Secular Buddhism, also called Naturalistic, Immanent, or Pragmatic Buddhism, is a form of Buddhism that interprets Buddhist scriptures through a framework divested of supernatural and metaphysical content. Emerging out of Buddhist modernism, it follows socio-historical patterns similar to the European Renaissance and Protestant Reformation, deriving ethical values from secular humanism and direct observations of nature over belief in divine or superhuman agency. Although some proponents distinguish themselves from the "secular" label because of its anti-religious connotations, the term is used to identify a broad conceptual category for all schools of Buddhism whose teachings conform with the natural laws known to science.
Global socio-historical undercurrents
The origins of Secular Buddhism at the turn of the 21st century trace back to four overlapping socio-historical trends: the Renaissance, cultural shifts in the 1960s, global secularization, and Buddhist Modernism.
The Renaissance Commentators trace the genesis of Secular Buddhism to the distant influences of the 15th-century European Renaissance and the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Whereas the Renaissance introduced humanism, a renewed interest in classical philosophy, and systematic scientific inquiry, the Protestant Reformation challenged the absolute authority of the Catholic Church. The subsequent restructuring of Christianity elevated the spiritual standing of the laity, encouraged a direct relationship with the divine, and recast worldly callings as spiritually meaningful. Emboldened by these developments, a growing movement of European thinkers and artists began relying on reason rather than religious insight to make sense of the world.
The 1960s While Western interest in Buddhism dates back to the 19th century, deep engagement with formal Buddhist practices expanded exponentially during the 1960s. Bhikkhu Bodhi, an American Theravada monk, attributes this surge to a distinct convergence of cultural conditions, including widespread disillusionment with institutional religion, Buddhism's appeal as a non-theistic alternative, the rise of existential philosophy, humanistic psychology's focus on personal growth, and a growing reliance on psychotherapy to navigate modern alienation and stress. Concurrently, the popularity of psychedelic drugs exposed hidden dimensions of consciousness, sparking interest in Eastern spirituality. It was in the 1960s that the mind came to be viewed as the primary source of health, purpose, and fulfillment—an orientation Bodhi contends laid the groundwork for a distinctly secular expression of Buddhism.
Secularization The term "secularism" was coined by the British journalist George Holyoake (1817—1906) to describe a collective, non-theistic aspiration. An early adopter in 1853 noted that "the term Secularism is justified by its including a large number of persons who are not Atheists, and uniting them for action which has Secularism for its object." For clarification, Holyoake aligned the secular objective with the pursuit of a good, "which is dictated by Nature, which is attainable by material means, and which is of immediate service to humanity — a religiousness to which the idea of God is not essential, nor the denial of the idea necessary."
Today, in contrast, when the term “secular” is applied to Buddhism, it is often used to describe explicit beliefs. If, for example, a Buddhist does not believe in rebirth as a hungry ghost, a realm called “hell,” or in fending off evil spirits through ritual, the more secular they are. Moreover, today the term describes a grand socio-political dynamic involving a culturally and historically conditioned, interwoven battle between the sacred and secular. Like all modern religions, Buddhism participates in the “secularization” process.
A study by Norris and Inglehart conducted between 1950 and 2007 in 191 nations and 80 cross-national societies throughout the world sheds light on this dynamic. First, due to rising levels of personal security, the publics of virtually all advanced industrial societies have been moving toward more secular orientations. Modernization (the process of industrialization, urbanization, and rising levels of education and wealth) greatly weakens the influence of religious institutions in affluent societies, bringing lower rates of attendance at religious services and making religion subjectively less important in people's lives.
Second, due to demographic trends in poorer societies, the world as a whole now has more people with traditional religious views than ever before. In other words, rich societies are secularizing, but they contain a dwindling proportion of the world's population; while poor societies are not secularizing and they contain a rising share of the world's population. Reflecting on this second conclusion, Norris and Inglehart caution: "it would be a major mistake to assume that secularization is triumphantly advancing and that religion will eventually disappear throughout the world."
Buddhist Modernism According to David McMahon, Buddhism Modernism is a conceptual framework for including those forms of Buddhism that combine the orthodox teachings of the tradition with the ramifications of the Renaissance, scientific rationalism, Romanticism, Protestantism, psychology, and contemporary social and political thought. Although influenced by the West, it is not simply a Western phenomenon, but rather refers to a global dynamic that encompasses various movements created by both Asians and Western Buddhists.. The framework accepts any form of Buddhism that mixes traditional Buddhism and modern influences, regardless of the amount of—or which—traditional teachings are retained.
As clarified by Winton Higgins, a prominent secular Buddhist, Buddhist Modernism describes the dynamic out of which Secular Buddhism formed, and distinguishes itself from. For Higgins, the modernists include remnants of teachings that Secular Buddhism relegates to the past. Stephen Batchelor concurs. According to Batchelor, the "modern" movements have an ambivalent relationship with the dogmas and hierarchies of the Buddhist institutions from which they originated. Little effort has been made to develop an understanding of Buddhism that confronts the traditional doctrines of karma, rebirth, heavens, hells, and supernatural powers.
Proponents and their influencers
Stephen Batchelor Stephen Batchelor is a leading proponent of Secular Buddhism. Following his experience as an ordained monk in Tibetan Buddhism and a Korean Zen practitioner, he abandoned the traditional teachings in favor of an agnostic approach, reinterpreting the Dharma for a secular demographic.
Batchelor's contribution to the movement spans decades. In Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997), he portrays Siddhārtha Gautama as a historical figure rather than a religious icon, and questions traditional doctrines regarding rebirth and karma. In Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (2010), he details his initial exposure to vipassanā meditation under S. N. Goenka in 1974, and his re-engagement with the practice in Devon, England, during the mid-1980s alongside his wife, Martine.
In a 2012 article published by the Journal of Global Buddhism, Batchelor formally articulated his position in a peer-reviewed paper entitled "A Secular Buddhism." There, he reinterprets the Four Noble Truths not as metaphysical assertions leading to a transcendent awakening, but as actionable "tasks" designed to overcome reactivity in daily life.
Batchelor describes his hermeneutical method in After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age (2015). Examining canonical texts written centuries after the Buddha’s death, he imagines a pragmatic, historical Gautama without divine attributes, disseminating Buddhist principles in 5th-century BCE India. From this perspective, he interprets core elements of the Dharma before the Buddha's teachings “mutated” into institutional orthodoxies. Drawing on the Latin root saeculum (meaning "a generation" or "the current age"), he frames his project as a mandate to adapt the Buddha's original insights for the present era.
His secular orientation was heavily influenced by the English Theravada monk Ñāṇavīra Thera. In Clearing the Path, Ñāṇavīra brought the Pali Canon into dialogue with Western existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, establishing a precedent for Batchelor to interpret early Buddhist texts through a modern European lens.
Secular Meditation Centers An account published in 1998 of how the first American vipassanā centers opened provides a glimpse into the way the secular Buddhist movement began in the United States. It tracks the contributions of five key figures, three of which are highlighted here. First, Joseph Goldstein, who grew up in the Catskill Mountains and studied with Mahasi Sayadaw, a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk. Second, Sharon Salzberg, from New York City, who studied with Mahasi Sayadaw and S.N. Goenka, who was also Batchelor's vipassanā instructor. Third, Jack Kornfield, whose family lived in various cities throughout the United States and studied with Mahasi Sayadaw and Ajahn Chah, a Thai Buddhist monk.
These three went further than their Asian mentors in presenting vipassanā as a practice independent of the Theravada tradition. Whereas Mahasi Sayadaw and S.N. Goenka provided a modernized teaching that already offered transformative insight through practice alone (reducing the role of Buddhist doctrine and the need for monastic rules), Goldstein, Salzberg, and Kornfield adapted what they learned for American sensibilities.
The meditation techniques used by Goldstein and Kornfield were a hybrid of the Mahasi and Goenka methods. The first days of their retreats typically focused on the mindfulness of breathing. While Mahasi never taught loving-kindness meditation (metta) together with vipassanā, Goldstein and Kornfield ended each retreat with a guided loving-kindness meditation, as was done in the Goenka courses.
In 1976, Kornfield, Goldstein, and Salzberg, together with Jacqueline Schwartz, bought a former Catholic seminary in Barre, Massachusetts, which became a permanent, year-round meditation retreat. In 1981, Jack Kornfield moved to Marin County, California, and co-founded a sister meditation center to the Massachusetts facility. Both the Massachusetts and Marin County centers have institutional mechanisms for approving teachers.
While some instructors at these centers may blend supernatural phenomena with practice, others take a purely empirical stance.
Gil Fronsdal Gil Fronsdal, a trained Zen Buddhist, later schooled in vipassanā meditation in Burma by Mahasi Sayadaw (mentioned above), is a guiding teacher at a meditation center in Redwood City, California. Fronsdal's facility is informally associated with the Massachusetts and Marin County meditation centers also mentioned above.
Fronsdal refers to his teachings as "Naturalistic Buddhism." While he acknowledges his beliefs align with secular Buddhism, he considers "secular" a term that stands in opposition to "religious" and "spiritual." Since Fronsdal believes Buddhism is a religion and his practice is "deeply religious," he prefers "naturalistic" instead. Another nuance of Fronsdal's position is that, unlike Stephen Batchelor's, he does not find it necessary to confront the supernatural roots of the tradition, but simply sees no need to include them in the Buddhism he practices.