/lit/ - Literature

>>6843441
>greatest
>hey guys! you dont really exist lol

> your philosopher sucks, mine is waaay more edgy

This pretty much sums up /lit/, and your thread isn't any better

>>6843448

>greatest philopsopher of all the time

Jesus?

>>6843448

he never said that. That's a perversion of the not-self teaching taken too far.

>>6843441
Are you kidding, OP?
Every college student likes to describe themselves are "kind of a buddhist"

Buddhism is a great tool for dealing with mental disease, stabilizing and toughening the mind, and dealing with intractable bad situations/inevitabilities.

I would recommend meditation to anyone.

It's shit for getting the most/anything out of life or actualizing yourself in the world.

>>6843441

That's not Parmenides

>>6843441

>>6843503
buddhism will make you drop all your classes and never work, have a partner, or a career.

meh, one of the many other buddhas that came before during cavemen times could ahve been better.

also guatama was more of a psychologist imo

>>6843732
That wouldn't be an accepted way of practicing Buddhism, unless of course you become a monk, but a lot of monks these days finish uni first, and it's not easy work being a monk.

one day i will become a buddhist deity

>>6843760
ur going to hell lol

>>6843448
>I have a revolting habit of asserting stuff I don't understand
Buddhism is not even close to solipsism.

I don't think it's entirely fair to call Gotama a philosopher. He clearly was not interested in views for their own sake, and there are canonical statements to the effect that the Buddha holds no views whatsoever. On the other hand, he does use debates, conceptual similes, and appeals to reason in order to win converts. On the gripping hand, the OP is a shitpost.

>>6843784
hell isnt real lol

>>6843461
such a nice mango. Even nicer in animation

>>6843759
when you start to lose desire and attachment even a little bit, i found it hard to do much of anything at all.

>>6843503
>the world
The world is swept away.
The world is without shelter, without protector.
The world is without ownership. One has to pass on, leaving everything behind.
The world is insufficient, insatiable, a slave to craving.

>>6843503
>Buddhism is a great tool for running away from your problems
Pretty much, yeah.

>>6843441
That is a weird picture of Jesus.

>>6844507
>i found it hard to do much of anything at all.
meditation remains

>meditation
>buddhist

I don't have a reaction face strong enough to convey my emotions of contempt for you people

Western society is rapidly moving towards Buddhism without even realizing it.

Buddha went straight there, and we have taken a scenic two thousand year detour, yet the culmination is going to be the same. postmodernism, the rejection of universals, the dogmatic relativism and belief that 'my idea is as good as yours'; the subsequent sub-sects and genres and 300 gender classifications that result from this are all registered in the problematic of the path to enlightenment.

We are 'deconstructing' our essentialist beliefs, and attacking the foundations of 'conventional truth'. We still have a way to go, but we'll get there eventually -- it's the direction we have been going all along.

>>6843759
>but a lot of monks these days finish uni first,
Have you been to SE Asia? Monks attend universities and have phones and laptops.

>>6845179
Identity politics and methodological individualism are as contrary to Buddhism as you can get.

A tumblr snowflake has about as much chance of enlightenment as a disciple of Ayn Rand

>>6844083
>hell isnt real lol
orly?

>wake up next morning
>hmm, I wonder if anyone responded to the last post I made before going to sleep. I'll just check quickly.
>wake up next morning
>hmm, I wonder if anyone responded to the last post I made before going to sleep. I'll just check quickly.
>wake up next morning
>hmm, I wonder if anyone responded to the last post I made before going to sleep. I'll just check quickly.
>wake up next morning
>hmm, I wonder if anyone responded to the last post I made before going to sleep. I'll just check quickly.
>wake up next morning
>hmm, I wonder if anyone responded to the last post I made before going to sleep. I'll just check quickly.

>>6845186
You're missing the point entirely

>Identity politics and methodological individualism are as contrary to Buddhism as you can get.
It's the segregation and fractalization of previously rigid concepts that is leading to the destruction of the assumed essence inherent in said concepts. Far from being contrary, it's a necessary part of the transition. The King's Chariot in the famous Mahayana example is exactly what gender is today.

>A tumblr snowflake has about as much chance of enlightenment as a disciple of Ayn Rand
Perhaps. But their actions and events are contributing to the inevitable move towards what is fundamentally 'Buddhist' philosophy on a social scale.

>>6845191
>mfw I've been trapped by the samsara.

ITT: /lit/ saying good philosophers suck because they don't say that life is meaningless


Jesus, you people should probably just go ahead and find a trigger to pull.

>>6843441
That's not Kant

>>6843441

That's not Descartes.

>>6845266
>Jesus, you people should probably just go ahead and find a trigger to pull.

Why would we do that, sweetie, when you've just been triggered?

>>6843441
Top tier phenomenologist therapist tbh.

Buddhism is a religion, not a philosophy. If you follow Buddhist teachings, then you must necessarily believe in angles, demons, deities, reincarnation, spirits, a god world on lotus flowers, etc

Being a "buddhist without the religious stuff" is like claiming to be a Jew because you like the 10 commandment stuff while ignoring all the rest of the system. Just meditating a lot does not make you a Buddhist.

>>6843732
>not wanting to be a modern day cynic

>>6845502
>gautama buddhas teachings come with this tibetan shamanism included by default

Nope.

>>6845525
>gautama buddhas teachings are free of hindu influence

Nope.

>>6845179
>Western society is rapidly moving towards Buddhism without even realizing it.
I have been reading about meditation all afternoon

Apprently, medidation is not solely a buddhism tool

arabs have it, jews and oriental christians as well

they seem to concur, that at some point of concentration, we loose our senses and there is nothing. ex with the arabs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muraqaba

the occidental christians seem less inclined towards meditation for the civilians.

>The superficial idler, haunted by the specter of age, is closer to Pascal, Bossuet, or Chateaubriand than a savant quite unconcerned with himself. A touch of genius in vanity: you have the great proud man who finds death hard to deal with—who takes it as a personal offense. Buddha himself, superior to all the sages, was merely fatuous on a divine scale.

>It was enough for one Hindu prince to see a cripple, an old man, and a corpse to understand everything; we see them and understand nothing

>>6845536
Certainly not free of it, but it's also not necessary included in the core of his teachings. It's not essential to his system.

>>6843441

Why are you posting a picture of Buddha, then?

just like all religions, buddhism is
-a code of conduct [morality]
-a reflection which is intellectual/philosophic
-a change in each person through concrete meditation

the greatest philosopher of all time was john wayne

>>6845525
>>6845561
From the Nine Virtues, tenets of Gautama Buddhism:
Lokavidu, belief in Buddhist cosmology (pic related)
Satthadeva-Manussanam, teacher of Gods and humans
Bhagavathi, belief in God


Siddhartha himself is almost invariably ascribed various divine qualities.

I'm a Buddhist and I hate nearly every single Buddhist I have ever met.

>>6845721
Do you believe in Buddhist cosmology, the divinity of Siddhartha, and the existence of Devas?

If not, then the reason you hate Buddhists is because you're not a Buddhist. You're a humanist who likes to meditate.

>>6845735
>>6845721
BTFO!

>>6845735
>the divinity of siddharta is mandatory buddhist dogma

Where do you get this? Buddhism has no centralised authority.

>>6845932
>Buddhism has no centralised authority
The fuck did I just read.

>>6845928
god tier album. american psychedelic rock musicians btfo

>>6845936
Who is the current general authority who decides what is Buddhist or not then?

>6845932

I don't think Buddhism has a centralised supreme authority, The Dalai Lama is the head of the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa Vajrayana school, so that doesn't mean he holds authority over the Therevada school of Buddhism.

>>6845950

> 6843441 #

The whole argument of greatest philosopher of all time is subjective, there is no such thing as an objective best as there is a "best" TV show of all time, best book of all time etc.

>>6845955
>can't respond properly

Nice reaction image.

>>6845952
I don't get the question, Buddhist canon has thousands of sutras, What is and isn't Buddhist is pretty well defined.

>>6843441
Buddhism is a meme

>>6845963 #
First time on 4Chan, still a noob.

Buddhism sort of covers its own ass because Buddha served as his own theologian in the suttas.

He lived in a philosophical stew in his own age and there were all kinds of people preaching various things, nihilism etc.

In one sutta, someone confronts him and says "what if you're full of shit wrt devas and reincarnation?" and he gives him Pascal's Wager + "just try it. Even if I'm wrong it feels good bro."

>>6845974 #

The Buddhist canon is called the pali canon, Therevada Buddhism only believes in this huge collection of writings.

Mahayana Buddhism and Vajrayana Buddhism uses the Pali Canon and also thousands and thousands of sutras not found in the Pali Canon, so there are some things in the two camps that hold different opinions within the sects.

>>6845974
And a lot of Buddhists don't recognise the sutras of other Buddhists and they bicker about dogma and doctrine and authenticity and "haha your vehicle is LOWER mine is the HIGHER vehicle stupid jungle niggers" and "no no ours is the WAY OF THE ELDERS you filthy chinks it's the most original orthodox teachings these palm leaves say so i've got them all memorised!" and then out of nothing "DIAMOND VEHICLE COMING THROUGH, MOVE AWAY PEASANTS, we literally have the magic secret mountain shortcut ways taught to us by the hidden demon scrolls, the chosen incarnated holy child has said so himself, where the peasant bitches at sex is enlightenment" and then the others go "THAT IS NOT BUDDHISM YOU FILTHY SHAMAN" and then the someone says "Lmao all you have to do is say the buddha's name and you go to the pure land, tryhard plebs" and another says "LADS ITS JUST PURE MEDITATION THE REST IS BULLSHIT SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP" and another says "add some cheeky riddles m8" and the shitstorm starts all over again everywhere in perpetual cancer.

>>6846012

This.

>mfw gullible white people get sold on dumbed down yoga class vision of Buddhism that totally ignores any sense of historical context in favor of providing them with mystical orientalist platitudes and feelgood circle jerk bullshit

>>6846012#
The different sects actually get along with each other relatively well though, if anything they view the differences as changes made to suit the different cultures. For example Tibetan Buddhists have no issue with eating meat and this is because the geography of Tibet is that of sparse crop growing and so meat was a staple for the people.

Regardless from what I have known of the histories there has been no wars between Buddhist sects over the better form of Buddhism.

Tibetan Buddhism might be Buddhist philosophy + indigenous shamanism, but that doesn't make it less Buddhist because "Buddha didnt do this".
That's some protestant tier thinking.

>>6846076
Insight Meditation
Five Precepts
Eightfold Path
Triple Gem

There you go, all you need to know re Buddhism unless you want to be a monk, which seems inadvisable because approximately 0.1% of monks reach enlightenment by their own admission, so you might as well get laid.

>>6846060
>Regardless from what I have known of the histories there has been no wars between Buddhist sects over the better form of Buddhism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%8Dhei

>>6846058

Since when has historical context ever fucking mattered for a religion to gain followers and gain traction?
If anything platitudes and feelgood circle jerk bullshit is what all exoteric teachings can be boiled down to.
Look at Islam for example.

>>6846012

>>6846090

>Japs being Japs

What else is new?

THE GREATEST PHILOSOPHER OF ALL TIME!

The Complete Idiot's Guide(®) to Understanding Buddhism 2nd Edition says...

"Because the Buddha wouldn't address certain basic metaphysical questions, his path isn't technically philosophy. Likewise, because his teachings aren't built around God or an afterlife, they aren't precisely a religion. And his teachings about self as an illusory construction makes it tricky to categorize as psychology. Some people prefer to call it a science, an education, or a way of life. A path."

THE GREATEST PHILOSOPHER OF ALL TIME!!

I like Buddhism. But as soon as I read Taoist works, I think it's second tier compared to this system of thought.

THE GREATEST PHILOSOPHER OF ALL TIME!!!

THE GREATEST PHILOSOPHER OF ALL TIME!!!!

THE GREATEST PHILOSOPHER OF ALL TIME!!!!!

>>6843996
This is fairly ironic considering his post doesn't imply solipsism

Im taking this thread over.

THE GREATEST PHILOSOPHER OF ALL TIME!!!!!

THE GREATEST PHILOSOPHER OF ALL TIME!!!!!!

>>6846132
>>6846144
>>6846161
>>6846182
>>6846190
>>6846206

THE GREATEST SHITPOSTER OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!

>>6846112
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorje_Shugden_controversy

Tibetan sects have been oppressing and persecuting each other for a long time over who is wrong and who is right and calling in special sect demons to fight against other sects and shit.

Is the Oxford Introduction to Buddhism any good?

>>6846225
The King of the greatest shit posters of all time!!

PS: pic related is the greatest philosopher of all time

>>6846206
OF ALL TIME!!!!!!

>>6846265
Sum 1 say time?

THE GREATEST PHILOSOPHER OF ALL TIME!!!!!

>>6846135
>thinking
You're doing it wrong.

Or maybe not.

>>6845229
we don't exist and our identities don't exist.
as the west moved from Identity = producer, to identity = how you consumer, to identity = gender/race/morals and so on, the west has just changed where they put identity based on economic and cultural institutions. The west remains obsessed with the self and has never been more attached to it than at this moment

>>6846660
furthermore, producers were proletarianized, then consumerism become proletarianized and soon identity politics will be proletarianized if you watch carefully you can see it occurring around you.

>>6843441
nah

So a lot of people is discussing buddhism, what's a good way to start with it? at least something about meditation.
Thank you

>>6846681
Here are two Theravadans:

This guy (Yuttadhammo) is nice if you want dark, real, pure grim Buddhism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLvU7ppM4vE

And this guy (Ajahn Brahm) is nice if you like Westernized social jet-setting happy-happy Buddhism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USC5MJVZLy8

>>6843441
"Just fucking live and shit."

-Buddha

>>6846778
second lad sounds like an elderly queer boomer but the first one is really nice. just the way he talks is calming already.

>>6846778
mhmm meditation, doing vipassana was really upsetting, difficult, hard, and made me feel quite awful, and extremely boring

>>6847367
Did you push through that or did you quit?

>>6846778
Yuttadhammo seems great and has a shitload of videos. Thanks anon.

>practicing anything but pure Orthodox Christianity
>2015

I will pray for you deluded hippies.

>>6847707
>muh filioque

>>6847707
>practicing anything but pure Orthodox Christianity
The Oriental Churches are interesting, to be sure, but even they step outside real Abrahamic orthodoxy (if that's what you're into).

The Quran is the greatest philosophical text in the history of humankind.

>inb4 FOX news-tier replies

The Buddha's cool and has some interesting ideas which I think are pretty right on, mainly his deflationary theory of self, though his praxis is what interests me most about him. His system of meditation is pretty straightforward and effective. That being said, he has ideas which are pretty unreasonable and unsupported by any strong arguments, mainly rebirth, karma and the idea that one can reach a state of complete mental purity, perfection and have eliminated all suffering and cravings.

Ultimately, like any thinker, he has good ideas and bad ideas. The issue here is that he founded a world religion, so some people view him in a religious way, as a prophet or even deity. Which makes questioning his views in a philosophical sense more difficult for them. Ultimately, Buddha has a great insight into the nature of personal identity, human psychology and meditative practice. However, his project fails because it is grounded on a weak metaphysical foundation - the idea that the human condition is one of endless rebirth and that we should escape this. Without any strong arguments backing this up, Buddhists resort to faith based experiential arguments (the buddha saw his past lives, others have done so). These ultimately fail to be rigorous enough for most westerners to accept and hence Buddhism will never be the dominant religion in the west. Ultimately westerners who initially tend to see Buddhism as more rational than Monotheism realize that it is based on big metaphysical claims which are also problematic.

>>6845191

>>6846135
psst they're talking about the same thing

>>6846249
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/buddha/


I found academic works to be more precise, but you should get many different perspective and try to understand genuinely then find out which is true/possibly false ideas/etc.

From my own readings/understanding of Buddhism, most of the core is same. Its mainly the higher layers that are different in practice/theory.

>>6847902
the supposed problem of rebirth is no longer a problem once you take a solipsist perspective that everyday you get up as a new person and yet you do the same things which are unsatisfactory, with also the actions of yesterday having consequences on the morrow

also, the secular buddhism says like you that rebirth is crucial in ordinary buddhism and it is better to avoid it, if we do not believe in it.

>>6848190
>every day you get up as a new person
This is a view rejected by the Buddha as annihilationism, although maybe you don't care.
>>6846076
Tantra is not indigenous to Tibet.

>>6847902
The Buddha did not engage in metaphysics.

>>6848190
I'm the self—hating Buddhist fella, and in my less than educated opinion I always kinda felt that the Buddhist, Hindu, and all around Eastern concept of rebirth was the mythologizing of the fact that we as organic beings and denizens of a biochemical world will evaporate, and eventually supplant the atoms of other beings and things.

>>6846012
Haha. Only original post in thread. Also spot on. Except im one of those who believe the pali canon is the only buddhism that is actually, you know, the words of buddha.

>>6847902
>>unreasonable/unsupported by strong arguments
Ofcourse, the skill is gained from practice.

>>6848209
Your response reeks of ideology.

>>6848209
>annihilationism
this is the thesis that a notion of self is relevant and this self is destroyed at death

reminder that there is no proof that I will die

>>6848315
Or that self is destroyed at all.
>'The one who acts is the same one who experiences,' is one extreme.
>'The one who acts is someone other than the one who experiences,' is the second extreme.
>Avoiding both of these extremes, the Tathāgatha blah blah blah you know the rest
The Buddha clearly rejected the notion that moment-to-moment or day-to-day you can be considered a "different" person.

>>6848219
>The Buddha did not engage in metaphysics.

pretty sure past lives and rebirth cycles qualify as metaphysics.

>>6848365
Are you fucking serious?

>>6848481

he's right though.
until he dies there really is no proof.

>>6848493
There is no direct, deductive proof. There is, however, an easy indirect inductive proof that is essentially common sense. However, he will probably never get it since people with type of thinking like that suffer from extreme form of congruence bias.

>>6847902
>deflationary theory of self
He couldn't even pin down his "theory of self", it repeatedly changed every couple of sutras.

>>6848528
say this to epicure

>>6848365
In reality no such perfect spotlight exists such that we wouldn't see the blue and orange light diffracted into each other's higher density spots giving an indication of nature of the situation even to someone who cannot see the source nor the object causing the shadows.
I would also like to point out that 'death' has a well defined history and that the likelihood that poster will die in an empirically verifiable sense ranges close to total certainty. He would like us to see death as a subjective possibility instead of an objective actuality. He doesn't want to think that his body will decay along with the capacities of his mind until its failings render the body/brain container that we colloquially refer to as him no longer functional requisitioning 'him' thusly to the earth. Maybe its that he would like you to believe that his 'self' might somehow escape in some crafty vessel disseminated into the world liken as to a dream while the body sleeps only to emerge again reconstituted. But I would consider that (even if poster intends it in that fashion) a mistake. He's simply pointing out that hard empirical sciences differ in kind from probability and gambling. Empirical evidence trumps everything in science so, no mater how many times we drop a ball and it doesn't fly toward the moon may give us a rating for gamblers predictability, but scientifically it simply gives us a data set 1million times dropped: 1million times hits floor. Maybe the self of the ball does want to fly to the moon. Who knows? But what we know has to do with the balls decay and eventual crumble into pieces.
As an addendum, poster refers to a definition of self seemingly as an idiosyncratic kind of poetic collection of traits that any solipsist could doubt. Ergo, scientifically, that poster exists as a self we cannot prove any more than that posters self will or will not die.

>>6848576
I bet that you are germanic

are you a realist ? what metaphysical stance do you take ?

>>6848528

>inductive proof

induction is a fallacy.

>>6848614
I consider metaphysics a most abused term. To do metaphysics means to try to answer the question what makes a natural thing that very thing. So you want to do this for water. Water turns to ice and that water turns to ice makes water water. Water also turns to steam and that water turns to steam makes water water. Having a two hydrogen bonds and one oxygen bond makes water water. Nourishing the body makes water water. etc.

Taking the self as a metaphysical construct seems unnecessary since having a self at all does not coincide with necessity. i.e. a man can have a self or not and what does a self accomplish exactly?

>>6844775

Said "problems" don't even exist.

>>6848479
No. "What is being?" is a metaphysical question. "Is the world eternal?" is a metaphysical question, and one the Buddha would not answer. "Where is Mongolia?" is not metaphysical, and the Buddha's audience understood the teachings of karma and rebirth to be far closer to that kind of question or statement about reality. Karma is explained as a physical process.

>>6848668
No your no.

metaphysics doesn't have to answer for the whole of being. just because your crummy spiritualists always try to do so doesn't mean that its not an attempt to do anything less crummy. In fact, i would describe it as an innately crummy act done all too often by scumbags and swindlers.

>>6848633
Fallacy means faulty in logic, not false. Dismissing inductive reasoning because of the inductive fallacy is ridiculous and deserving of scorn.

The single data point you have as a person regarding incarnation is you incarnating.

You emerged from nothingness into this life. Why are you so sure it won't happen again?

"It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection." -- Voltaire

>>6848568
>sutras
Maybe the reason for inconsistency in Sanskrit sutras is they all post-date the Buddha by many hundreds of years. In the Pali canon, the exposition on non-self is a few rigid pericopes that never change. It's always
>form is not self
>feeling is not self
and so on through the aggregates, and/or (I'm paraphrasing)
>whatever form, near or far, blatant or subtle... should be seen correctly, as it is, with right discernment: "this is not me, this is not mine, this is not my self"
with the aggregates cut/pasted appropriately. The Pali Canon is nothing if not consistent about what constitutes the self, ie nada

>>6848677

Dismissing a fallacy as a fallacy is appropriate. induction is faulty logic.

induction is the humanity's mistake

>>6848668

Buddha went to great lengths to establish rebirth as an important principle that should be accepted, he recounted his past lives, and warned against the annihilationist view that death is the end.

Talking about what happens to "beings" after they physically die is the realm of metaphysics, it is no longer empirical or scientific.

annihilationism is just a flase view that there is a self to be annihilated instead of seeing that there was no permanent self in the first place to be annihilated as all things are impermanent, dukkha and not-self and are dependent on conditions

>>6848744
>>6848668
Aren't non-physical planes metaphysical?

>>6844083

In buddhism there are several hells though.

>>6845502

There's different buddhisms you know. That which you describe is true for a lot of Theravada, but there are many other perspectives.

>>6848851
The only Buddhists that don't believe in those things are heretical Western Zen McBuddhists.

It's all about a good story.

>>6848857

Okay.

>>6848851
>>6848869
"Rather, the monk, nun, male lay follower, or female lay follower who keeps practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma, who keeps practicing masterfully, who lives in accordance with the Dhamma: that is the person who worships, honors, respects, venerates, & pays homage to the Tathagata with the highest homage."

>>6848864
whats this from?

>>6847519
i quit.

and promised myself I'd try again one day. yup

>>6848857
Buddhism has meant many different things in different time periods. Meditation used to be a key part of Buddhism in early India, but in other places it is not so widely seen as central to Buddhism - monastic rules were seen as central in pre modern Burma and monks did not meditate until the 19th century vipassana revival.

In Japan, monks are not celibate. This was central to the core of Buddhism monasticism and thus central to Buddhism. The idea of a realized enlightened being which has sex and has attachments to family has been incorporated into Buddhism. Nobody questions if this is Buddhism or not.

The idea of a Buddhism without "metaphysical" rebirth, without karma, a 'secular' Buddhism if you will (or mundane Buddhism) is not that far fetched. In this kind of Buddhism karma and rebirth would be adapted to accommodate materialism or at least a skeptical agnostic view of the afterlife and focus on living in this world. Sure it is a big change in Buddhist dogma, but it could still be said to be Buddhism.

That being said, one need not call oneself a Buddhist or believe in all the Buddhist dogma to practice Zen. Most Zen centers welcome everyone no matter what their religious or philosophical beliefs because they are more focused on practice than on dogma. I've attended a small zen center from time to time in my area. Never have I been asked if I believe in such and such doctrine. The Dalai Lama has stressed this, that Westerners should not seek to adopt a new worldview wholesale, but be open to new ways to improve their well-being.

As someone who went through the whole "Western Buddhist convert" phase: Don't 'convert' to Buddhism and seek to accept all its doctrines, just meditate and study the Buddha's teachings as you would any other philosopher, with a critical mind. The Buddha was just a man, he's not the only thinker with wisdom.

Anyone else find that a regular meditation practise fucks with your suspension of disbelief? It puts me of off fiction, both books and film, and even most non-fiction seems to become trivial. I tend to not care much for music and such any more either. Or trivial small talk or things like that. It kind of undermines normal desirable activities to the point of making one incompatible with a regular life or something.

>>6849484
you're doing it wrong

>>6849484
well it is the point really. you are doing good, and must continue to meditate

what meditations do you do ?
what is your levels ?

>>6849495
>implying meditation is about tuning out reality and not enjoying anything

>>6849158
>just meditate and study the Buddha's teachings as you would any other philosopher, with a critical mind.
+sila. morality matters and helps these other two aspects

>>6849498
meditation is about
-calming the mind/concentrating the mind
-gaining insights

are you a bad memer ?

>>6849484
what do you expect? Buddhism is life denying

>>6849508
yeah and neither's conducive to becoming an outcast what's your point

>>6849511
meditation calms your mind and helps you be at peace with the suffering in life so you can present in life 110% distraction-free.

tl;dr: nah

>>6849511
No, it's not.

>>6849489
How do I do it right?

>>6849495
I don't any more to be honest, after a while I wanted my blue pill back. I practised just simple sitting breath oriented meditation two times 30 minutes a day and sometimes put in a few extra hours.

Lately I've been started to be interested in it again though, but I really feel as if there's some sort of choice to be made between being a person and having meditation practise.

>>6849498
I'm not sure feeling inclined to different behaviour is "tuning out reality".

>>6849489
it's about presence in the moment. buddhists are content with the simple things in life because they are totally concentrated on their meal or cup of tea or whatever.

at the end of the day it's all about mental dispositions and shit and im breaking ur balls because when i meditate it has the complete opposite effect. i just feel more grounded, more into where i am and what im doing. im coolin

>>6849511
In this case it's more lifestyle denying than life denying.

>>6849555
still nah

knew the head of a zen center who was a professional piano player and professor at a local big name university. u mad bro

>>6849558
My point is that my experience is that I feel less desire to engage in certain activities, I'm aware that there are others that don't experience this. Although they do seem to be mostly of the 'secular western zen' variety.

>>6849484
Meditation addiction is a real problem anon get help

Siddharta was a really good book.

>>6849764
It wasn't a accurate representation of Buddhism though, It's more of a "what Westerners think Buddhism is like" book.

>>6849158

10/10 post

Buddhism at it's heart is the practice of introspection.

>>6845179
>>6845179
>We still have a way to go, but we'll get there eventually -- it's the direction we have been going all along.
Yeah we'll keep going that direction until the Church launches the final crusade and purges the earth of apostates and sets us on the final path to the godhead; the omega point.

>>6848834
non-pysical planes amount to a postulate about how existence possibly operates. its an unsupported hypothesis. it makes a metaphysical claim with no evidence to support it. Non-physical planes amount to the jackalopes of metaphysics - only good to chortle at like a moron.

>>6846135
"Those who seek knowledge,

Collect something every day.

Those who seek the Way,

Let go of something every day.


They let go and let go,

Until reaching no action.

When nothing is done,

Nothing is left undone.


Never take over the world to tamper with it.

Those who want to tamper with it

Are not fit to take over the world."

>>6844670
then kill yourself?

>Buddha says
>Stop thinking about where you come from and where you're going
>Know your actions affect the universe
>And know suffering stems from thinking you're a snowflake
>Done! Live life and stop attaching metaphysical and esoteric meanings to everything, you desperate fools!

>>6843732
Daoism is more likely to do that.

>>6849770
So just "Muh Zen/Theravada" tibetans/chinese have corrupted muh Buddhism?

>>6850102
What? No? The book doesn't actually have anything to do with Buddhism, It's almost completely unrelated.

But that's not a picture of hegel.

>>6848744
"Empiricism" and "scientific" have no relevance in the context of ancient India. Gotama's audience understood statements such as "people who do x, y, and z will be reborn into states of perdition" the same way you or I would understand a statement like "people who fail to perform maintenance on their cars will suffer breakdowns." Metaphysics is far too broad a field of inquiry for the doctrine of karma. Again, truly metaphysical questions, ones dealing with first principles and the nature of ontology, were questions he would not answer. Consigning the parts of the canon which don't fit into modern scientific paradigms to metaphysics is mistaken.

>>6849052

invisibles

>>6850524
>Gotama's audience understood statements such as "people who do x, y, and z will be reborn into states of perdition" the same way you or I would understand a statement like "people who fail to perform maintenance on their cars will suffer breakdowns."

No they didn't. They understood rebirth in a literal sense, which is how Buddha taught it. Literal rebirth was extremely important to his doctrine. He argued against the hindu materialists who rejected rebirth and claimed that the destruction of the body was the end of the self.

> Again, truly metaphysical questions, ones dealing with first principles and the nature of ontology, were questions he would not answer.

that's just a narrow/autistic definition of metaphysics. Explaining the nature of the afterlife/reincarnation and how the subtle mind travels from one body to the next fits into the normal definition of metaphysics.

>>6850524
He may not have done metaphysics in the modern sense, but by promoting the idea of karma and rebirth, he is making certain metaphysical assumptions which cannot be escaped if one is to accept these doctrines. Mainly that ethical actions have effects on persons after their death, and that after death, a something other than the body survives.

>>6845502

Actually there were a shitload of atheistic Jews in the wake of WWII. There's a play devoted to it, though I do not recall the name. They stuck with their dogma to stick with family.

>Atmans aren't real guys!
>But reincarnation still is

>>6843441
Buddhism is Jainism for the less committed.

>>6851445
The rebirth of karma isn't the reincarnation of a permanent soul.