Naropa University Presents a Stephen Batchelor Book Signing and Talk
“Confession of a Buddhist Atheist”

BOULDER, Colo. (March 10, 2010)—Naropa University Religious Studies Department is proud to host Buddhist teacher, writer and scholar, Stephen Batchelor for a book signing and talk in support of his new book, “Confession of a Buddhist Atheist.” The signing is scheduled for March 15 at 7:30 p.m., in Naropa University’s Shambhala Hall, 2130 Arapahoe Ave and is free and open to the public. For more information please contact the Naropa Religious Studies Dept. at 303-245-4744, rsgradassistant@naropa.edu, or www.naropa.edu.

Published in March 2010 by Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House, “Confession of a Buddhist Atheist” traces the author’s thirty-eight-year engagement with Buddhism and recounts his inaugural trip to India at the age of 18, his first meeting with the Dalai Lama, and his quest to find what lies at the core of the teachings.

The journalist and author Christopher Hitchens praised "Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist" for its boldness: "The human thirst for the transcendent, the numinous—even the ecstatic—is too universal and too important to be entrusted to the cultish and the archaic and the superstitious. In this honest and serious book of self-examination and critical scrutiny, Stephen Batchelor adds the universe of Buddhism to the many fields in which received truth and blind faith are now giving way to ethical and scientific humanism, in which lies our only real hope."

Batchelor was ordained as a novice Buddhist monk in 1974. In 1975, he left to study Buddhist philosophy and doctrine in Switzerland. The following year he received full ordination as a Buddhist monk. He spent the next five years studying Buddhism in Germany and South Korea. He disrobed in February 1985 and joined the Sharpham North Community in Totnes, Devon. Since 1990 he has been a guiding teacher at Gaia House meditation centre in Devon and a contributing editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review since 1992.

Naropa University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Naropa University is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian liberal arts institution dedicated to advancing contemplative education. This approach to learning integrates the best of Eastern and Western educational traditions, helping students know themselves more deeply and engage constructively with others. The university comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental leadership, psychology and religious studies.

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