Is Buddhism a religion or simply the world's greatest self-help program?

Buddhism Without Beliefs - A book by Stephen Batchelor that I just finished. I would love to have some discussion about this book, which completely altered my connection to buddhism. I've always felt like an outsider looking in, but thanks to this book I feel empowered to continue to explore buddhism without fear of engaging in "religious tourism," and without any discomfort about not pursuing a monastic lifestyle.

There are so many wonderful passages from the book.

Has anyone else read it and been similarly impressed? How have Batchelor's ideas changed your life?

Funny thing about love and waiting. Love and understanding go hand in hand, but at the beginning of love, when passion is at its height, understanding is in very short supply.

It's at this point, when infatuation makes us dream of a love that doesn't yet exist, that waiting becomes interminable and angst-ridden. When I first fall in love I am like Al Gore on election night 2000, awaiting the results of Florida (Does she really like me? Will she call back?) and knowing that his life will alter course dramatically depending on an outcome that is largely out of his control.

I'm in this waiting game right now. After a recent date with a new girl my "in love" muscles have been reactivated and called to attention, but now she has disappeared into Los Angeles and hasn't re-emerged for 5 days. All I have is a phone number, which is useless if she doesn't call me back.

I'm waiting to know whether this particular journey with this particular woman is over already, or not, and the waiting presents a challenge to my budding agnostic buddhism. On one level I know very well that there's no reason to fret. If things went as well for her as they did for me, there would be no reason for her not to call me back. And if not...then I'm better served by focusing my attentions elsewhere. Plenty of fish in the sea, etc...

But on another level, I can't help feeling how nice it would be to swim around the pond with this particular fish.

My head is a battlefield...

and lying dead on the field are thought-corpses of philosophies long abandoned...

First there was Doubt who fought nobly to ensure that I never believed in myself or in the capacity of others to love me.

Doubt was vanquished by that stalwart and stubborn soldier named Ambition who believed I had to make something of myself at all costs - to prove myself special among men - or die trying...

Ambition ultimately surrendured to cagey Nihilism, the soldier who went AWOL - deciding that to attach meaning to life is utter foolisness - leaving my head a ghosttown.

Now Doubt, Ambition and Nihiism lay peacefully rotting inside my head while Truth - comfortable with duality, confident without arrogance, and not fearful of death - takes a scythe to the battlefield, reclaiming it for greener pastures to come.

Sweatshops in the garment industry are pervasive, says Dr. Robert Ross, but there's a lot we can do about it! His book is a readable and thoughtful discussion of the rise, fall, and rise again of sweatshops in the United States and abroad. Here's the link.

It gives a good overview of the problem, the anti-sweatshop movement, and the global economic forces perpetuating sweatshops. Highly recommended, but expensive so you might want to get it from the library, or pool with some friends.

If anyone has a strong interest in the issue of sweatshops, I'd love to engage in some discussion.