Last night I had the privilege of hearing controversial, contemporary Buddhist Scholar, Stephen Batchelor, speak at the India International Center.  Afterwards I joined him for dinner at the home of India’s former Attorney General along with a few of my core Sangha friends and the historian, Romila Thapar. Our dinner conversation revolved around topics of faith, Hindutva, and Indian history. Gatherings like this are the experiences I deeply cherish while living in India.  I’ve read Thapar’s work as a graduate student at UC Berkeley and find Batchelor’s secular, agnostic presentation of Buddhism inspiring.

A few years ago I read Batchelors book, Buddhism Without Beliefs and I just finished his most recent book, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist. What I love most about Batchelor is how he stresses self-reliance and our ability to create our future by our actions in this moment. He writes, “ethical integrity requires both the intelligence to understand the present situation as the fruition of former choices, and the courage to engage with it as the arena for the creation of what is to come. It empowers us to embrace the ambiguity of a present that is simultaneously tied to an irrevocable past and free for an undetermined future.”  Last night Batchelor shared that he views the “Dharma” or the teachings of the Buddha as “medicine.” When we are sick (suffering) we take medicine but the medicine we take depends on the type of sickness we have. While the traditions of the Buddha’s time viewed meditation as going inward mindfulness practice is about bringing our mind outward and being completely with what we are experiencing.