Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World

by Stephen Batchelor

For Buddhism 2.0 it is quite irrelevant whether the propositions “existence is suffering,” “craving is the origin of suffering,” “nirvana is the end of suffering,” or “the noble eightfold path leads to the end of suffering” are true or not. The aim of one’s practice is not to confirm or refute such time-honored dogmas but to respond in a radically different way to what presents itself at any given moment. Whenever suffering occurs in your life—whether that of coming down with flu or not getting the job you wanted—you seek to know it fully rather than resent or deny it. Instead of distracting yourself with fantasies or worries, you focus your attention calmly upon the felt sense of what is happening. As you perform this task you become acutely conscious of your reactive “arisings” and the potency of their force. They too are to be included within that same wide, still embrace. You do not free yourself from narcissistic or self-disgusted longings by suppressing them but by accepting them as the uprising of habitual inclinations, which may be psychologically, culturally, religiously, or instinctively conditioned. Fully knowing suffering is not an end in itself but a precondition for being able to let go of the craving that habitually arises in reaction to suffering. In Buddhism 2.0 the problem with craving is not that it causes suffering (although obviously sometimes it does) but that it prevents one from entering the eightfold path. In this sense, craving is a hindrance (nīv...