/lit/ - Literature

>>10999926
>>10999930
Thanks for the (you)'s. Makes my heart swell.

Alchemical Body is a good place to start. He likes tantra too which is nice. I want to read both his Yoga and Tantra in Practice books soon.

I suppose I am a bit intrigued by Prisca Theologia and Perennialism and Traditionalism. I have gone through Evola and Eliade and Guenon and Schuon and Coomaraswamy in my youth. Feel that they are a bit anti-occidental, however.

I am a particular fan of Plato and Christianity (Especially Catholicism [my birth religion]).

On the subject of Plato, Uzdavinys does an incredible job speaking on continuities between ancient Egyptians and Greeks.

But that said, there are other troubling aspects of traditionalism. Such as links to fascism and racism and glorification of PIE people. Pic related is a book i love that does a great job showing that the PIE tradition both evolved and mixed with other eastern, near eastern and western sources.

I am also troubled by implications of eternal time versus linear time. The cheap way out is spiral time...

I would also agree that realization is not necessarily psychedelic (although as realization not manifestation I dunno if a drug would prevent realization if comprehended)...

Posting The Book You Need^tm.

Bump to kill thread!

>>10921288
Pls nooooo!
>>10921321
I would like to believe this. Hence my Christian Bhakti currently. There is nothing to offer but my own will and imagination as living sacrifice to the transcendental. Kenotic, I seek to expand myself by giving myself away. It is in losing myself that the true Self is found. But I do also wanna know how to untangle my mind and others' from the metaphysical traps mara lays.

Pic related has helped me out of a few traps recently.

>>10912479
A lot of these so-called metaphysical questions are close to being solved by physics. Do we live in a universe where tome is circles, spirals, a straight line into infinity, a spiraling line, etc.? These are ultimately speculative physics at this point but they trouble me regardless insofar as they relate to metaphysics. Eliade's eternal return is best explained by astrology, IMO. Nietzsche is an inspiring thought experiment. And yet it seems the ancients imply there is an epistemological validity to certain experiences that do not, despite traditional claims otherwise, line up all the time. I have had such experiences as well, but idk if I believe my immortal soul is preparing for an afterlife journey... maybe there was a common source for the belief, doesn't mean it's true.
>>10912554
Pic related is a good exposition of similarities and differences between ancient metaphysical systems. Does not reduce things to "true tradition" and "false tradition".

Ladder of Divine Ascent is good. So is (the superior non-Tolle) Eckhart.

Introduction to the Devout Life and Imitation of Christ are also excellent entry level Christian mysticism.

Interior Castle and Mirror of Simple Souls (slightly heretical [free-spirit movement {Vaneigem has a SI/Post-Marxist take book}]) for female mysticism.

Swedenborg, Blake, and Boehme for Protestant stuff...

Might I suggest Hellenic mysticism? Influenced Christianity quite a bit... Pic related is good for cross-cultural comparison and evidence of transmission. Also: Hadot, Kingsley, and Uzdavinys for more Hellenic and even Kemetic mysticism. I like western esotericism too, Hanegraaf is great for the hermetic and gnostic underground (the tantric alchemy of the west).

There's also an Oxford Guide to Christian Mysticism which could provide more guidance...

Hadot has some repetitive but very important books. What is Ancient Philosophy? and Philosophy as a Way of Life both help a modern reader understand the Greek notion of bios.

The Ancient Philosophies series is good for introductions to major schools in antiquity. More in-depth.

Pic related is what I'm reading now. It's definitely a watershed book.

I like Lombardo's Parmenides translation. Comes with Empedocles. Just get a compilation for Plato/Aristotle. Pay attention to the dialogue Parmenides.

If you just want compilations of precursors, Guthrie has a Pythagorean Sourcebook and Anthology which is pretty good and Kirk has a book called The Presocratics. Also pretty good.

Best commentators of Plato and Aristotle were their contemporaries. There's a project to translate them. A lot of them are available as part of the Prometheus Trust Thomas Taylor collection.

If you're interested in speculative mystical metaphysics in ancient greece and rome then I suggest Kingsley and Uzdavinys. I've listened to the author Gregory Shaw on the Practical Neoplatonism podcast and he seems quite wise too.

Best of luck, brother.

>Plotinus then went to India to study with the Gymnosophists (naked sages)
Fucking hippies...

>>10784834
Idk. There's the big problem of
>implying vedanta is a singular entity
Don't get me wrong. I love Eastern philosophy and am reading some currently. But I try not to read through an orientalist lens wherein eastern and western are separate. In the same way, my studies have led me to see continental and analytic as not separate. The nondual perspective. You may say this is Eastern... but Westerners intimated similar ideas as did others...


Anyway, I recommend this book (not explicitely about PIE):
>pic related

>>10705192
I believe Plato is viewed as a sage in the Sufi tradition...

READ THIS BOOK!!!