/lit/ - Literature

>>17939535
>good books on meditation
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj - I am that
It is literally THE book that got me from nothing to meditating 40 mins every day. It's accessible, it doesn't ask you to believe in anything you haven't experienced, it gives you very powerful tools.

>>17002861
>How do people become so deeply religious [after having been intellectually convinced of theism]?
Practice. You may be intellectually fond of chess, but it's playing and seeing plays that will get you to being immersed.
> Church services, liturgies, monks living in the mountains who only fast and pray. What is the purpose of it all?
To live life according to their beliefs.

Both.

A question so brainlet tier it risks being fundamental to many:
What do you get out of going all this way to unpack Hegel, Heidegger, Spinoza and other difficult philosophers? Is it worth the effort, considering that mere knowing someone's thoughts isn't itself rewarding to me?

I was into phenomenology and pragmatism in college (non-humanities major, used phenomenological research occassionally) and after unpacking the literary atrocity that is Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception, I've started questioning the utility of such efforts. I was going to move one to Heidegger to truly understand phenomenology, but as he is infamous for his writing I have to ask myself whether it's really worth it... what do you think? Would I be better off reading methodology pamphlets? I'm trying to be pragmatic after all.

>>16548158
>At the moment I don't even know how am I supposed to read a poem.
> there are many technical (rhythm, melody, etc) and hermeneutical ... aspects that I've completely ignored so far
And if you wish to perform literary analysis, you should definitely look into these aspects. But poetry (unlike most non-fiction) isn't written to be analysed. It is written to be experienced. Just like a musical piece has rythm, chord progression, composition and even intellectual constructs like leitmotifs, at the end of the day it's still about the experience, not the technical means of conveying the experience.

Read poetry slowly. Allow each word to trigger ingrained associations and emotional connotations that will paint the picture of the given poem. Everything else is fashion.