There is nothing one can have that one cannot fear to lose. Instead of living life in order to have more abundantly, live life in order to be more abundantly.
—Stephen Batchelor
Learning and education have frequently degenerated into the systematic accumulation of facts and information.
—Stephen Batchelor
Every attitude we assume, ever word we utter, and every act we undertake establishes us in relation to others.
—Stephen Batchelor
Life does not mechanically alternate between aloneness and participation, rather it embraces them both in an undivided unity.
—Stephen Batchelor
The meaning of man’s life, as we have seen, is not measured by what he has, but by what he is. No matter how many possessions we have amassed, how much wealth we have accrued, how respected and secure our position is in society, how numerous the pieces of information we have accumulated, in moments of lucidity we may still abruptly perceive the dreadful futility of it all, the overwhelming emptiness and pointlessness of such a life.
—Stephen Batchelor
To embrace suffering culminates in greater empathy, the capacity to feel what it is like for the other to suffer, which is the ground for unsentimental compassion and love.
—Stephen Batchelor
In pride we consciously elevate our own standing and concerns and look down upon others as essentially inferior.
—Stephen Batchelor
Life is a groundless ground: no sooner does it appear, than it disappears, only to renew itself, then immediately break up and vanish again. It pours forth endlessly, like the river of Heraclitus into which one cannot step twice. If you try to grasp it, it slips away between your fingers.
—Stephen Batchelor
The problem with certainty is that it is static; it can do little but endlessly reassert itself. Uncertainty, by contrast, is full of unknowns, possibilities, and risks.
—Stephen Batchelor
Great doubt—great awakening; Little doubt—little awakening; No doubt—no awakening.
—Stephen Batchelor
Ignorance is not merely a deficiency of knowledge but, in addition, it positively apprehends reality in a distinctive way. And being a distorted mode of conception, it creates a view of the world that is in opposition to, and in conflict with, the actual way the world is.
—Stephen Batchelor
Ironically, the more we crave to possess and dominate the world and others, the deeper and more unbearable becomes the chasm of our own emptiness.
—Stephen Batchelor
We should not allow ourselves to be deceived by our outward show of ‘civilized’ manners and ‘cultured’ social behavior into believing that self-concern, desirous attachment, aversion, and indifference are steadily losing their hold over us.
—Stephen Batchelor
We have to constantly confront our deepest anxieties, our emptiness, our despair, our doubts; and there is nowhere for us to escape and hide from them. It is impossible to ever turn back, and at times it seems impossible to ever make any further progress.
—Stephen Batchelor
Our conceptions of the world affect our perceptions of the world which, in turn, condition the way we subsequently conceive the world.
—Stephen Batchelor
The origin of the conflict, frustration, and anxiety we experience does not lie in the nature of the world itself but in our distorted conceptions of the world.
—Stephen Batchelor
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Pema Chodron American Buddhist Nun
- Alan Watts British-American Philosopher
- Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo British Buddhist Teacher, Nun
- D. T. Suzuki Japanese Buddhist Philosopher
- Lama Surya Das American Buddhist Scholar
- Robert Thurman American Buddhist Scholar
- Sharon Salzberg Buddhist Teacher
- Dennis Genpo Merzel American Buddhist Monk
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu American Buddhist Monk
- Jack Kornfield American Buddhist Teacher, Author
Leave a Reply