Pierre Van Eeckhout's Reviews > After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age

** spoiler alert ** Stephen Batchelor is like a jeweler whose ambition is to extract the gem of what has been termed “buddhist philosophy” in a secular way, away from poetic, dramatic or mythic voices. Instead, in a skeptical, pragmatic and modern voice, he tries to answer the question: what is the dharma today for a secular age ? If we try to extract the dharma from it’s historical, orthodox, canonical, confined matrix, how would it speak to the modern mind? How would its perspective stand out among other discourses in building an ethical, contemplative and philosophical view ? His study and answer to this question is nothing short of exhilarating and remarkable.
Firstly let’s put aside all philosophies about the concept of Being which led throughout history to metaphysical concerns and dogmatic answers from Plato to just about all philosophers until Nietzsche. Language and knowledge transmission seems to lead to anchored beliefs and fixed knowledge. Silence, meditation and compassionate action encompass more of the human experience as a whole than just knocking someone out with vast superior knowledge in the way European metaphysics has done in the last 2 millenniums. So let’s put aside all Ultime Truth and Definitive Answers.
Essentially, a secular approach of the dharma is concerned with how humans can flourish in this biosphere here and now while cultivating a sensibility to the everyday sublime. Far from a set of truth, the darma asks: What is the wisest and most compassionate thing to do in everyday situations? To help us in this endeavor are the 4 P’s: first, the principle of conditionality, second, practice of the fourfold task:
1- embrace the tragic dimension of life (impermanence of everything, no inherent existence for anything, dissatisfaction with the overall conditions of a fleeting everchanging life),
2- let go of automatic reactivity,
3- behold the ceasing of reactivity
4- cultivate the eightfold path),
third, the perspective of mindful awareness, fourth, the power of self-reliance.
So basically people go through life mindlessly, repeating over and over again the same behavioral patterns, unable to get out of the rut, seemingly unable to even become aware of their zombi state apart from some brief moments before ending in the grave. They cling to their sutuation, etnicity, culture, nation, city or town, social position and ersonal identity without ever seeing their foundation. Their engagement in this world is a compulsion not a conscious effort. This one dimension is called samsara. The other dimension discloses the possibility of a life no longer determined by reactivity or habitual inclinations, but this requires a constant effort towards stilling of inclinations and fading away from reactivity, which are the twofold ground of the dharma.
“Leaving home” means detaching oneself in a way of relating to one's home or situation rather than repudiating it and physically leaving it to go elsewhere. It is the change of heart, the transformation in your fundamental relationship to life itself in the pursuit of a spiritual vocation which is evidence of an entry into the dharma. Your situation in this life is comforting but it must not be establish to the detriment of the foundation. In periods of crisis, your situation becomes visibly fragile. In those moments you can feel the abyss of the ground, the foundation.
When the dharma is clearly visible, immediate, inviting, uplifting, to be personally sense by the wise, this is how you know the dharma is there in your life. This is nirvana immediately present here and now as a ground to live one life. Nirvana is seeing everything in another light, not discovering an ontological Truth. Gotama compares the practice of dharma to the skill of the artisan. Dharma requires skill.
Anyone can experiment nirvana, not just trained meditators. Nirvana can also be the experience of understanding reactivity which thereby gaining control over it. Consciously affirm and valorize those moments when we see for ourselves that we are free to think, speak, in way not determined by reactivity. A sage lives from the fertility of a ground that responds creatively and spontaneously to the conditions of life.
What I like about this book is that it separates the Christian views on Buddhism from the actual message of the buddha from another time, another culture with other intentions. Something occidentals, blinded by 2 milleniums of faith into Christianity can’t easily achieve in general.
There a lot more to this book and I will let you discover for yourself this secular dharma that anyone can understand and apply in his life, mixed with care and a caring mentality for the greater good of everyone and the bright future of the planet if such a thing is meant to be. Happy exploration!