astray later on.
That's a good translation.
Heh. Or maybe after wandering for years he found the right path?
Just teasing, I like him really.
i don't know much about stephen batchelor. do you know about him @SpinyNorman? what did he do because of which you say he went astray later on - just curious to know.
He ordained as both a Tibetan and Zen Monk at different times but left after becoming disheartened.
He is widely recognised as the founder of Secular Buddhism.
but left after becoming disheartened.
How did he become disheartened?
One reason is that he doesn't believe in rebirth. From my observation, it would be difficult to practice monkhood (is that a word?) sincerely in the Tibetan tradition if you didn't believe in rebirth. I also remember him saying that Tantric practices were pretty silly too. Sitting around pretending to be a female diety etc.
Who went astray later on? Shantideva? Batchelor?
In my experience, it's best to study texts like this with a teacher. One can read it on one's own, but a teacher brings extensive and highly informative commentary to it, kind of fleshing it out, so to speak. There's a lot more there than is on the page. This, I learned when I took a special course in the text from a lama. And on the page, it can seem a little dry now and then. Going through it with a teacher really brings it alive. So if any of you ever have an opportunity to study it in a group, I recommend that.
The problem was, as he detailed in Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, that he discovered that Buddhism, or at least the Tibetan tradition, had dogma; his teacher basically required him to believe in rebirth, so Batchelor became disillusioned with that rigidity. He said students are encouraged to question the teachings, but they're expected (required) to come to the "right" conclusions.
I think he and his now wife, Martine, left the Korean Zen temple because their beloved teacher there fell ill and either passed away or was replaced by another teacher who handled things very differently. I don't recall the details. Well, and also, they decided to give back their robes and get married. They'd fallen in love. But there was some kind of turmoil in the monastery, too.