/lit/ - Literature

>>16151560
I'll keep that in mind. It did sound a bit dismissive, beacuse I'll have to start somewhere anyway, but I see your point, thanks anon.

>>16151569
Thank you again for the recommendations, anon. I've only read very introductory things like Alan Watts and know a thing or two, but it's been years since I wanted to dive more deeply into buddhism.

>Red Pine's commentary is good
Funny, I was downloading Red Pine versions of the sutras you rec'd even before you mentioned, I guess I'm on the right track. I always prefer editions with commentary, not only for Buddhism, but to anything that is that far in space, time and culture.

>>10452439
>Cant it just be?
Of course it can just be. But the good news Gautama Buddha found out is that it doesn't have to be.
If you're stuck in a wheel of birth, death, and rebirth doomed to repeatedly fall for illusory temptations which give way to old age, sickness, and dying, it's pretty fucking good news that some absurdly dedicated ascetic sat down at a tree and stared down reality for 49 days, discerned a way out, and told us about it instead of just keeping it to himself.
The attitude that suffering just happens and you don't need to worry about it is the pitfall of the animal saṃsāra (namely ignorance). Rebirth as an animal gets you life where you just go along with things and don't think about them, and it works OK up until bad things start happening and you have no understanding of how to avoid them.

SHORT HISTORY OF BUDDHISM, by anon

Okay, so you are in ancient India. There is already a lot of things going on, the hindus, the vedas, there is a huge array of beliefs and philosophies, they already meditate, and have their practices, each trying to come in terms with what they believe. You have noble people, workers, spiritual fellas, and so on.

One king trapped his son inside his palace from birth, that little guy's name is Siddharta. Inside his palace, he only knew good things. Old and sick people were not allowed in there, he had the best food, the best drinks, nothing could ever go wrong inside the palace. He slept with the best ladies and it was all charming. He even had a proper wedding and children there.

But the guy was having a weird feeling. What the fuck. Is that all? Why was he there? At age 29 he decided to hide himself and go out of his palace by hiring a charriot. It was shocking, he discovered that there were poor people starving, that people would get sick, that everyone eventually gets old... And, wow, that people die! That he and everyone else would die. He said "fuck it, I can't enjoy this palace like that anymore now that I know all this shit that goes on, I have to do something about this, I just don't know what".

So he escaped and walked through Nepal, India, all that area. He learned from spiritual gurus, he went out to discover what the fuck it was all about. He was simply not satisfied with any shit he encountered, there were still bad things going on to people and shit. So he got a bit far out and sat down under a tree and said to himself "fuck everything, now I'll figure things out for good". And he did. In his meditations he kept going and going and travelled through everything there fucking is, all the worlds, all the demons and people and animals and all the shit, he began to see beyond these matters... Until he was illuminated.

After that, bros realized how fucking enlightened he was and called him Buddha, the one who woke the fuck up. And they said "dude, tell us what the fuck this shit is all about" and so he did in his teachings. They were verses, stuff that you would memorize, chant, remember in meditation, get around until you understand them, complex enough to satisfy, simple enough that you could pass forward. Those are some of the sutras and the dharmapada (pada = verse, dharma = most universal shit).

cont

What about this:
We all want the best possible life.
The best possible life is living the ideal state.
There's no conflict within the ideal state.
In the ideal state we are able to reach all our goals.
Conflict is the opposition that hinders us from reaching our goals.
Without goals there's no opposition, therefor no conflict. If we accept opposition there isn't any conflict either.
Every conscious action has a purpose, every purpose is a means to an end.
The wish to not have any goals, or to not resist the opposition, is a goal.
Taking action prevents us from reaching the ideal state.
We're the opposition.