Stephen Batchelor on Awakening, Embracing Existential Risk, and Secular Buddhism

Stephen Batchelor, a Secular Buddhist teacher and former monk, joins the FLI Podcast to discuss the project of awakening, the facets of human nature which contribute to extinction risk, and how we might better embrace existential threats.

 Topics discussed in this episode include:

-The projects of awakening and growing the wisdom with which to manage technologies

-What might be possible of embarking on the project of waking up

-Facets of human nature that contribute to existential risk

-The dangers of the problem solving mindset

-Improving the effective altruism and existential risk communities

You can find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2020/10/15/stephen-batchelor-on-awakening-embracing-existential-risk-and-secular-buddhism/

Timestamps: 

0:00 Intro

3:40 Albert Einstein and the quest for awakening

8:45 Non-self, emptiness, and non-duality

25:48 Stephen's conception of awakening, and making the wise more powerful vs the powerful more wise

33:32 The importance of insight

49:45 The present moment, creativity, and suffering/pain/dukkha

58:44 Stephen's article, Embracing Extinction

1:04:48 The dangers of the problem solving mindset

1:26:12 Improving the effective altruism and existential risk communities

1:37:30 Where to find and follow Stephen

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