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Secular Buddhism

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Secular Buddhism is a general term for an emergent form of Buddhism built on humanist, skeptical, and/or agnostic values.[1] Secular Buddhists offer a naturalistic practice for personal and social development,[2] derived from classical Buddhist scriptures but cleared of religious transcendence.[3] The movement first appeared in the last part of the 20th century as an extension of earlier secularizing trends in Buddhism that began in the late 19th Century.[4] In 2021, an unspecified number of early-stage institutional variations were observed, some only available online.[5] Secular Buddhism may also be referred to as Agnostic Buddhism, Pragmatic Buddhism, Existential Buddhism, or other names.[6][7] Some refer to themselves as atheistic Buddhists.[8]

Stephen Batchelor

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Stephen Batchelor, a leading proponent,[9][10][11] contrasts Secular Buddhism with groups that retain an ambivalent relationship with the inherited dogmas and hierarchies of the Buddhist tradition, such as the Soka Gakkai, Shambhala, and assorted mindfulness-meditation centers.[12] As he explains, “although there may be a reduced public display of overt religiosity in their centers and a deliberate effort by teachers to present the dharma in terms of its psychological and social benefits, little effort has been made to critically reexamine the underlying worldview of Buddhism, in which are still embedded the cosmology and metaphysics of ancient India.”[13] According to Batchelor, for these movements to be considered participants in Secular Buddhism, they must confont and rearticulate the traditional doctrines of karma, rebirth, heavens, hells, and supernormal powers.[13]

Batchelor was a Buddhist monastic trained in traditional forms of Buddhism.[14] From his experience practicing Tibetan Buddhism and later Zen, he saw the need for a teaching that accords with the sensibilities of “this secular age.”[13] In Buddhism Without Beliefs, published in 1997, he depicts Siddhārtha Gautama’s awakening not as a profound insight into an ultimate Truth but as an awareness free of existential confusion.[15] The Buddha Batchelor describes is a historic person instead of an idealized religious figure.[16] As for karma and rebirth, Batchelor suggests an agnostic stance that does not require belief in either doctrine, but to act according to the ethical implications they convey.[17] In many of his writings on the topic, especially in After Buddhism, he explains how passages from the Pali Canon can be understood without metaphysical dogmatism.[18] For Batchelor, Secular Buddhism is “religious” in the sense that it is rooted in “ultimate concerns,” but these concerns are about finding “an authentic and autonomous response to the questions that life poses rather than confirming any doctrinal article of faith.”[19] The secular dharma he points to is an “everyday sublime” that “outstrips our capacity for representation.”[20]

Gil Fronsdal and Others Associated with Mindfulness Meditation Centers

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Gil Fronsdal (a former Zen Buddhist, later schooled by senior Theravāda meditation teachers in Burma, and guiding teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California) is another prominent figure in the movement, although he prefers calling his teachings “Naturalistic Buddhism.”[21] While Fronsdal acknowledges his beliefs align with Secular Buddhism,[22] he considers “secular” a term that stands in opposition to “religious” and “spiritual.”[23] Since he believes Buddhism is a religion and that his practice is “deeply religious,” he prefers “naturalistic” instead.[23] Another nuance of Fronsdal's position is that, unlike Batchelor, he does not find it necessary to confront the supernatural roots of the tradition, but simply sees no need to include them in the Buddhism he practices.[24] According to Bhikku Bodhi, this method avoids polemics, drastic attempts at scriptural revision, and representing itself as the future of Buddhism.[25] It might also be more appropriately catagorized as representing an orientation other than Secular Buddhism.[26]

Nevertheless, Fronsdal's teachings bear a family resemblance to Batchelor's.[22] While Fronsdal prefers the term "Naturalistic Buddhism," his commitment to a rational and evidence-based understanding of the Dharma, excluding supernatural elements, places his practice within the broader spectrum of secular Buddhist thought.[27] The insights he extracts from the Pali Canon (mostly the entirety of The Book of Eights) are free of rebirth, karmic operations over multiple lifetimes, heaven, hells, devas, psychic powers, or any other idea falling “outside the natural laws known to science.”[28] As for describing his practice as “deeply religious,” he clarifies that “religious” refers to a sense of appreciation for the world that is so special, so deep, and so total, it feels sacred.[29]

Others associated with mindfulness meditations centers might also be considered partcipants in Secular Buddhism, but whether they are or not requires examination. One pioneer in the movement is Jack Kornfield, a former Theravadin monk, who founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts along with Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg. According to Kornfield, from the IMS's beginning in 1976, the center wanted to present Buddhist meditation "without the complications of rituals, robes, chanting and the whole religious tradition."[30] However, this trait alone does not in itself indicate that he or others like him priortize a secular or naturalistic form of Buddhism.[13][28]

The Secular Buddhism of Bhim Rao Ambedkar

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Although the emergence of Secular Buddhism as a distinct movement is placed in the last decade of the 20th century,[5] the earlier works of Bhim Rao Ambedkar (1891-1956) have been retrospectively recognized as a significant precursor and included within its scope.[31][32][33] According to scholars, Ambedkar established in 1956 a teaching derived from the Pāli Canon that is focused on ethical and social implications, deliberately removed from the metaphysical claims that underpinned the caste system he opposed.[34][35][36][37]

In contrast to the orientations of Stephen Batchelor and other traditionally-schooled Western reformers, Ambedkar’s familiarity with Buddhism did not come from years of dedicated practice but from the Buddha’s renown as a native cultural icon who introduced a message of salvation applicable to everyone, equally.[38] Ambedkar’s foremost concern was to free those oppressed by the religious cosmology fortifying the Indian caste system in which he was raised.[38] For him, Buddhism contained an ethos that was compatible with science and well suited to support a civic culture aligned with the fundamental values of liberty, equality, and fraternity.[39] While he linked the Buddha’s teachings directly to the implementation of egalitarian social reform, after his passing some associates inserted vipassanā (insight) and loving-kindness meditation into the equation.[40]

Though many of his followers honor Ambedkar with superlatives reserved for bodhisattvas in the pantheon of traditional Buddhism,[41] this level of adoration does not negate the fact that he discouraged such attributions,[42] and left behind a secular teaching based on 464 references to the Pali Tripitaka and Dhammapada.[43][44] What set Ambedkar’s efforts apart from the more moderate Buddhist reformers of his region and era was that, while their approaches to modernism originated in a background rooted in Buddhism, his primarily came from a mid-century appreciation for the emancipatory promise of the French Revolution, pragmatism, socialism, rationalism, and a scientific temper.[45]

A Secular Buddhism based on the Lotus Sūtra

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In an article published by the Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies in 2024, John R. Tate introduces a Lotus Sūtra-based option for Secular Buddhism.[46] Tate’s essay relies on scholarly opinions to cast doubt on a literal reading of the Lotus Sūtra’s abundance of cosmic imagery and argues for replacing the text’s climactic image of an eternal Buddha with the phrase, “The conditional emergence of benevolence as gifted by time, process, and potential.”[47] The article then shows how this phrase aligns with traditional Mahāyāna doctrine and contemporary socio-philosophical principles and can function as a relational ultimate to replace faith in a transcendent understanding of the text’s long-venerated core.[48] The practice he recommends looks nothing like mindfulness meditation (silent introspection vs. focusing on an image while chanting) and encourages belief in an explicit representation of the dharma.[49] Yet, Tate asserts his reinterpretation of the Lotus Sūtra and corresponding practice represents an alternative, non-dogmatic form of Secular Buddhism.[50]

Criticisms

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Secularizing Buddhism: New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition, edited by Richard K. Payne, contains articles that critically assess the impact of secularization on the Buddhist tradition.[51] While Payne’s compilation is a published resource for evaluating Buddhist secularization, detractors assert it vilifies those advocating for Secular Buddhism.[52][53] Of note, also, Payne’s review appeared three years before the publication of Tate’s Lotus-based version and did not include an assessment of Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s socially-engaged Secular Buddhism.[54].

References and notes

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  1. ^ Manitoba, Department of Education (2025). "Buddhism in an Era of Secularism" (PDF). Buddhism: A Supplemental Resource for Grade 12 World of Religions: A Canadian Perspective: 194.
  2. ^ Manitoba 2025, pp. 196–97.
  3. ^ Bodhi, Bhikku (2021). "Manifesting the Buddha Dharma in a Secular Age". Secularizing Buddhism: New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition. Boulder: Shambala Publications, Inc. pp. 166–67.
  4. ^ Payne, Richard; Kemp, Casey A. (2021). Secular Buddhism. Boulder: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. p. 1.
  5. ^ a b Payne 2021, p. 1.
  6. ^ Manitoba 2025, p. 194.
  7. ^ Amathabhani, Buthkande; Amathabhani, Buthkande (2024). "Existential Buddhism: embracing life's uncertainties and finding meaning within". South Florida Journal of Development (5): 1–17. doi:10.46932/sfjdv5n10-042.
  8. ^ Vélez de Cea, Dr. J. Abraham (June 1, 2012). Buddha and the New Atheists: On the Art of Teaching the Dhamma in the Bible Belt (PDF). 2nd International Association of Buddhist Universities Conference. Event occurs at 1440.
  9. ^ Batchelor, Stephen (2012). "A Secular Buddhism". Journal of Global Buddhism (13): 89.
  10. ^ Bodhi 2021, pp. 165–66.
  11. ^ Jackson, Roger K. (2021). "Avoiding Rebirth: Modern Buddhist Views on Past and Future Lives". Secularizing Buddhism: New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition. Boulder: Shambala Publications, Inc. p. 239.
  12. ^ Batchelor, Stephen (2015). After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 18–19. ISBN 9789351777724.
  13. ^ a b c d Batchelor 2015, p. 19.
  14. ^ Batchelor 2015, pp. 5, 10.
  15. ^ Batchelor, Stephen (1997). Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening. New York: Riverhead Books. pp. 3–5. ISBN 9781573226561.
  16. ^ Batchelor 1997, pp. 15–16.
  17. ^ Batchelor 1997, p. 36.
  18. ^ Batchelor 2015, pp. 128–33.
  19. ^ Batchelor 2015, pp. 21–24.
  20. ^ Batchelor 2015, p. 250.
  21. ^ Fronsdal, Gil (2021). "Naturalistic Buddhism". Secularizing Buddhism: New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition. Boulder: Shambala Publications, Inc. p. 266.
  22. ^ a b Fronsdal 2021, p. 268.
  23. ^ a b Fronsdal 2021, p. 266.
  24. ^ Fronsdal 2021, p. 267.
  25. ^ Bodhi 2021, p. 171.
  26. ^ Bodhi 2021, p. 167.
  27. ^ Slott, Mike. "A missed opportunity: a review of 'Secularizing Buddhism". Secular Buddhist Network. See last page. Retrieved April 22, 2025.
  28. ^ a b Fronsdal 2021, p. 267-68.
  29. ^ Able, Venessa. "Gil Fronsdal on Immanent and Naturalistic Buddhism". The Dewdrop. See response to second question. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
  30. ^ Fronsdal, Gil (1998), "Insight Meditation in the United States: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", in Prebish, C.S.; Tanaka, K.K. (eds.), The Faces of Buddhism in America, University of California Press
  31. ^ Tate, John R. (2024). "An Ultimate from Immanence: Lotus Buddhism Redefined for a Secular Worldview". Indian International Journal of Religious Studies (24): 212. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15362205.
  32. ^ Mason, Kirk. "Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar: A Secular Buddhist Vision for Liberation". Secular Buddhist Network. Retrieved April 20, 2025.
  33. ^ Smith, Douglass. A New Buddhism: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Doug's Dharma. Event occurs at 16:58. Retrieved May 11, 2025.
  34. ^ Gokhale, Pradeep (2021). "Ambedkar and Modern Buddhism: Continuity and Discontinuity" (PDF). Classical Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism and The Question of Caste. New York: Routledge. pp. 262–64.
  35. ^ Omvedt, Gail (2004). Abedkar: Towards an Enlightened India. India: Penguin Books. See Introduction. ISBN 0670049913.
  36. ^ Nanda, Meera (2007). Breaking the Spell of Dharma and other essays. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective. pp. 61–63. ISBN 8188789550.
  37. ^ Tate 2024, p. 211.
  38. ^ a b Nanda 2007, p. 59.
  39. ^ Nanda 2007, p. 58.
  40. ^ Hennigar, Mallory (2021). "Boundation & Bindās: Ambedkarite Youth In a Global Buddhist Movement". Syracuse University Dissertations (1301): 1, 126.
  41. ^ Sharma, Nirja (1998). "An Buddhist Liberation in India and B.R. Ambedkar" (PDF). Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Delhi: 1.
  42. ^ Sharma 1998, p. 2.
  43. ^ Nanda 2007, p. 62.
  44. ^ Ambedkar, Bhim Rao (1957). "The Buddha & His Dhamma". Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, vol. 11. Bombay: Siddarth College Publications.
  45. ^ Gakhale 2021, p. 269.
  46. ^ Tate 2024, p. 209-50.
  47. ^ Tate 2024, p. 228.
  48. ^ Tate 2024, pp. 228–39.
  49. ^ Tate 2024, pp. 241, note 55 (Secular Prayers).
  50. ^ Tate 2024, pp. 239–42.
  51. ^ Schwerk, Dagmar (2022). "Book Review: Secularizing Buddhism: New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition". Journal of Global Buddhism. 27 (1): 87–94. doi:10.26034/lu.jgb.2022.2331.
  52. ^ Slott, p. 1.
  53. ^ Higgins, Winton. "An Unconvincing Case Against Secular Buddhism". Tricycle. Retrieved March 19, 2025.
  54. ^ Tate 2024, p. 211, note 4.
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