Post-religious Buddhism

Stephen Batchelors book, Buddhism Without Beliefs, more than any other modern pop book about Buddhism, gives the reader, especially the beginner, a fairly accurate view of the future of Westernized Buddhism. Ironically, Buddhism Without Beliefs reveals and says more about the Wests post-religious ideology than Buddhism. I will go so far as to say that Buddhism Without Beliefs contains nothing pertaining to the essence of Buddhism which should be obvious for anyone who has spent a year or more studying the Nikayas including Mahayana works.

It is not out of the way to say that the post-religious outlook that Buddhism Without Beliefs shows the reader is somewhat of a novelty. Anti-religiousness, which makes the post-religious outlook possible, has not succeeded in the modern agecertainly not in the 20th century. There is no compelling evidence that religion is on the decline much less Buddhism with its belief in karma and rebirth. And this goes for spirituality and mysticism, as well, both of which go in the direction of the transmundane.

Buddhism Without Beliefs is calculated to appeal to those who just dont get religion or spirituality who, for that matter, cant understand a word Plotinus or Meister Eckhart said; much less the Buddha. On this same note, Buddhism Without Beliefs is not calculated to appeal to Buddhists who are familiar with the words of the Buddha. Batchelor even goes so far as to ignore the subject of nirvana as if this is an unimportant subject in Buddhism!

If people have been deceived by religion in the past, they have also been deceived by a lot of non-religious matters. Post-religiousness is just another deception especially Batchelor's take on Buddhism.