/lit/ - Literature

>>22488255
The Zhuangzi, though I find it a slog to read since the translations can be obtuse (which is ingrained in daoism anyway).
But really the only message one needs is to stop thinking.
Resist the thoughts about thoughts.
Resist the thoughts after thoughts.
Resist the justifications for these thoughts, and through habit these thoughts will disappear

>>22488255
The solution is physical, not sedentary.
Imagine thinking you can get over overthinking by sitting down and reading other people's thoughts kek. Go outside nigger. Do things.

>>22488335
You can do stuff and still have space to think, see anything tedious. It’s rather worthwhile to be mindful of that which you’re doing right now and not focus on something else.

>>22488325
thank you for sharing this

>>22488335
>touch grass
i already try to do that but the feelings still keep hitting me dragging down weeks of progress in a few days

>>22488255

Try Buddhism, Stoicism, cognitive behavioral psychology, Nietzsche and Jung. If you give all of these a shot and implement something from each you will drastically improve.

A Christmas Carol

>>22488255
Embrace it. Conquer the depths of your soul.

>>22488255
David Goggins is perfect for that if you want to transform it into fuel that moves you forward

>>22490260
I second this, he made me stop feeling sorry for myself. Stay hard

>>22490260
>goggins
isn't he some weight loss guru? sorry i don't struggle with weight, i'm in shape, i struggle with having a life that doesn't suck

>>22490278
he used a general method to tackle one of his specific problems and then some.
>i struggle with having a life that doesn't suck
so did he.
>self-hate /neuroticism/being a coward and the overcoming of it?
that's all him. he did more than just lose weight. he did whatever he could to prove in his mind that he wasn't a weak-willed bitch that his abusive father thought he was. maybe he went overboard. idk. that's your call to make.

also don't read confessions of a mask unless you're literally a perverted faggot or unless you genuinely want to read it for its literary value. you will stop reading it 50 pages in because you'll think "Christ, I'm just not that crazy, or at least crazy like that."

by the way, I was stuck in that phase thinking that reading literature could solve my problems (it couldn't, only philosophy, action, and deep honesty and introspection after experience could). it's a work in progress still.

>>22488255
Wow I wish I found the Bible earlier!
Too bad no church shills on 4chan until it's too late!

>>22490278
his philosophy can be applied to other things like the problems you have now

>>22490395
Is his philosophy to prove himself to himself I.e. internalised others?

>>22490551
yeah, in a way. why? what's wrong with that? you clearly have not met your own standard, so you need to prove yourself.

>>22488255
reading books won't help you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdQJg-HwsMQ

>>22490565
Idk the reason for such a hostile response, I’m not the op btw.
Pushing yourself to the edge because of “proving” yourself IS neurotic, just in a socially acceptable way. You’re not accepting of who you are and least of all compassionate to yourself.
The answer to happiness clearly isn’t being an ultra distance runner ex navy seal…

>>22490696
It wasn't a hostile response. But if you're not the OP, then it doesn't apply.
>The answer to happiness clearly isn’t being an ultra distance runner ex navy seal…
To each his own.

The Outsider, Colin Wilson

>>22488255
Saint Augustine of Hippo - The Confessions

>>22490948
Also a work of art, great prose that had a huge influence, and autobiography, and a work of philosophy with huge influence.
Just get a modern translation because the old ones are good for quotes but read slow:

>For Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee. Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on Thee or to praise Thee? and, again, to know Thee or to call on Thee? for who can call on Thee, not knowing Thee? for he that knoweth Thee not, may call on Thee as other than Thou art. Or, is it rather, that we call on Thee that we may know Thee? but how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe without a preacher? and they that seek the Lord shall praise Him: for they that seek shall find Him, and they that find shall praise Him. I will seek Thee, Lord, by calling on Thee; and will call on Thee, believing in Thee; for to us hast Thou been preached.

>Do the heaven and earth then contain Thee, since Thou fillest them? or dost Thou fill them and yet overflow, since they do not contain Thee? And whither, when the heaven and the earth are filled, pourest Thou forth the remainder of Thyself? or hast Thou no need that aught contain Thee, who containest all things, since what Thou fillest Thou fillest by containing it? for the vessels which Thou fillest uphold Thee not, since, though they were broken, Thou wert not poured out. And when Thou art poured out on us, Thou art not cast down, but Thou upliftest us; Thou art not dissipated, but Thou gatherest us. But Thou who fillest all things, fillest Thou them with Thy whole self? or, since all things cannot contain Thee wholly, do they contain part of Thee? and all at once the same part? or each its own part, the greater more, the smaller less? And is, then one part of Thee greater, another less? or, art Thou wholly every where, while nothing contains Thee wholly?

I think if you have Audible there will be a free audio version. There normally is for classics. Liber Vox too but those tend to be low quality.

Also, Nichomachean Ethics - Aristotle, at least the parts on continent man and incontinent man (easy to find free, like Confessions).

Also the Book of Ecclesiastes, I might even start there since it is height of nihilism. From there the opening few books of the Wisdom of Solomon, before he gets into Wisdom being involved in Scriptural history is a good rebuttal to hedonistic nihilism.

Job is great on this but easy to misunderstand. Same goes for Hegel unfortunetly, although the Philosophy of Right is not that inaccessible and covers duty and the risks of only looking to negative freedom well.

Romans 7-9 on the problem of free will when we are overwhelmed by desire and instinct on all sides is good. The Darkness That Comes Before is a fun fantasy romp through the problems surrounding freedom and causation. Leibniz is good on this too, since PSR can also be seen as a prerequisite for freedom.

>>22490696
Freedom leads to happiness because a free man will not freely choose to be unhappy.

Freedom requires both negative freedom, freedom from external constraints, and positive freedom, freedom to become what one desires and to control ones own desires and drives.

Of these, positive freedom is harder to foster. You need self-discipline but also the freedom to want what you want to want. Self-control alone is not freedom, it can become its own sort of life denying slavery. Freedom is self-control directed towards what Frankfurt call's "second order volitions," things that you want to want to do in essence.

Freedom then, is not easy to achieve. Like Saint Paul, we must be "at war with the members of our body." On all sides we are driven on by desire, instinct, and drive. We are free only when we fathom what we want to do, why we want to do it, and act in accordance with this reason. This is why Leibniz thought the Principle of Sufficient Reason, that everything happens for a causal reason, determinism, was prerequisite for freedom, not antithetical to it.

For us to be free actions must have defined consequences and we must want to do what we want for a reason. A world where our actions aren't deterministic is simply a world where our actions are arbitrary. Arbitrariness isn't freedom.

Free men are like Hegel's state, "knowing what they will and willing what they do."

Reason then, is essential, as is reason out in the world, cause, Logos. So, for Paul, he dies a death of autonomy and personhood when sin lives through him, when he is driven on by desire and instinct. He is resurrected in this life, to personhood by Christ, the Logos, Christ who casts out the "legion within," the demons who might control us.

So we must develop reason but also authenticity. This is what the existentialists get right. One must discover their true selves. Where they err is in elevating the Copernican Principle into a dogma and denying the Logos, claiming the universe is absurd even as the Logos burns bright in the order within all things.

But we are also social creatures, so freedom also requires a state that promotes freedom, that shape's individuals interests such that they have an incentive to promote each other's development and freedom. This is Hegel's insight and vision. We progress through this via the dialectic of history, a sort of natural selection where states that promote freedom survive because they promote human welfare and will be defended more by their citizens.

Freedom then, includes duty, self-control, knowledge, gnosis.

>>22491011
Thus we have a duty to be free. This is why criminals have a right to be punished. We do not punish merely to deter crime. To do this is to treat another human being like an animal to be domesticated.

Freedom requires knowing nature, and so we must study the sciences.

Freedom requires knowing the Logos, and so we must study philosophy, logic, and mathematics

Freedom requires knowing the self, and so we must study psychology, the great works of art, etc.

And as we drain the cup of gnosis we shall find three things at the bottom:

The external word, the symbols through which they are known, and the I that is ourselves.

And these three we shall know to be in an image of three others, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And then happy consciousness shall give praise to that which formed it, chanting "glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, both now and then, and on to ages and ages, amen."

We are the midwives of the Absolute. We are Mary, the theotokos, giving birth to the Body of Christ, his Church. As she created his first physical body, so we now construct his immanent body through world history as the Church in its Marian mission of creation. And yet the Church is also the Bride of Christ, of whom the Canticle of Canticles speaks. This is a mystery, but one we can fathom. For the Bride and the Bridegroom are to become one flesh, one body. And so we are the immanent body forming in this world. This is what is meant by the Kingdom being near.

And so we find our place in the world. A Christian man is lord of all, subject to none. And yet he is servant to all, lording over none. This is the mystery, just as the Gospel is vast and concise, as Saint Denys says.

>>22491011
>a free man will not freely choose to be unhappy
>le no true Scots, I mean free man

>>22491041
thank you for all these beautiful posts anon,
i really appreciate it all

>>22491046
It's not a No True Scotsman because it's a tautology. You can say Hegel's point is vacuous but not fallacious.

A free man is by definition a man who does what he wants and does not do what he does not want to do. A free man chooses what he wants. If he does it, then he has what he wants. Having all the things you want, what else could happiness be?

Of course, no man is absolutely free. We can't be two places at once or turn back time. And so a free man, as free as a man can be, won't be perfectly ecstatic, but he will do what he wants to do as much as any man may be able.

Of course, doing one thing necessarily means not doing others. Being a good father means waking up in the middle of the night with the baby, taking time to read stupid board books, doing boring multiplication drills, etc. We might not want to do these in the moment, but a free man might choose them, and if he chooses them freely he is doing what he desires. If we do what best executes our desires, what else can be done to be happy?

Certainly, we don't become happy by doing what we do not desire.

>>22491041
>Free man subject to none
>Mary
>Theotokos
>Absolute
Holy shit bro, stop! You can't mainline Lutheranism, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Behemism/Hermetic/Esoteric Christianity all at the same time, you'll OD.

>>22488255
Therapy. No book will have as drastic effect as therapy.

>>22490293
nigga you read self help books written by grifters lmao

>>22488255
Just read some Emerson and the Bible and fix yourself up.

>>22492367
how?

Are you sure she's not a patriarch of intellect blocking me from using my advanced mind.

>>22493312
no ser

>>22490260
Normalfag trash shilled by amazon