Living with the Devil

A moving and timely study of the problem of evil from a Buddhist perspective. [Batchelor] draws deeply on traditional Buddhist insights as well as stories from the legends surrounding the Buddha's life to suggest that our need to divide experience into good and evil is itself the problem... Rejecting this violence and its dualities, Batchelor suggests, will leave us free for true awareness... highly illuminating. -Library Journal 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, M.D., author of Thoughts Without a Thinker The author of Buddhism Without Beliefs and a former monk in the Tibetan and Zen traditions, Batchelor... demonstrates how the anguish associated with the transient nature of life has preoccupied humans for centuries... that mankind has always relied on the temptations of the devil to still anxiety and create an aura of permanence. Although he explores a number of philosophies, Batchelor's focus is on the path to nirvana (a cessation of desires)... [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 Buddhism A revolutionary text, a classic, and a must-read. -Joan Halifax, author of Shamanic Voices