Secular Buddhism

Overview

What remains of Buddhism if you remove karma, rebirth, six-realm cosmology, Buddhist gods, miracles, and everything that cannot be empirically verified? Stephen Batchelor answers: Dhamma remains. Four noble tasks (he deliberately avoids the word “truths”), mindfulness practice, ethical reflection, direct investigation of experience.

Batchelor - former Tibetan monk, former Korean Seon practitioner, student of the Dalai Lama and master Kusan Sunim - knows traditional Buddhism from the inside. His project is not ignorant reduction but deliberate surgery. In “Buddhism Without Beliefs” (1997), he proposed a radical idea: the Buddha was not a metaphysician but a pragmatist. The Four Noble Truths are not assertions about the nature of reality but guides to action. Dukkha is not “life is suffering” but “suffering is to be understood.” Samudaya is not “the cause of suffering is craving” but “craving is to be let go of.”

Secular Buddhism is not an organization with membership and hierarchy. It is an intellectual movement uniting people who want to practice Buddhist meditation and ethics but are not prepared to accept on faith cosmological claims that contradict their rational worldview. No temples, no ordinations, no rituals. There is a meditation cushion, a stack of books, and a community of people asking uncomfortable questions.

The movement is heterogeneous. Batchelor is its most articulate voice but far from the only one. Martine Batchelor (b. 1953), his wife and a former Korean Seon nun, brings deep meditative practice to secular Buddhism. Sam Harris - neuroscientist and public atheist - popularizes meditation through his Waking Up app, drawing on a Buddhist (predominantly Dzogchen) foundation while completely dropping the religious framework. The Secular Buddhist Association, founded in 2012, holds conferences and publishes a podcast. Dozens of independent groups exist worldwide.

History

The roots of secular Buddhism reach deeper than they appear. As early as the nineteenth century, Western intellectuals - from Schopenhauer to Henry Steel Olcott - attempted to extract a “rational kernel” from Buddhism, discarding “superstitions.” The “Protestant Buddhism” movement in Sri Lanka (a term coined by Gombrich and Obeyesekere) did the same from within: modernizing Buddhism by emphasizing meditation and ethics at the expense of ritual and cosmology.

Stephen Batchelor was born in 1953 in Scotland. In 1972, at twenty, he went to Dharamsala and became a monk in the Gelug Tibetan tradition. For ten years he studied under the Dalai Lama, Geshe Rabten, and other teachers. Then came a turn: he left the Tibetan tradition and spent several years in the Korean Zen monastery Songgwangsa, practicing Seon under master Kusan Sunim. Neither tradition gave him what he was seeking.

In 1990, Batchelor disrobed. In 1994, he published “The Awakening of the West” - a history of Buddhism in Europe. In 1997 came “Buddhism Without Beliefs” - a manifesto for secular Buddhism that triggered a storm. Bhikkhu Bodhi, one of the most respected Theravadin scholar-monks, responded with “A Look at the Kalama Sutta” (2000), arguing that the Buddha was not an agnostic and that rejecting karma and rebirth destroys the internal logic of the Dhamma.

In 2010, Batchelor published “Confession of a Buddhist Atheist” - an autobiography in which he reconstructed the Buddha’s life as a historical figure stripped of myth. In 2015 came “After Buddhism,” his most mature statement: an attempt to recover the Buddha’s teaching from the Pali texts, separating the words of Gotama himself (Batchelor deliberately uses the Pali form of the name) from later additions.

The movement is growing. The Secular Buddhist Association (secularbuddhism.org) holds annual conferences. Podcasts (“Secular Buddhism” by Noah Rasheta, “The Secular Buddhist” by Ted Meissner) attract hundreds of thousands of listeners. Meditation apps (Sam Harris’s Waking Up, Dan Harris’s Ten Percent Happier) carry secular Buddhist practice to millions, even if they do not call it that.

What Practice Looks Like

Meditation without liturgy. No prostrations, recitations, mantras, or visualizations (unless the practitioner chooses them). Most commonly this is anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) or vipassana (mindful observation) - in a form stripped of cosmological frameworks.

Direct study of the suttas. Secular Buddhists read the Pali texts - not as scripture but as historical documents from which practical instructions can be extracted. Batchelor teaches reading the suttas “against the grain” - noticing where later editors added stock formulas and trying to hear Gotama’s own voice behind the layers of redaction.

Ethical reflection - not “keeping the five precepts” but ongoing self-investigation: how do my actions affect me and others? This is closer to Stoic ethics than to religious morality.

Retreats are typically in vipassana format: silent, without rituals, with emphasis on sitting and walking meditation. Batchelor leads retreats in Europe several times a year, often together with Martine Batchelor.

No ceremonies, initiations, or ordinations. There is no formal “entry” into secular Buddhism. You simply begin to practice and study.

Voices of the Tradition

I do not claim to be anything other than a secular Buddhist. I am not a prophet. I am not a teacher with privileged access to truths hidden from others. I seek to recover the practical, ethical vision of the dharma from the metaphysical accretions that have built up around it.

The Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65) is the most-cited text in secular Buddhism. Bhikkhu Bodhi rightly points out that its context is more complex than “don’t believe anything on faith.” But for secular Buddhists it remains a symbol: the Buddha urged people to test the teaching through their own experience.

How It Differs

Secular Buddhism and Theravada - the main line of conflict. Theravada insists: karma and rebirth are not “optional” beliefs but load-bearing structures of the Dhamma. Without them, the Fourth Noble Truth (the Eightfold Path) loses its context - Right View includes understanding karma. Batchelor responds: the Buddha taught the cessation of suffering here and now, not the management of future rebirths. This debate has no resolution - the two sides start from different axioms.

Secular Buddhism and Navayana - both reject supernatural elements, but for opposite reasons. Navayana is a liberation movement for the oppressed; secular Buddhism is an intellectual project of people who are free to choose. Ambedkar rejected karma because it justified caste oppression; Batchelor rejects it because it fails empirical verification. The difference in context is fundamental.

Secular Buddhism and MBSR - MBSR strips even more from Buddhism than secular Buddhism does: not just cosmology but also ethics and philosophy. Secular Buddhism preserves the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, Buddhist ethics - just without metaphysics. MBSR takes only meditation. Batchelor regards MBSR with cautious approval but emphasizes: mindfulness without an ethical foundation is not Dhamma.

What critics say. “Not real Buddhism” is the most common charge. Bhikkhu Bodhi argues that the Buddha clearly and repeatedly taught karma and rebirth - these are not “later additions” but the center of the teaching. Batchelor’s critics accuse him of cherry-picking: he takes from the Pali Canon what is compatible with his worldview and discards the rest, declaring it “later additions” without sufficient philological basis. The association with Sam Harris raises additional concern: Harris is an extremely polarizing figure, and many Buddhists find his “New Atheism” aggressive and reductionist. Supporters of secular Buddhism respond: the Buddha himself taught not to accept on faith - and that is precisely what they are doing.

Who This Tradition Speaks To

This is a doorway, not a diagnosis. But here are some signs that secular Buddhism might be your kind of practice.

Secular Buddhism may resonate with you if you:

• Want to practice meditation without a religious framework. If rebirth, gods, and cosmology are unacceptable to you, but mindfulness and ethics resonate, secular Buddhism offers exactly that. - Enjoy reading primary sources. Batchelor teaches working with the Pali Canon directly, without intermediaries. If you enjoy independent investigation of texts, you will find this engaging. - Are skeptical of authorities. There are no gurus, no lineage transmissions, no “enlightened teachers.” There is practice and your own experience. - Are a rationalist by nature. If you are accustomed to demanding evidence and verifying claims, secular Buddhism will not ask you to switch off critical thinking.

An honest caveat: secular Buddhism can turn out to be “head Buddhism” - intellectually persuasive but lacking the transformative power that comes from full immersion in a tradition. If you need community, ritual, a living teacher - secular Buddhism may feel too cold and solitary. As one critic put it: “This is Buddhism for people who want to meditate but don’t want to become Buddhists.”

Where to Practice

Russian-language resources:

Stephen Batchelor’s book “Что такое буддизм?” (translation of “Confession of a Buddhist Atheist”) is available on Labirint.ru and other bookstores. Formal Russian-speaking secular Buddhist communities are virtually nonexistent, though individual practitioners and groups exist.

International:

Bodhi College (bodhi-college.org), founded by Stephen and Martine Batchelor, runs retreats and courses in Europe. The Secular Buddhist Association (secularbuddhism.org) holds annual conferences and online resources.

Online:

Stephen Batchelor’s website (stephenbatchelor.org) has articles, lecture recordings, and retreat schedules. The “Secular Buddhism” podcast (Noah Rasheta). Waking Up (wakingup.com), Sam Harris’s app with guided meditations and lectures (paid, but free access available on request).

How to Start

Sit on a cushion or chair. Close your eyes. Observe the breath - without changing it, just noticing: in, out. When the mind wanders into thought, notice that and gently return attention to the breath. Ten minutes. No mantras, visualizations, or prayers. Only attention.

Then read the first three chapters of “Buddhism Without Beliefs.” Or listen to one episode of the “Secular Buddhism” podcast.

If you want to go deeper, read “After Buddhism.” It demands effort but rewards it.