Posted inVideos

Going Back To The Source: Sharing An Identity With Everything That Lives {VIDEO Clip}

January 13, 2015

This is the 13th short video clip (1:29) from the conversation between Stephen Batchelor and Henry Shukman, on June 4, 2014, at the Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico on “Going Back to the Source.” This is the final clip of this series.

The entire talk’s video (1:03:15) can also be viewed on our YouTube channel.

Their dialogue covers : Eastern and Western thought, the great doubt, dismantling of knowing, ancient greeks and buddhism, zen and classical philosophy, seeing with clarity, humanist enlightenment in the west, roots of being human, Zen’s transitional phase, like mindedness, sharing an identity with everything that lives, and releasing our reactivity. In their view, we arrive at the single source from many paths.

In this clip Stephen closes out the talk with a reminder that Buddhism leads to “… a heartfelt identity with everything that lives and breathes on this Earth  …” …  below  is the transcript of this segment of the conversation:

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Stephen Batchelor: But of course we have to go beyond humans now.

And I’ve always been struck by how in the early Buddhists, certainly in Mahayana Buddhism, there’s this constant emphasis not on the whole of humanity but on sabbe satta, all sentient beings.

And that I think is the kind of commonality, the kind of identity, … I think we are called upon now to realize, that it’s not—the humans are just one of many species, a relatively recent arrival on the scene who’s wreaked an incredible amount of damage. And I think what these practices and what this philosophy might lead to is not to sort of a common humanity or humanism but actually to a really heartfelt identity with everything that lives and breathes on this Earth.

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Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. Click here for his Full BIO.

Henry Shukman is head teacher at Mountain Cloud Zen Center. Click here for his full BIO.

Credits:
This video clip is from : Going Back to the Source : A conversation with Stephen Batchelor and Henry Shukman, Produced by Chris Hebard, Filmed by Luke Fitch (altitude-fx.com), copyright stillnessspeaks.com

This conversation, and the video, is presented by Stillness Speaks in association with Tricycle and Mountain Cloud Zen Center.

Full transcript of the conversation can be found at Tricycle by clicking here.

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