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((short description|Form of non-dogmatic Buddhism))
((More citations needed|date=April 2015|talk=Need citations))
((WesternBuddhism))
((Buddhism))
((Atheism sidebar |types))
((distinguish|Neo-Buddhism))

'''Secular Buddhism'''—sometimes also referred to as '''agnostic Buddhism''', '''Buddhist agnosticism''', '''ignostic Buddhism''', '''atheistic Buddhism''', '''pragmatic Buddhism''', '''Buddhist atheism''', or '''Buddhist secularism'''—is a broad term for a form of [[Buddhism]] based on [[humanism|humanist]], [[Philosophical skepticism|skeptical]], and [[agnostic]] values, valuing [[pragmatism]] and (often) [[Spiritual naturalism|naturalism]], eschewing beliefs in the [[supernatural]] or [[paranormal]]. It can be described as the embrace of Buddhist rituals and philosophy for their secular benefits by people who are atheist or agnostic.

Secular Buddhists interpret the teachings of the [[Buddha]] and the [[Buddhist texts]] in a [[rationalist]] and often [[evidentialism|evidentialist]] manner, considering the historical and cultural contexts of the times in which the Buddha lived and in which the various [[sutra]]s and [[tantra]]s were written.

The secular Buddhist framework strips Buddhist doctrine of various traditional beliefs that could be considered [[superstitious]], or that cannot be tested through [[empirical research]], such as: supernatural beings (such as [[Deva (Buddhism)|deva]]s, [[bodhisattvas]], [[nāga]]s, [[preta]]s, [[List of Buddhas|Buddha]]s, etc.), [[Merit (Buddhism)|merit]] and its [[Pariṇāmanā|transference]], [[Rebirth (Buddhism)|rebirth]], and [[karma]],<ref>((cite news |last=Vernon |first=Mark |title=The new Buddhist atheism |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/10/buddhism-atheism-hitchens  |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=10 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722133037/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/10/buddhism-atheism-hitchens |archive-date=22 July 2019 ))</ref> [[Buddhist cosmology]] (including the existence of [[pure land]]s and [[Naraka (Buddhism)|hells]]), etc.<ref name="fronsdal">((cite journal|last=Fronsdal|first=Gil|author-link=Gil Fronsdal|title=Natural Buddhism|url=https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/article/natural-buddhism/|journal=Insight Journal|publisher=Barre Center for Buddhist Studies|year=2014))</ref>

Traditional [[Buddhist ethics|Buddhist ethical]] views regarding social issues such as [[Buddhism and abortion|abortion]] and [[Buddhism and sexuality|human sexuality]] may or may not be called into question as well, with some schools, especially [[Western Buddhism|Western Buddhist]] ones, taking alternative stances.

== History ==

Secular Buddhism has its roots in [[Buddhist modernism]] and [[secular humanism]],<ref name="Higgins" /> and is part of the broad trend of secularization that has been ongoing in the West since the recovery of [[classical Greek culture]] in the [[Renaissance]]. Many aspects of secular Buddhism are associated with the abandonment of hierarchical features of Buddhist monastic culture among some lay Buddhist practice communities in the West during the last decades of the 20th century in favor of democratic principles of civic association and the inclusion of women, disrupting traditional structures of patriarchal authority and gender exclusivity.<ref name="Higgins" />

The [[Vipassana movement|Insight Meditation movement]] in the United States was founded on modernist secular values. [[Jack Kornfield]], an American teacher and former [[Theravada|Theravadin]] monk, stated that the [[Insight Meditation Society]] wanted to present Buddhist meditation "without the complications of rituals, robes, chanting and the whole religious tradition."<ref>((citation|last=Fronsdal|first=Gil|author-link=Gil Fronsdal|year=1998|contribution =Insight Meditation in the United States: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness|editor-last1 =Prebish | editor-first1 =C.S.|editor-last2 =Tanaka| editor-first2 = K.K.|title=The Faces of Buddhism in America|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|url=http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articles/insight-meditation-in-the-united-states-life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness/))</ref> [[SN Goenka|S. N. Goenka]], a popular teacher of Buddhist Vipassana meditation, taught that his practice was not a sectarian doctrine, but “something from which people of every background can benefit: an art of living.”<ref>((cite web|last=Braun|first=Erik|title=S. N. Goenka, Pioneer of Secular Meditation Movement, Dies at 90|url=http://tricycle.org/trikedaily/s-n-goenka-pioneer-secular-meditation-movement-dies-90/|publisher=[[Tricycle:The Buddhist Review]]|date=October 1, 2013|access-date=August 12, 2019))</ref> This essentially treats Buddhism as an applied [[philosophy]], rather than a [[religion]],<ref name="Higgins" /> or relies on [[Buddhist philosophy]] without [[dogma]]tism. While recent scholarship has shown that such framings of Buddhist tradition were in large part rhetorical, and that teachers such as Goenka retained their traditional religious commitments in enacting their teachings and disseminating their meditation practices, such rhetorical reframing had a powerful impact on how Buddhism was repackaged in the context of the emergent globalities of the latter part of the twentieth century.<ref>((citation|last=Stuart|first=Daniel M.|title=S.N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight|url=https://www.shambhala.com/s-n-goenka.html|publisher=[[Shambhala Publications]]|year=2020|isbn=9781611808186))</ref>

[[Stephen Batchelor (author)|Stephen Batchelor]] is a self-proclaimed secular Buddhist who promotes a strictly secular form of Buddhism. Batchelor was a Buddhist monk ordained in the more traditional forms of Buddhism. From his experience as a monk practicing [[Tibetan Buddhism]] and later [[Zen]],<ref name="pw">((cite web|title=Buddhism Without Beliefs|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-57322-058-3|work=[[Publishers Weekly]]|date=March 31, 1997|access-date=August 12, 2019))</ref> he felt the need for a more secular and agnostic approach. In his books ''Buddhism Without Beliefs'' and ''Confession of a Buddhist Atheist'' he articulates his approach to the Buddha's teaching, describes [[The Buddha|Siddhārtha Gautama]] as a historic person rather than an idealized religious icon, and scrutinizes typical Buddhist doctrines dealing with the concept of an [[afterlife]].<ref name="pw"/><ref>((cite journal|last=Bodhi|first=Bhikkhu|author-link=Bhikkhu Bodhi|title=Buddhism without Beliefs: Review|url=http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2010/04/batch1.pdf|journal=Journal of Buddhist Ethics 5:14-21|year=1998))</ref> In his book ''After Buddhism'' he promotes a [[philosophical skepticism|skeptical philosophical]] interpretation of Buddhism akin to the [[Hellenistic philosophy|Hellenistic philosophical]] tradition of [[Pyrrhonism]]. Batchelor suspects that [[Pyrrho]] learned some Buddhism while Pyrrho was in India as part of [[Alexander the Great]]'s conquest and that Pyrrhonism may reflect the skepticism of Early Buddhism before Buddhism fell into [[dogma]]tism.<ref>((Cite web|url=https://secularbuddhism.org/batchelors-after-buddhism-a-review/|title=Batchelor's "After Buddhism": A Review – Secular Buddhist Association|website=secularbuddhism.org))</ref>

== Key concepts and practices ==
Unlike the various kinds of Buddhist modernism, which tend to be modifications of traditional schools of Buddhist thought and practice in the light of the discourses of modernity, secular Buddhism is founded on a reconfiguration of core elements of the dharma itself.<ref name="Batchelor" /> To this end it seeks to recover the original teachings of Siddhattha Gautama, the historical Buddha, yet without claiming to disclose "what the Buddha really meant". Rather, it interprets the early canonical teachings in a way that draws out their meaning in the Buddha's own historical context (the culture of the Gangetic plains in the fifth century BCE) while demonstrating their value and relevance to people living in our own time. Both aspects of this interpretation are literally "secular" in that they evoke the Latin root word ''saeculum'' – a particular age or generation. The ethos of the movement is captured in Stephen Batchelor's ''Confession of a Buddhist Atheist''.<ref name="Batchelor2" />

Secular Buddhism proposes metaphysical beliefs and [[soteriology]] of Indian religious culture be left behind. This culture saw human life as an irredeemable realm of suffering, from which one should seek transcendence in an enduring beyond-human condition – a stance that virtually all Buddhist schools, as well as Hinduism and Jainism, perpetuate. Secular Buddhism, on the other hand, seeks to impart the Buddha's teaching as a guide to full human flourishing in this life and this world. In adopting a [[post-metaphysical philosophy]], it parts company with existing religious forms of Buddhist orthodoxy, which have evolved since the Buddha's death. Instead, it aligns itself with today's post-metaphysical philosophy, not least phenomenology, so finding itself on a convergent path with similar movements in radical Christian theology, found in the work of thinkers such as [[Don Cupitt]]<ref name="Cupitt" /> and [[Gianni Vattimo]].<ref name="Vattimo"/>

Secular Buddhism rejects power structures legitimated by the metaphysics of orthodox Buddhist belief.<ref>((cite journal |last1=Contestabile |first1=Bruno |title=Secular Buddhism and Justice |journal=Contemporary Buddhism |date=25 February 2018 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=237–250 |doi=10.1080/14639947.2018.1442144 |s2cid=148960240 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/CONSBA-3 ))</ref> It questions notions of spiritual progress based on standardized prescriptions for meditation practice, as well as the idea that Buddhist practice is essentially concerned with gaining proficiency in a set of meditative techniques endorsed by the authority of a traditional school or teacher.<ref name="Magid" /><ref name="Siff"/> Instead, secular Buddhism emphasizes a [[Praxis (process)|praxis]],  encouraging autonomy and [[Equanimity|equally encompassing]]  every aspect of one's humanity, as modeled by the [[Noble Eightfold Path|noble eight-fold path]] (appropriate view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration). Such an approach is open to generating a wide range of responses to specific individual and communal needs, rather than insisting on there being "one true way" to "enlightenment" valid for all times and places.

== See also ==
((div col|colwidth=30em))
* [[Adevism]]
* [[Buddhism in the Americas (disambiguation)|Buddhism in the Americas]]
* [[Buddhism in the West]]
* [[Buddhist modernism]]
* [[Buddhist paths to liberation]]
* [[Criticism of Buddhism#Arguments of secular origin]]
* [[Index of Buddhism-related articles]]
* [[Religious views on truth]]
* [[Schools of Buddhism]]
* [[Secular spirituality]]
* [[Shambhala Buddhism]]
* [[Similarities between Pyrrhonism and Buddhism]]
* [[Spiritual but not religious]]
* [[Spiritual naturalism]]
((div col end))

== Notes and references ==
((Reflist|2|refs=
refs=
<ref name="Batchelor">((citation|last=Batchelor|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Batchelor (author)|title=A Secular Buddhism|url=http://www.globalbuddhism.org/jgb/index.php/jgb/article/download/127/142|journal=Journal of Global Buddhism|volume=13|pages=87–107|year=2012|access-date=2015-05-26|archive-date=2019-07-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705154554/http://www.globalbuddhism.org/jgb/index.php/jgb/article/download/127/142|url-status=dead))</ref>
<ref name="Batchelor2">((citation|last=Batchelor|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Batchelor (author)|title=Confession of a Buddhist Atheist|location=New York|publisher=[[Spiegel & Grau]]|year=2010|isbn=978-0-385-52706-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/confessionofbudd0000batc))</ref>
<ref name="Cupitt">((citation|last=Cupitt|first=Don|title=After God |location=New York|publisher=[[Basic Books]]|year=1997|isbn=978-0465045143))</ref>
<ref name="Vattimo">((citation|last=Vattimo|first=Gianni|title= After Christianity |location=New York|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0231106283))</ref>
<ref name="Magid">((citation|last=Magid|first=Barry|author-link=Barry Magid|title= Ending the pursuit of happiness: a Zen guide |location=Boston|publisher=[[Wisdom Publications]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0861715534))</ref>
<ref name="Siff">((citation|last=Siff|first=Jason|title=Unlearning Meditation: What to Do When the Instructions Get In the Way|publisher=[[Shambhala Publications]]|year=2010|isbn=978-1590307526))</ref>
<ref name="Higgins">((citation|last=Higgins|first=Winton|url=http://www.globalbuddhism.org/jgb/index.php/jgb/article/download/128/143|title=The Coming of Secular Buddhism: A Synoptic View|journal=Journal of Global Buddhism|volume=13|pages=110–113|year=2012|access-date=2015-05-26|archive-date=2018-04-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180411080731/http://www.globalbuddhism.org/jgb/index.php/jgb/article/download/128/143|url-status=dead))</ref>
))

== Further reading ==
* ((citation|last=Batchelor|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Batchelor (author)|title=Buddhism without Beliefs|publisher=[[Riverhead Books]]|year=1998|isbn=1-57322-656-4))
*((citation|last=Batchelor|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Batchelor (author)|title=After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=2015|isbn=978-0300205183|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/afterbuddhismret0000batc))
* ((citation|last=Harris|first=Sam|author-link=Sam Harris|title=[[Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion]]|publisher= [[Simon & Schuster]]|year= 2014|isbn= 978-1451636017))
*((citation|last=Higgins|first=Winton|author-link=|title=Revamp: Writings on Secular Buddhism|publisher= Tuwhiri|year= 2021|isbn= 9780473571399))
*((citation|last=Payne|first=Richard|author-link=|title=Secularizing Buddhism: New Perspectives on a Dynamic Tradition|publisher= [[Shambhala Publications]]|year= 2021|isbn= 9781611808896))
* ((citation|last=Stuart|first=Daniel M.|title=S.N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight|url=https://www.shambhala.com/s-n-goenka.html|publisher=[[Shambhala Publications]]|year=2020|isbn=9781611808186))
* ((citation|last=Ward|first=Tim|title=What the Buddha Never Taught|publisher=[[Celestial Arts]]|year=1995|isbn=0-89087-687-8))
*((citation|last=Wright|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Wright (journalist)|title=[[Why Buddhism Is True]]: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment|publisher= [[Simon & Schuster]]|year= 2017|isbn= 9781439195468))

== External links ==
* [https://tricycle.org/beginners/decks/secular-dharma/ Secular Buddhism] in [https://tricycle.org Tricycle's] [https://tricycle.org/beginners/ Buddhism for Beginners] series

((Buddhism topics))
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[[Category:Applied philosophy]]
[[Category:Buddhism and atheism]]
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