/lit/ - Literature

>>22668371
>I was referring to the languages' approximate FSI rankings assessed by people who have some experience in studying them
>I was 24 when I started learning English
what is/are your native language(s)? again, the rate is largely going to depend on your native langauge(s). but also your study methods are important too. I believe I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but one person's "year" could entail 30 minutes a day or 2+ hours a day, and a lot of people imho study with somewhat inefficient methods. so you have to take their answer to the question with a grain of salt. I cannot speak for every native language, but certainly if your native language(s) is/are more related to Latin than Greek (like Englsih and the Romance language are), then with the same methods it is going to be easier for you to learn Latin; and vice versa with Greek. Latin has a slightly simpler verbal system and an additional declension case - though honestly this could be seen as a simplification of sorts, at least in the sense that it's more explicit the role the noun/adjective/participle is playing. all that said, while there are other noticeable differences (like Greek articles), they are fairly similar. unless you are a Greek yourself and/or know modern Greek, Latin will probably be easier for you to learn.
as I said in my last post as well "learning Latin", "learning ancient Greek", "learning Old English" or whatever other language you might be interested in can and does mean different things to different people. what exactly are your goals? do you just want to read some Plato with relatively minimal use of a dictionary? do you want a relatively broad ability in the langauge? in just prose? just poetry? both? I'm sure there are others to pose, but if you want a more quality answer to your question (however lacking in quality/definitiveness the answer has), I would think these are the sort of questions that need to be answered.

I am not at all well-versed in Buddhism, but I have thought about the similarities between it, and gnostic metaphysical ideas. I tend to feel that Christianity and Buddhism touch on similar essential truths, only that Christianity addresses a more humanistic, practical aspect of it with the story of Jesus and trying to emulate him being the highest good. Buddhism differs in its delivery of a more introspective take, I tend to view Buddhism, not in its entirety, but in parts I've looked through, as exploration of the metacognition of Jesus. I know it's not, but that's just how I relate the two.

To answer your question, in both gnostic/Buddhist metaphysical jargon there is a sense of "shedding" the material world, so that you can "make it" to heaven, or out of the cycle of rebirth. Similarly, I believe that is sort of what Jesus was getting at as well, however he offered more of a solution that is "extend your arm towards me while you're underwater, and I will try my hardest to pull you out". It almost seems as if in order for our soul to be liberated, or to go to heaven, it needs to be lighter, and purer. Nothing impure can enter heaven, after all. Think of a marble falling through a hole that is perfectly sized for it to fit through. Now imagine taking a pebble roughly the same as that marble, only jagged and not symmetrical, and trying to drop it through. Obviously, it get stuck, it will not fit, it stays this side of the hole.

This is how I've come to view the metaphysical aspect of it all. I am Christian, a confirmed Catholic, though technically non-denominational in practice. I've developed some views that I don't see often talked about in Christianity. For example, when talking about the tempting of Jesus during his fast, religious "leaders" tend to fixate on the question of how he could be tempted if he is God; they use this line of thinking to emphasize that he was God, who lived as a man, having to subdue all the shortcoming that come with that. This is good stuff, but I ask, "why is satan able to offer material things to Jesus?". It is a question that in my opinion should be frontloaded when listening to this story, but I don't see anyone address it. It is clear that satan has dominion over this material earth, even if only temporarily. Well what does that mean from a metaphysical perspective? When you die, you go to where satan is right? Well right now, he's here. When you die, if you don't "find liberation" or go to heaven, then you're back here.

Anyway, I went on a bit of a tangent, however the point still stands, their is some measurement of the soul that determines whether you make it. Being detached from impure material things helps, emulating Jesus's disposition and reaching out to him, also helps. Hindu's even have a similar doctrine I recently learned, something along the lines of "die thinking of God (whatever they call God, can't remember), and you'll be liberated". There is truth and wisdom in all of these.