/lit/ - Literature

>>19092352
Original

>>19092352
This is the original

>>19092365
Also, when you guys buy books, how do you decide which version to get? There are so many different recommendations on Buddhism that I am getting overchoice and I do not know where to start

we have a limited amount of time on earth, why would you do this instead of reading the Russian cannon

>>19092352
I made that chart, it's meant to be helpful for anyone interested in one of those religions. It's not supposed to be a reading list, although if you really want to read them all that's fine. Hinduism and Buddhism have very diffuse textual traditions, so everyone will recommend different books for them. I've seen one or two Hindu charts here but they seem to be only based on philosophy rather than practice or history. Just remember that any chart is someone's personal recommendation, including my one that you're using, they are never definitive and don't need to be strictly followed.

>>19092376
Well fuck that's the problem. I have no idea what to read

>>19092482
Should I skip confuscianism and Chinese folk as well? Seeing as you made the chart I figure that you might know a bit about it. I just want to see the greatest thoughts of other worldviews, expand my mind a bit. Now that I think about it I might limit it to Buddhism, and Hinduism. And dabble a bit in Taoism and Shintoism. I dont know, what's your opinion on this?

>>19092376
And what else is there to read? Read the major texts of world religions, then go read the Greeks I guess. Now before I pointlessly kill another thread with this, which books from the Greeks should I read? Do I really need everything from the charts. Or can I just go "edith Hamilton mythology" -> Iliad -> Odyssey -> Complete works of Plato -> Complete works of aristotle?

Like holy fuck I am going to have a stroke just trying to figure out what I should be reading. Too many options, too many books. Upanishads -> In the Buddhas words -> Tao te ching -> zhangzi -> kojiki-> nihon shoki-> BACK TO BUDDHISTS AND HINDUS????

And then after that I have no fucking clue, maybe I'll start and end with the Greeks.

There we go, that's a bit better

There we go, that's a bit better, now we only have 4 books. We can put Buddhism and Hinduism on the backburner. I'll come back and decide on those after I finish the 4 on Taoism and Shintoism. I head alot of anons here memeing that Taoism will be the next /lit/ meme after Buddhism, is this true?

/lit/ I am not going to kill another thread with my shitposting. But now I have one final question I NEED answered, and I refuse to make another thread for it

This one?

Or this one?

>>19094000
>>19094005
They both seem to agree on the Upanishads, even the same version. They both seem to agree on reading the Bhagavad Gita next, even though they disagree which version. The overall chart recommends two epics, while the other chart recommends philisophical books (I think that's what those 3 are, they have yoga in the title). I don't know

Which version of the bhagavad gita is supreme? "The self is supreme", get it guys?

>>19094071
But this is a serious question though

Which one?

>>19094280
Flood's or Easwaran's are good for beginners. If you want a deep exploration of the text presented through the lenses of traditional Hindu teachings, read Shankara's or Ramanuja's commentary on the Gita which includes the whole text of the Gita itself, English translations of both can be purchased on amazon.

>>19093039
The Tao Te Ching is barely religious, and is more a work of political philosophy and ethics with some metaphysical speculation. The Zhuangzhi is in a class of its own and should be read by everyone.

>>19094468
Hm, so you are saying to skip the Tao Te Ching, and to read the Zhuangzhi. Or not skip, but that the Zhuangzhi is the superior. Any thoughts about the Shinto literature?

>>19094828
I quite like the Tao Te Ching but it’s not very religious. The Zhuangzhi is superior, and honestly the thought is quite different. It’s also not very religious. It’s about as religious as the Enneads.

>>19094828
>>19094878
To prove my point, a quotation which I quite like from the Zhuangzhi:
There’s Crippled Shu—chin stuck down in his navel, shoulders up above his head, pigtail pointing at the sky, his five organs on the top, his two thighs pressing his ribs. By sewing and washing, he gets enough to fill his mouth; by handling a winnow and sifting out the good grain, he makes enough to feed ten people. When the authorities call out the troops, he stands in the crowd waving goodbye; when they get up a big work party, they pass him over because he’s a chronic invalid. And when they are doling out grain to the ailing, he gets three big measures and ten bundles of firewood. With a crippled body, he’s still able to look after himself and finish out the years Heaven gave him. How much better, then, if he had crippled virtue!
As you can probably gather, this is more philosophy than faith.

>>19094911
I know alot of people on here recommend Buddhism and Hinduism, so I am trying to read some stuff from those. But as for the rest of the chart, it was a challenge to choose what I should read. I just went through the chart trying to narrow it down. Because I would prefer to have a smaller amount of books that I can really get into.

So far to study on my list is the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and In the Buddha's words. I'm realizing that I am much more interested in the actual philosophy, as opposed to the epics/history and the other stuff, so that narrows it down sufficiently. As another note, I am considering scrapping Taoism and Shintoism out of my list, and just focusing on Hindu and Buddhist texts alone. (Yes that means, that my entire thread was pointless, and that I came to the same conclusion I had before I even started the thread) But for Buddhism, I have no idea what is the difference between Theravada and Mahayana. I also don't know if for Buddhism if I should read the Dhammapada next, the Diamond Sutra, the Lotus sutra, or whether to follow down the middle path of pic related, to read the rest of the discourses of the Buddha first.

>>19095015
Seeing as there is no diamond or lotus sutra in this image, I am gathering that this image I just posted was made from somebody of the Theravada school? Otherwise I don't see why they wouldn't include them, if they are important texts

>>19095015
Actually you know what, doesn't matter. I apologize for the whiny "spoon feed me" mentality. I'll figure it out.

>>19095015
I only read philosophy so I can’t tell you what Buddhism or Hinduism to read because I have only read a few Buddhist texts and no Hindu texts. What I can tell you is that Chinese religion in general is very hard for a non-Chinese speaker to get into because the ‘holy books’ are quite separate from the actual religions, which have a great variety of rituals and beliefs that are informal. So I would probably skip if you’re explicitly going for religious texts. I would still recommend the Zhuangzhi. The Burton Watson version has a nice e-book format available for free on Terebess and works very well on a cell phone.

>>19095084
Thanks, I'm heading off to bed, so no more replies from me tonight. But who knows, maybe we could get some wojack arguing spam

>>19095156
Ok, after browsing through a bait thread, this one caught my eye

>>19095084
>>19095156
>>19095184

Ok but really gn I'm out