Stephen Batchelor's seminal work on humanity's struggle between good and evil
In the national bestseller Living with the Devil, Batchelor traces the trajectory from the words of the Buddha and Christ, through the writings of Shantideva, Milton, and Pascal, to the poetry of Baudelaire, the fiction of Kafka, and the findings of modern physics and evolutionary biology to examine who we really are and to rest in the uncertainty that we may never know. Like his previous bestseller, Buddhism without Beliefs, Living with the Devil is also an introduction to Buddhism that encourages listeners to nourish their "buddha nature" and make peace with the devils that haunt human life. He tells a poetic and provocative tale about living with life's contradictions that will challenge you to live your life as an existence imbued with purpose, freedom, and compassion—rather than habitual self-interest and fear.
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“It’s fantastic. Magnificent even. What an achievement! This is an astonishing work, one that I will recommend over and over again. It is a rare treat to be offered such thoughtful, engaging, lucid, and clarifying prose.”
— Mark Epstein, MD, author of Thoughts without a Thinker
“A moving and timely study of the problem of evil from a Buddhist perspective…Highly illuminating.”
— Library Journal“A revolutionary text, a classic, and a must-read.”
— Joan Halifax, author of Shamanic Voices“Demonstrates how the anguish associated with the transient nature of life has preoccupied humans for centuries…[His] genuine concern and desire for a better world come through clearly.”
— Publishers Weekly“Opens doors of understanding we might not even have known were closed…an illuminating read.”
— Joseph Goldstein author of Our Dharma: The Emerging Western BuddhismBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Stephen Batchelor is former Buddhist monk in the Tibetan and Zen traditions. A writer, translator, and artist, his most recent publications are After Buddhism, Secular Buddhism, and The Art of Solitude. He is a contributing editor of Tricycle magazine, and cofounder of Bodhi College, where he teaches Secular Dharma. He lives in southwest France and lectures and conducts meditation retreats worldwide.