Customer Reviews

Alone with Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism

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I found this book of approximately 130 pages absolutely fascinating. While it is very non-traditional, it provides a bridge that helps the modern person to relate some of the most important concepts of Buddhism through the bridge provided by Western existentialist thought.

This book is very well written and Stephen Batchelor is very credible as an author having spent considerable time in Asia and having been a monk for 10 years in both the Tibetan and Zen traditions. While the book is largely his own perspective, it is a valuable one given his life experience and ability to convey complex topics in easy to understand terms. It certainly got my attention!

If you are looking to read your first book on Buddhism or Existentialism, this is probably not for you. However, if you are familiar to one or both of these topics and/or are looking to understand the human condition more deeply, then you will not be disappointed at the ideas presented here.

For me, this was a two sitting book that completely engaged me. I have read many books on Buddhism and Existentialism and thought this had a lot to offer a modern person in terms of making Buddhism relevant to modern contexts. I also found it a useful and sensitive exploration of the nature of loneliness and the limitations of the human condition. Among other things, it poignantly expressed how loneliness and the reality of our ultimate death could help us deepen our experience of reality through relationship and fuller engagement with life.

I sense the author is just pushing his own view on buddhism (or... existentialism) through this book: this is not a study of the crossroads between buddhism and existentialism, but the author's own view on buddhism expressed in the terms of existential thinking.
St. Batchelor in this book holds a view about buddhism very much close to that of contemporary Vietnamese zen buddhism. They see the world as manyfold manifestations all sprung from one unique universal 'tank' ('alaya vijnana'); consequently they hold the view that all things and beings in this universe are linked together in complete solidarity. This is one view: but this is not really essential either to buddhism or to existentialism. It also seems to me somewhat oversimplified as a moral and as a cosmic hypothesis. Personal responsability and gratuitous compassion are closer to ancient, theravada buddhism.
Anyway, I much preferred--and would recommend--the same author's "Buddhism without belief" as a contemporary, 'modernist' approach to the ageless and visionary wisdom of buddhism!

I've read this book three times and each time I get more out of the reading. The author is able to break down, explain, and connect the various Buddhist approaches with insight and clarity. Sometimes the language and references can be challenging (there's a glossary in the back) but his take on the commonalities of Buddhism and Christianity are some of the best and they are motivating me to read Paul Tillich, John MacQuarrie, and Martin Heidegger just to find out more. Highly recommended reading.

The author, who is very knowledgeable about the subject, helps explain why Buddha talked about despair and anguish and offers some insight into how the human condition can improve using Siddhartha's methods. He demonstrates how we can be alone and yet, at the same time, depend so much on being with others. if you already have some knowledge of Buddhism, this is a fascinating book. If not, you might have some rough going with it and it will take some effort for you to follow Bachelor's logic. There are other books by Bachelor which are more accessible.

This is a fantastic book...but it may never become the widely-read classic it deserves to be. The reason is that it is written "inspired by" the language of Martin Heidegger's existentialist masterpiece Being & Time. If you've never read Being & Time you might struggle to make sense of the significance of such terms as "Being Alone" and "Inauthentic Being-with-Others." These terms, and many like them, were used and fleshed out in Being & Time. Without this background the reader could perhaps miss the full picture that Batchelor is trying to convey. I don't mean this as a value judgment - you have either read Heidegger or you haven't. I've read Heidegger, but not Wittgenstein, for example. No shame in that. I took a class on Heidegger's Being & Time while in college. I found it to be both the most difficult book I've ever read and one of the most rewarding. Because of this previous exposure to Heidegger, I was able to get right into Batchelor's flow in this wonderful book. Perhaps I am wrong about this. I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from reading this book. It really is a little masterpiece.

In any case, Batchelor does a wonderful job of contrasting Authentic and Inauthentic Being Alone and Being with Others. If you have had exposure to Existentialist thinking, particularly Heidegger and are interested in an analysis of Buddhism using that terminology and approach, then this is THE book for you.

stephen batchelor obviously enjoys using an extensive vocab. most people will have a very difficult time understanding this book, and most of the 130 pages are filled with opinion or contradiction; or facts that are not elaborated upon very well. certain points he makes seem bias even though he claims to advocate non-judgement.. contradictory? definitely.

Don't waste your money or time. There are far better books on Buddhism & philosophy.

Batchelor has an extensive vocabulary and many people will spend much of their time looking up the meaning of the words he uses. I would not recommend this book.