/lit/ - Literature

https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html
end all seeking now

>>18473394
Anime.... yucky, this belongs in /a/

>>18473404
Much thanks, anon, never in a hundred years would I have found this had it not been for you.

>>18473409

Middle length discourses of the buddha, bikkhu bodhi translation. Equanimity is the fourth brahmavihara and sounds like what you are looking for. Reading isn’t enough, you need to practice. Metta meditation can start you in that direction or look for a samatha practice.

>>18474270
Why does all search for detachment eventually lead to the east?

>>18473394
How to tie a noose

>>18474530
I think you're better off with a gun

>>18474499
Ha, I’m actually Christian. Equanimity gets you pretty far along the Buddhist path but it’s just the beginning of conforming your will to God’s. OP just wanted the detachment, I don’t want to spook him by looking like I’m proselytizing.

>>18474599
Based Orthobro

>>18473394
Why do you feel like detachment is a good spiritual goal?

>>18474738
Even if you are not trying to be spiritual, the ancients had a point about not being ruled by your passions.

Meditations.

Change what you can when necessary. Worrying about that which you can't change is wasted effort. Remember the sanctity of the logical mind, the divine spark within man, can endure far more than the body would have you believe, so separating the two becomes necessary.

A man which behaves illogically should not be met with anger and further irrationalism, but with pity as you would approach someone with dementia or rabies. Letting another's mental illness cost you your own sanity is therefore obviously absurd.

>>18474778
>not being ruled by your passions
What does this mean to you? Basically everyone agrees that this is something to be desired, while the Stoics and Buddhists take it to a ridiculous extreme.

>>18473394
Not a book but, if you actually want to detach your self or have a feeling of detaching yourself from your body read this CIA document https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210016-5.pdf (if the link does not work use the Way Back Machine for an archive version).
pic rel

>>18474820
>while the Stoics and Buddhists take it to a ridiculous extreme.
how extreme are we talking about here?

>>18474890
This. I am not an ascetic but I’ve seen the damage that my anger has done to people I love. I also see the corrosive effects of casual greed all the time. My boomer inlaws are the worst. The more you have eyes for it the more insidious you realize it is and the less extreme some of those extremes seem. But it’s definitely a process and everyone falls short of the mark. Loving kindness, compassion and sympathetic joy are the divine abidings (brahmaviharas) below equanimity and for good reason.

>>18474890
>When a man kisses his child, said Epictetus, he should whisper to himself, "To-morrow perchance thou wilt die."—But those are words of bad omen.—"No word is a word of bad omen," said Epictetus, "which expresses any work of nature; or if it is so, it is also a word of bad omen to speak of the ears of corn being reaped" (Epictetus, iii. 24, 88).
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_XI

Sextus Empiricus

read the pali nikayas translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi for the Right View leading to the path of detachment and the end of suffering - practice virtue, sense restraint, mindfulness, solitude, contemplation of impermanence, loathsomeness, as outlined by the Buddha. practice these dilligently and you will become detached from the five aggregates that make up your experience; extinguish lust, hatred, and distraction; and become a Noble One thus gone

>>18473404
>How wonderful I am! Glory to me! There is no one so clever as me!
Any other clever boys ITT?

>>18473394
You are human. Your genes dictate how you act. Any search for spiritual enlightenment is a waste of time. Ask people who tried. Go and enjoy life instead.

>>18475039
I fail to see the extremeness in this. It doesn't mean you can't enjoy things but rather demands you be realistic about things.

>>18475232
>Any search for spiritual enlightenment is a waste of time.
Not true. This guy posted the answer:
>>18473404

>>18475250
That's because you're either coping or already detached from reality. How do you think a person who is so cavalier about death is going to live their life?

Buddhism has ruined my brain. Don't do it

>>18475354
Ummm I'm pretty sure it was the drugs not Buddhism

>>18475299
>How do you think a person who is so cavalier about death is going to live their life?
It can go any way, it doesn't guarantee a life of good or bad.

I see this has become the Buddhist thread, which in the spirit of impermenance will be short-lived on this board.

Buddhism is so gay, they just say one thing and then contradict themselves the next.

I fucking hate this religion so much. Even zen "patriarchs" go on later to just say random shit and do what they want. Like, how can you be the priest of a religion that insists there is an afterlife (reincarnation) and still go around saying "oooOOooOOoo nobody KnOooOwwS"

>>18475375
Do you think it's more likely to result in a good life?

>>18475388
read the buddha's actual sermons, not later bullshit

>>18475379
This is the part that fucking gets me as well. There are like 100000+ books talking about the same SHIT and still none of them can make it clear what they're talking about.

And when you get one half they go and say something that contradicts it. Then you say I don't get it and people are like
>oh you're not supposed to it's a dualistic thinking-mind thing you wouldn't get it because you're thinking about it
Oh yeah, so why do you have all this dumb shit written down if you're not meant to comprehend it through writing and talking?

>>18475402
ask me questions on buddhism ill try answer you with no bullshit

>>18475402
My own interpretation having read quite a bit of these, is that Buddhism, especially Mahayana, is effectively pluralism as a soteriology. Which, if you are looking for a manual to escape from reality, sounds pretty lame, and if someone has sold you Buddhism as such, will make it seem all the more lame. But that being said, there are varieties of Buddhism which do treat it as a manual to escape from reality, and these come and go in popularity, not just in western bastardizations being hawked around, but even in its Asiatic history.

>>18475432
>Buddhism, especially Mahayana, is effectively pluralism as a soteriology
[citation needed]

>>18475400
>>18475400
4fold noble truth? Yeah, that's something I can understand. Yes, life is full of inconveniences and painful things. Yes, it sucks when I'm horny and can't get laid. That is life.

Causation?
Yep, makes sense that the world operates mechanically and all things work as a whole. I see it every day on the way to work and stuff.

Real state of things?
Now it's getting weird.
>since everything in this world is brought about by causes and conditions, there can be no fundamental distinctions among things. The apparent distinctions exist because of peoples absurd and discriminating thoughts.

>>18475441
Well it's my opinion. It's not the opinion of say a Gelugpa monastic or a Yogacarin. It would be closer maybe to Huayan or to Shingon (and all four of these are Mahayana)—anything can be a mandala or a dharani if you have the right orientation. There is no limit to efficacy of something or other as an aid for realizing what is to be known, the only limit is what you have conditioned yourself to.

>>18475432
>you are looking for a manual to escape from reality

Maybe you're right. I'm trying to squeeze water out of a rock and nothing is cutting it for me... Maybe I CAN comprehend buddhism but I'm trying to get something out if it that is not possible and I'm getting frustrated.

>>18475469
I just don't understand how there can be no distinction between or among things and that it's all in my head. So if it's all in my head then what does that make everything?

He is saying that the distinction between a cup and a rock is in my head. So if it's not real because it's my head, then what are they?
Is it just raw sensory information? Just object for me my conditioned brain to interpret?

>>18475489
Yeah I see a lot of people are told to read the Pali Canon (because cultural protestants think it is buddhist equivalent of the bible) but with few exceptions 90% of the nikayas are
>monks, what are the x kinds of y?
>the first x of y is a
>the second x of y is b
>the third x of y is c
Which is also not what anyone was looking for when they decided to read the discourses cover to cover—mnemonic aids used by a pre-textual society (or one in which the climate was unsuitable for kinds of paper available). They are a good place to start, but even if you prefer Theravada, the Theravadins have literature that is not the Pali Canon.

>>18475538
>He is saying that the distinction between a cup and a rock is in my head.
There is an entire scholastic tradition you are likely unaware of which was abbreviated by Zen to get to that formulation by the way. You wouldn't used to thinking of consciousness being split into eight parts based on the six (!) senses and then two more to bridge those to a container/matrix/storehouse consciousness. Basically the rock or the chair or whatever appears in the visual consciousness, which rolls up to your mind, and your mind is grasping it as objective because of conditioned existence/dependent origination/etc.

>>18475469
>>18475538
>since everything in this world is brought about by causes and conditions, there can be no fundamental distinctions among things. The apparent distinctions exist because of peoples absurd and discriminating thoughts.

buddha never taught this. this is Wrong View - And what is wrong view? 'There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed. There is no fruit or result of good or bad actions. There is no this world, no next world, no mother, no father, no spontaneously reborn beings; no brahmans or contemplatives who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves.' This is wrong view...

saying there are no distinctions among things in a later innovation

>>18473404
based, Ashtavakra is one of the greatest spiritual texts of all time

>>18475578
>>18475538
>>18475469
take this as well -


"There is the case where an uninstructed, run-of-the-mill person... does not discern what ideas are fit for attention, or what ideas are unfit for attention. This being so, he does not attend to ideas fit for attention, and attends instead to ideas unfit for attention... This is how he attends inappropriately: 'Was I in the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the past? Having been what, what was I in the past? Shall I be in the future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the future?' Or else he is inwardly perplexed about the immediate present: 'Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Where has this being come from? Where is it bound?'

"As he attends inappropriately in this way, one of six kinds of view arises in him: The view I have a self arises in him as true & established, or the view I have no self... or the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive self... or the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive not-self... or the view It is precisely by means of not-self that I perceive self arises in him as true & established, or else he has a view like this: This very self of mine — the knower that is sensitive here & there to the ripening of good & bad actions — is the self of mine that is constant, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and will endure as long as eternity. This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. Bound by a fetter of views, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person is not freed from birth, aging, & death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. He is not freed, I tell you, from suffering & stress.

"The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones... discerns what ideas are fit for attention, and what ideas are unfit for attention. This being so, he does not attend to ideas unfit for attention, and attends [instead] to ideas fit for attention... He attends appropriately, This is stress... This is the origination of stress... This is the cessation of stress... This is the way leading to the cessation of stress. As he attends appropriately in this way, three fetters are abandoned in him: identity-view, doubt, and grasping at precepts & practices."

— MN 2

>>18475578
So, basically, I misunderstood the paragraph in context to the others.

>>18475609
I think I understand.

That's another problem I have, sadly. Sometimes the teachings start to read like sterero or programming instructions and it becomes a dense read.

What about people who can't comprehend? No wonder the religion has been bastardized (pop buddhism) and has had trouble spreading. It gets quite technical with it's explanations and people probably go around just repeating the things that are easy and fast to understand.

I am reading pic related btw. But I ought to do the religion some justice and read what you are reading.

>>18475609
where are you getting this from

>>18475821
MN 2 is the Sabbasava Sutta from the Majjhima Nikaya.

>>18475711
the buddha's teaching simply is difficult - immediately after his enlightenment he did not want to teach it for this reason, until brahma sahampati convinced him there were those with little dust in their eyes that would be able to comprehend.

that being said, you should just read the suttas and see if they click with you. the words of the buddha seem to have the always miraculous effect of arousing active confidence, faith, urgency, and diligence in understanding and practising the path - "His [the disciple's] heart suddenly feels pervaded with sacred enthusiasm and his whole mind is revealed pure, clear, shining as the luminous disc of the moon: and the truth appears to him in its completeness.'"

I'd recommend either "in the buddha's words" translated by bhikkhu bodhi to start with, or walpola rahula's "what the buddha taught".

>>18473394
we're an existential board
fuck off buddhist

>>18475925
Weren't the existentialists all nihilists, i.e. what Nietzsche considered "European Buddhism"?

>>18473409
Stop being a raging faggot.

>>18475402
Read Mastering the core teachings of the buddha

>>18473394
literally just be lucid about your current situation, change what can be changed and endure what cannot
some things will happen regardless of your implication and you will have to either endure or run away from them, it all depends on what kind of person you wish to be

>>18475226
Liked

>>18473394
It's called alcohol, silly!

>>18473394
Okay bros, I've accepted that I'm ngmi. Where do I go from here?

>>18480507
nowhere. Just live your life

>>18480507
Making it and not making it are spooks. That being said reading the Bhagavad Gita unironically really helped my mental health.

Rather than having a meditation practice even one can try reading sacred texts in kind of a way where they'll reach deeper. If you look into lectio divina for biblical reading, you'll find you can apply that to other inspired writings.

Also for practical meditation or control over internal processes type stuff, look into Bruce Frantzis.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ - for the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Today has enough trouble of its own.

>>18473394
https://youtu.be/fh60QJg3E2I?t=677
Perhaps Ramana Maharshi

>>18473394
Instead of trying to seek some perfection grounded in some made up otherworldy concept try to embrace your attachments and master your inclination to be attached. The practice of self-control and moderation would be infinitely better than chasing after such unrealistic goals.

>>18481492
>Ramana Maharshi
Who?

>>18483643
a poo in the looer, honestly why shove your head up the poo stretched asses of those cryptic brown monkeys when superior enlightenment resides within the European intellectual landscape.

>>18473404
Should I read anything before reading this? I have no experience with Hinduism.

>>18485031
maybe watch this as a kind of crash course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KXidr0z1RY

you can also read the bhagavad gita but if you have the open mind and will to grasp abstract metaphysics you should be fine either way
preparation would just be getting used to terminology more or less

>>18483688
>hurr durr pooo!!! Pooooo!!!!! Indian poooo lol
God you are retarded.

>>18485031
You don't need to, you can get by with just looking up words you don't know while reading it

This translation of it has notes that explain everything too, but the effect is more powerful IMO to just read straight through it without consulting notes

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.490169

>>18485337
>God you are retarded.
Your gods are retareded.