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Description
Now closed for registrations
Schedule:
- Semester One: After Buddhism: February 13, 20, 27, March 6, 13, 20.
- Semester Two: The Ethics of Uncertainty: May 15, 22, June 5, 12, 19, 26.
- Time: 09:00 – 12:00 EST/ 14:00 – 17:00 GMT / 15:00 – 18:00 CET.
- Audio and video recordings available for missed sessions.
Teacher:
STEPHEN BATCHELOR is a translator, teacher, artist and writer known for his secular approach to the Dharma. A co-founder of Bodhi College, his books include Buddhism Without Beliefs, Living with the Devil, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist and After Buddhism. His most recent publication, The Art of Solitude, was published by Yale University Press in 2020. He lives in southwest France with his wife Martine.
Theme:
This online course will offer a comprehensive series of lectures, reflections, and discussions on the theme of Secular Dharma.
Secular Dharma is a way of radically reconfiguring the dharma to address the conditions of modernity and the crises facing the survival of life on earth. It is founded on an ethics of uncertainty, which seeks an appropriate response to the suffering of our times without any appeal to metaphysical or religious beliefs.
Semester One: Based on selected passages from his book After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age, Stephen will consider the emergence of Secular Dharma within the history of Buddhism, offer a humanistic account of Gotama, the Buddha, and examine the key ideas that inform a skeptical, agnostic, therapeutic and pragmatic understanding of Gotama’s teachings.
Semester Two: In preparation for these sessions, participants will be sent passages from Stephen’s work-in-progress, provisionally titled The Ethics of Uncertainty: A Post-Buddhist Odyssey. During this semester, Stephen will explore how the project of imagining a Secular Dharma is evolving as a practical philosophy to engage with the existential crises of our time.
Each session will include talks, breakout groups, short meditations, and a question and answer period with the entire group.
Participants are invited to join home study groups, which we suggest meet at 18:00 local time on Tuesdays between the sessions of each semester, to continue their explorations of the topics introduced in the course (unless the group itself decides a different meeting time). The home groups will be formed of students in the same time zones. We will also try to create groups according to different languages.
A reading list and links to relevant audio and video recordings will be provided.
Each seminar will be recorded and made available for participants as soon as possible after the event.
Event Details
Cost:
- This course is offered on a tiered fee basis – please choose the fee which is the most appropriate for your given your current circumstances.
- The price includes a fee for the teacher, no additional dana will be requested.
- If you are unable to afford the rate please let us know. We will make sure that no one is turned away because of lack of funds.
Additional Information:
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Suitable both for beginners and those who are already familiar with Stephen’s work.