Secular Buddhism and the Timeless: A Conversation with Stephen Batchelor and Bhikkhu Santi

Join us for a public installment of an ongoing, unlikely conversation between the instigator of Secular Buddhism and a free-range but fully ordained Theravada monk. Stephen Batchelor and Ven. Bhikkhu Santi will discuss Buddha, Socrates and Us: Notes for an Ethics of Uncertainty (Batchelor’s forthcoming book, from Yale University Press); meanings of monasticism from and for science-informed, politics-alert viewpoints; writing and the creative life; and the import of ancient wisdom for our contemporary moment. Q&A to follow.

Stephen Batchelor is a writer, translator, teacher, and artist. A former monk in the Tibetan and Zen traditions of Buddhism, he is the author of the bestselling Buddhism without Beliefs (Riverhead). His most recent publications are After Buddhism, Secular Buddhism, and The Art of Solitude, all published by Yale University Press.

c is a monk in the Thai forest tradition, a meditation-centered branch of Theravada Buddhism. He teaches and writes on the intersections of Buddhism, modernity, personal life, and other spiritual themes, with recent essays in Tricycle: The Buddhist Journal. A Yale College alumnus (’88), he lives on freewill offerings with no fixed abode.

Co-sponsored by Yale Buddhist Life, The Good Life Center, and the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities

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