Stephen Batchelor (c. 1953) is a self-described agnostic born in Scotland, and is the author of many books relating to Buddhism. Currently living in Aquitaine, France, at age nineteen Batchelor moved to Dharamsala in India with an interest in Buddhism. In 1974 he ordained as a Tibetan monk in the Gelug tradition. In Dharamsala, shortly after ordination, he met Satya Narayan Goenka, and sat a ten-day vipassana meditation retreat with him. He studi...
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Stephen Batchelor (c. 1953) is a self-described agnostic born in Scotland, and is the author of many books relating to Buddhism. Currently living in Aquitaine, France, at age nineteen Batchelor moved to Dharamsala in India with an interest in Buddhism. In 1974 he ordained as a Tibetan monk in the Gelug tradition. In Dharamsala, shortly after ordination, he met Satya Narayan Goenka, and sat a ten-day vipassana meditation retreat with him. He studied under Geshe Rabten in Switzerland, his group consisting mostly of Westerners like himself. During this period he learned to read Tibetan script and found himself immersed in a fairly complex routine. While a Tibetan monk, Batchelor continued his vipassana practice. While not outright prohibited by his Tibetan teachers, it was not endorsed, either. It was tolerated.
In 1977 he left the Gelug tradition and ordained as a Korean Zen monk in South Korea, where he met his wife Martine Batchelor (then a Buddhist nun). He found the Korean approach...
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