Book description
A renowned Buddhist teacher's magnum opus, based on his fresh reading of the tradition's earliest texts
Some twenty-five centuries after the Buddha started teaching, his message continues to inspire people across the globe, including those living in predominantly secular societies. What does it mean to adapt religious practices to secular…
Why read it?
1 author picked After Buddhism as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Stephen Batchelor is an old and dear friend of mine – partly because I love his radical ‘take’ on Buddhism. He knows his traditional Buddhist stuff all right: he was a Tibetan Buddhism monk for eight years, and studied in a Korean Zen monastery for four. To some, he is a heretic because his books peel away the cultural superstitions that have befogged the Buddha’s original teachings – such as karma and reincarnation - and reveal a message that is as relevant and insightful today as it was two and a half millennia ago. But his deep and lightly-worn scholarship…
From Guy's list on Buddhism that get to the heart of the matter.
If you love After Buddhism...
Ancient Evenings
Ancient Evenings is a study of consciousness presented as a series of fictional philosophical dialogues set at the height of the Roman Empire. These dialogues—on good and evil, truth and falsehood, life and death—are historical re-enactments of what persons representing the major Hellenistic schools of philosophy might actually have said…
Want books like After Buddhism?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like After Buddhism.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,276
readers submitted
so far, will you?
