/lit/ - Literature

>>22157875
>If Eastern religions had answers they would build a better civilisation
Ivan, your society is the oriental despotism par excellence—a petroleum powered junta blessed by clergymen who sanction whatever the warlord tells them to. Besides the most materially advanced civilization's religion is Globalhomo, not post-Soviet Orthodox Christlarping, so by that logic you ought to dilate.

>>21722523
Somewhat relevant
Assmann - Moses the Egyptian
Karttunen - India and the Hellenistic World
Stoneman - The Greek Experience of India
Bar-Kochva - The Image of the Jews in Greek Literature
Cook - The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism
Runciman - The Medieval Manichee

China, even the concept itself of China, is nearly incapable of translation into Western thought. The Western geopolitical experience is a universal empire collapsing into personal rule of private fiefs, and then the ruled subjects of those fiefs identifying with the fiefs instead of their rulers. The Chinese empire is a permanent feature of Asia. Even when foreigners conquered China they became Chinese. China is basically a living fossil, a civilization from antiquity, but it is not safely locked in a museum. I have met Chinese people who think of themselves and their families as hundreds of years old, who know and care enough about what jobs their ancestors had in the middle ages to tell you about them. Every Chinese person to be sure, is not like this, but how many Westerners conceive of themselves, their families, or their countries as some sort of eternity? The dominant Western country, the United States, is almost entirely descended from people who elected to divorce from their homelands, cultures, communities, and so forth. An American and a Chinese person might as well not even be considered nationalities. An American is stateless (even the name of his country is plural) and a Chinese is the state. In other words, China has been breeding its people for thousands of years, while the average Western government emerges from some catastrophism or other of the last few hundred years. That is not to say China is without catastrophic traumas, but the result of these is always to reinforce China as an idea. Even the Maoist dynasty are clear on this, they demand all highways of trade are routed to the center of the universe, that any breakaway provinces be brought back under the fold. On the surface this is mistaken for nationalism because again China does not really translate to Western thought—the truth of the matter from a Chinese view is non-dual, that the world is China and China is the world.

You can get both The Recognitions and J R on Amazon for $35 right now

China, even the concept itself of China, is nearly incapable of translation into Western thought. The Western geopolitical experience is a universal empire collapsing into personal rule of private fiefs, and then the ruled subjects of those fiefs identifying with the fiefs instead of their rulers. The Chinese empire is a permanent feature of Asia. Even when foreigners conquered China they became Chinese. China is basically a living fossil, a civilization from antiquity, but it is not safely locked in a museum. I have met Chinese people who think of themselves and their families as hundreds of years old, who know and care enough about what jobs their ancestors had in the middle ages to tell you about them. Every Chinese person to be sure, is not like this, but how many Westerners conceive of themselves, their families, or their countries as some sort of eternity? The dominant Western country, the United States, is almost entirely descended from people who elected to divorce from their homelands, cultures, communities, and so forth. An American and a Chinese person might as well not even be considered nationalities. An American is stateless (even the name of his country is plural) and a Chinese is the state. In other words, China has been breeding its people for thousands of years, while the average Western government emerges from some catastrophism or other of the last few hundred years. That is not to say China is without catastrophic traumas, but the result of these is always to reinforce China as an idea. Even the Maoist dynasty are clear on this, they demand all highways of trade are routed to the center of the universe, that any breakaway provinces be brought back under the fold. On the surface this is mistaken for nationalism because again China does not really translate to Western thought—the truth of the matter from a Chinese view is non-dual, that the world is China and China is the world.

>>20492619
The "joke" is that Mai is into woodcarving and Buddhist kitsch. So she probably left it there.
>>20494920
Pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattvas are both consequences of the idea of universal timeless dharma. Anyone can, and everyone will achieve buddhahood under the right conditions or auspices. Were this not so the lone vehicle would be impossible. But this world has its Buddha who taught so it is highly pessimistic to favor the lone path, and immeasurably greater to pursue the Mahayana

>>20207188
Yes she looks like she is some sort of obnoxiously tidy student council member/hall monitor type

Assuming this is true, you weren't expelled for citing certain authors, you were suspended for essentially yelling NIGGER in your presentation. Are you an idiot?

>>19212348
Torrenting anime doesn't count

>>19089924
>Only the
>beasts know a mother than a father in the world, is it true that believers of the [Christian]
>religion do not know their fathers? Otherwise, why would they worship this fatherless
>ghost and respect him so much?
Absolutely savage rmao

>>18783167
Very cute post

>>18741497
Bahai and capital T Tradition are probably closer to modern theosophy than either are to gnosticism. Both of those are from the "wut if all religion true?" family of positions that only an intellectually stunted person could have, or they are the result of making religion downstream of one's political interests, interests which are usually pointless if one does not wield any state power. Thus to base one's spiritual investigations on irrelevant or impotent political desires, as many here do, is the ultimate folly.
>>18742573
In buddhism it's basically (You) who are the demiurge and not an external bad actor. But why shouldn't people of diverse conditionings pick what works for them, so long as it works? That is, provided they aren't picking little superficial components from each set of doctrines they pretend to study and deciding it is a coherent whole, which is just an intensification of a shopping addiction.

>>18740477
'Slurping Semen: An Illustrated Guide' by Original Poster

For years of spamming
Anonymous imageboards
Still nobody cares

Externalities

Dimly-lit pages
Illuminate brighter lands
Far away from this room

>The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth - Naughton
>Governance and Politics of China - Saich
>On China - Kissinger
Should give you a decent initial overview.

What does /lit/ think of ancient Chinese philosophy? Has you read any of the works of Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Shang Yang, Han Fei, Shen Dao, Laozi, Zhuangzi, or Mozi?
Which of the hundred schools was correct? Are the Confucians right that the land must be ruled justly in accordance to the Way? are the Legalists right that the leader should rule through a system of reward and punishment? Or are you more in agreement with Taoist anarchism?

>>9996540
most weeaboos are effectively pornography addicts. anime girls are concentrated appeal; it's really easy to get hooked on them. 'otaku culture' is a bunch of dudes addicted to moe and masturbation. everything is hyper-sexualized (just look at how /a/ fetishizes *absolutely everything*: anime girl armpits, anime girl bellybuttons, anime girl collarbones, glasses, stockings, schoolgirl outfits, facial expressions, etc etc etc...)
it's like normie porn addiction, but worse: it has a very large emotional aspect (due to anime's basis as a storytelling medium), and it's also much more social than typical erotic-stimulation based addiction: you're allowed to talk about anime in public and with all the other weebs out there, thus supporting your inclusion into the 'culture' (which also makes you think of it as an identity, making it more difficult to 'get out')

anime fans typically fall on a spectrum between "lauding anime as a high-quality artistic form of storytelling", and "pure hedonistic moe-based sexual pleasure". i think there's always a slow pull to the right no matter where you lie (and the anime industry is shifting that way since it's what the otaku pay for).

not implying the dude you met is like that, but he might be on the path towards it.