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Stephen Batchelor: “Wonderous Doubt”

Stephen Batchelor — author of the classics Alone With Others and The Art of Solitude, plus his key book Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World — discusses his ideas about modern Buddhism with host Krista Tippett on an installmentment of the podcast On Being titled “Wonderous Doubt.”

Batchelor: “Many of my critics would be quite happy for me to stop calling myself a Buddhist. And even some of those who like my work feel that the Buddhism gets in the way. But I disagree profoundly with that. The rootedness in tradition is central to me; and I see Buddhist tradition — I suspect like other traditions, also — as not something which is static and fixed and somehow preserved in formaldehyde, but it is something that is alive.”

URL: https://onbeing.org/programs/stephen-batchelor-wondrous-doubt-mar2018/

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Nanavira Thera, Buddhist hermit

The Sri Lankan Guardian offers a succinct essay about the British-born Harold Musson, who became the Sri Lankan Buddhist hermit Nanavira Thera and prolific writer on the intersection of Buddhism and modern existentialism. Was his life and death anomalous tragedy? “Nanavira likely saw the situation differently,” notes the author.

URL: https://slguardian.org/buddhism-nanavira-thera-the-hermit-of-bundala/

See also the Hermitary review of the book The Hermit of Bundala by Hiriko Nansuci.

URL: https://www.hermitary.com/bookreviews/nanavira.html

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From teacher to solitary painter

TVMNews (Malta) article and short video on a young Malta teacher who quit her work and moved to a Greek mountain to pursue solitude and painting.

Nathalie Micallef reflects: “We only have one life. Life is short. I used to be a teacher but I left everything behind. I had a home in Malta but left everything and went there without any job.” The article notes that “She loves nature, solitude and painting. Ten years ago Nathalie Micallef decided to pack up and go live in the mountains where there are hardly any residents.”

URL: https://tvmnews.mt/en/news/watch-woman-quits-her-job-and-goes-to-live-in-greek-mountains/

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Nietzsche on becoming who you are

Psyche presents a reflection on Nietzsche and the shaping of the self in an essay titled “When Nietzsche said ‘become who you are’, this is what he meant.” As the author of the piece notes: “Contrary to popular belief, Nietzsche was not a nihilist set on destroying human values. In fact, the unifying purpose behind his work was to fill the moral vacuum left by the decline of religion. His aversion to the legalistic and guilt-inducing ethical systems of his time stemmed from his fundamental goal of guiding individuals toward psychological health, personal excellence and virtue.”

URL: https://psyche.co/ideas/when-nietzsche-said-become-who-you-are-this-is-what-he-meant