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/lit/ - Literature

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15946158 No.15946158 [Reply] [Original]

What are some book that have noticeably improved your life?

>> No.15946173

>>15946158

Cannot think of a single one. They are all fucking copes to avoid thinking about death, or the uncertainty of existence.

>> No.15946174

>>15946158
Big book of reddit

>> No.15946180

>>15946174
yeah Meditations was pretty cool

>> No.15946184

>>15946173
True, but isn't that itself an improvement compared to other forms of cope?

>> No.15946195
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15946195

>>15946158
I FUCKING HATE YOU REMOVE THIS FLY RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!

>> No.15946196

>>15946158
"Vasistha's Yoga" helps me almost immediately when I'm depressed. It gets me thinking about life in its proper perspective.

>> No.15946210

>>15946180
Do you prefer Epicurus?

>> No.15946213

>>15946184

No, I don't think so. If you actually spent your time making friends, exercising, learning something that can be instantly applied to your life to make it more efficient, took care of your sleep hygiene/diet, and accepted your role as a father/mother. You'd gain a lot more meaning, and joy out of life.

Because at the end of the day, whether we like it or not. We are biologically wired to find meaning in such behaviours.

>> No.15946218
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15946218

Impeachment of Man

>> No.15946224

>>15946158
Fuck you faggot, I literally punched through my screen

>> No.15946235

>>15946213
>earning something that can be instantly applied to your life to make it more efficient
Please tell me what this is, my like is a travesty.

>> No.15946241

>>15946158

Prometheus Rising. Yes, noticeably. I can't think of a single work that impacted my day to day life as that one did.

>> No.15946248

12 rules for life

>> No.15946253

>>15946158
12 rules for life

>> No.15946260

>>15946235
Nutrition
Sleepy Hygiene
Strength Training
Communication Skills
Leadership Skills

Anything that can give you an edge in your everyday interaction with humans, or leads to a positive gain in finances, and your health.

>> No.15946262

>>15946158
The Republic motivated me to get fit

>> No.15946264

>>15946180
It's actually Capital by Marx

>> No.15946271

>>15946213
>We are biologically wired to find meaning in such behaviours.
Some people don't find meaning in them though. I guess it's still our best bet, personal idiosyncrasies aside.
Still some people are not very fit for having more than a couple friends and doing much besides reading and hiking (for instance). Especially if you factor in things like permanent illnesses and infirmities.

>> No.15946284

>>15946241
What changed in your day to day?

>> No.15946306

How to win friends & rich dad poor dad (inb4 meme books) helped me a lot during a troubled time of my life, they were unironically the books that made me realize that maybe I could learn something from books and they are not just a waste of time like novels.
TKB because proved me that not all of the novels are waste of time.
Bhagavad Gita because it made me discover my spirituality, after it I've read the Bible.
Also the Tao te Ching because it states that there is Tao (the universal law) and made me think about metaphysics, also it made me more humble (it says "be like water" or something like that)

>> No.15946309

>>15946284
My outlook. There are small exercises in the book that are meant to make you learn how to manipulate your 'reality-tunnel'. The one that stuck with me is to just tell yourself for a week that
>everything turns out better than expected
Just to see how your week turns out, and to then do the same with
>everything turns out worse than expected
If nothing else it made me more peaceful and impassioned.

>> No.15946320

>>15946158
The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler

>> No.15947008

>>15946248
>>15946253
>self help meme youtubers

>> No.15947034

Idk, maybe some technology textbooks or the repair manual for my car

>> No.15947231

>>15946241
this
>>15946213
are you the same fucker that made the "philosophy is a massive cope" thread?

>> No.15947282

>>15946173
Based and denial-of-deathpilled

>>15946213
Cringe cope

>> No.15947292

>>15946213
cringe materialist shit

>> No.15947330

Augustine's Confessions (The relationship between God, mind, time and sin)
Dante's Purgatorio (The divine nature of forgiveness)
Aristotle's Ethics (How to practically live a balanced, ethical life)
CS Lewis' Mere Christianity (A great primer on the basics of Christianity and its relationship to human free will and the limits of self-awareness)

I'm sure there's more but those are the big ones that re-shaped how I see myself and my world/relationship to God.

>> No.15947405

>>15947330
Absolutely based, my man

>> No.15947427
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15947427

>>15946158
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH A BUG! GET IT AWAY GET IT AWAWY

>> No.15947429

>>15947330
You seem to be spiritually oriented and I hope you're a sensate fella.

I'm already on the path to spirituality but I still desire to form a family. What are you thoughts on that?

>> No.15947629
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15947629

>>15947330
A true patrician, God bless.

>>15947429
These things are not as separate as you may think. The Catechism has a lot of poetic theology on the nature of family :^)

>>15946158
The Spiritual Exercises
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament
Practical Theology by Kreeft
Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything. I have serious issues with the author but this was a fine and practical read.
Catholic Christianity by Kreeft

>> No.15947690

The Qur'an.

>> No.15947706

>>15947690

Came here to post this

>> No.15947761
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15947761

>> No.15947777

Bible, solely because it mentioned olive oil several times. Before that I didn't use it much, but now I eat everything with olive oil and it is great.

>> No.15947784

>>15946173
What about books about death?

>> No.15947807
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15947807

>>15946158
Lasch's Culture of Narcissism, Paglia's Sexual Personae, de Beauvoir's Second Sex, Proust, Ballard, and the entirety of The Last Psychiatrist's blog.
Basically I feel I have a good understanding of the movement of modern culture and society, but I have a healthy amount of skepticism of my own understanding and the way I process new info.

>> No.15947819

>>15946158
12 rules for life

>> No.15947827
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15947827

>>15947807
>Lasch's Culture of Narcissism, Paglia's Sexual Personae, de Beauvoir's Second Sex, Proust, Ballard, and the entirety of The Last Psychiatrist's blog.

>> No.15947832

>>15947784
You can read them hoping to find something about afterlife/life extension which is an obvious cope, or at least trying to calm down your fear by knowing it in details (which is a tiny bit subtler cope too)

>> No.15947836

>>15946158
Manalive.

>> No.15947875

>>15947827
fat dog with broken glasses

>> No.15947901

>>15946213

based truth-teller

>> No.15947911

>>15946173
Is death that bad? Sounds like low test cope to me desu

>> No.15947915

>>15946213
>learning something that can be instantly applied to your life to make it more efficient

im...im gonna IMPROOOOOOVE

>> No.15947923

>>15947911

Hah, my levels are 1237ng/dl brah.

>> No.15947936

>>15946173
Memento mori, stop being a little bitch

>> No.15947949

>>15946309

Sounds like it did nothing, but you managed to fool yourself into placeboing yourself that it did.

>> No.15947970

>>15947936

>Expecting books to suddenly give you a magical new paradigm that is going to stop you from being a sad lonely faggot

WW3 cannot come soon enough

>> No.15947985

>>15947008
bruh whoever made this thread is asking for self-help

>> No.15947989

>>15946158
Modern Man in Search of a Soul by Jung

>> No.15947990

>>15947970
Sounds like an awful lot of projection, did you not shit your diapers properly when you were a baby?

>> No.15947997

>>15946173
>>15946213
>cant cope so copes by complaining about people coping

>> No.15948009

>>15946158
On Pain by Junger

>> No.15948019

>>15946173
cope is good, it means successfully dealing with the inevitable

>> No.15948311

>>15947997

>Can't cope so copes about the anon coping by complaining about the people coping

COPE

>> No.15948505
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15948505

>>15947761
Did it spahk joy?

>> No.15948518

>>15946173
yeah, I'm gonna go with _fpbp_.

>> No.15949190

>>15947405
Thanks, brother. Ex-atheist but got Christpilled at a Catholic uni. So glad I did. Changed how I see the world.

>>15947429
I... see no conflict? You can be spiritual without being a monk, my guy. I had sex last night. Feelsgoodman.jpg

>> No.15949606

>>15947949
>Implying the placebo effect has no effect

>> No.15949613

Without a doubt Frankl's 'man's search for meaning' - Can read it in a day as well. Amazing book.

>> No.15949631

>>15949606

So you admit books are literally a cope

>> No.15949637

>>15949613

You have to be kidding me. I literally read that two days ago, and forced myself to write an essay on it.

What's so valuable about it? That people find meaning in suffering? That the writer was a failure that had been trying to be famous for 10 years, and only managed to make it so by pandering to the holocaust victimhood?

Seriously?

Book was fucking garbage

>> No.15949663

>>15946158
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

>> No.15949731

>>15949637
The first part of the book was good, but the second part (in which he lays out his philosophy) is bad

>> No.15949810

>>15946320
Based and faustpilled

>> No.15950511

>>15949663
Nigga how tf has that improved your life

>> No.15950664

>>15949637
This.
And, >>15946158
Parerga & paralipomena (I mean, obviously, faggots)

>> No.15950726

>>15950664
Also the Zaratustra, Moby Dick, Mein Kampf and a Biography of Leonardo da Vinci

>> No.15951887

>>15947777
Checked. I was reading the beatitudes in the Gospel of Luke and when I came to "Blessed are those that hunger now..." (6.21) my mom called me to eat dinner

>> No.15952039

>>15946158
Philosophical:
>Phenomenology of the Spirit
>Elements of the Philosophy of Right
>Being and Time
>Wagner Regeneration Writings
>Mein Kampf
>The World as Will and Representation (the series)
>City of God
>Summa Theologica
>Meditations
>The Republic

Artistic pieces:
>Faust (Part 1 and 2)
>Moby Dick (heh, dick)
>Crime and Punishment
>The Count of Monte Cristo
>The Divine Comedy
>Hamlet
>Paradise Lost
>Don Quixote
>Beowulf
>War and Peace

Religious:
>The Bible
>The Poetic Edda
>The Illiad and the Odyssey
>Volsungs Saga
>Parzival
>Bhagavad gita
>Upanishads
>Enneads
>Avesta
>Corpus Hermeticum

>> No.15952748

>>15946173
>He actually cares about dying
Death is the ultimate end. You either get freedom from thinking due to ceasing to exist or the glory of finding out the ultimate truth of what lies beyond life.

>> No.15952773

>>15946213
They hated him because he spoke the truth. Most philosophers were miserable.

>> No.15952792

>>15952039
based

>> No.15952929
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15952929

>>15946173
What the fuck man, just eat a quarter of mushrooms or smoke some dmt and get over it already. Ego death is a hellava drug.

>> No.15953015

>>15947292
>sleep, diet, exercise, family life
>materialist
leave retard

>> No.15953039

Marshall Rosenberg's Non Violent Communication

His workshop on YouTube is practically the book verbatim minus a few personal life experiences and anecdotes.

>> No.15953041

>>15946213
While this makes sense on a certain level and I wouldn't try to deny any of it, the conclusion is just poor. We're biologically wired to do many things who will not bring us meaning.
It only makes sense that, in turn, we wouldn't be biologically wired to reach for some of the things than can bring us meaning.

>> No.15954502

The bible, because I can name drop characters and make references so people think I'm shmart.

>> No.15954887

>>15946213
>>15953041
Interesting, however those biological impulses that don't gives us a sense of meaning exist as a surviving mechanism. Trouble in finding meaning is a disease of civilization. Uncle Ted was right.

>> No.15955708

>>15953039

I take it, that it is some kind of verbal judo?

>> No.15955725

>>15947949
I guess so. But if it works it works, don't it chief ?

>> No.15955731

>>15953015
>"let's follow just what we're biologically wired for; fuck contemplating stuff, just sleep, eat, drink and fuck and also do some practical things on the side e.g. learning to chop wood etc."
>not materialist
You're the one who needs to leave, you absolute retard.
Out.

>> No.15955739

>>15955731

>I want to exist outside the frame of a human being
>I BELIEVE I CAN IF I SAY I CAN
>IGNORE ALL EVIDENCE OF NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES CAUSED BY THIS

I WANT TO BREAK FREE, HEEEEELP AAAAAAH!


This is how I like to imagine you in my mind

>> No.15955740

>>15946241
just read gurdjieff faggot

>> No.15955744

>>15955739
>This is how I like to imagine you in my mind
I'm sure you do. It must be a pretty sad mind, though, as it's able to create strawmen such as the one you just did.

>> No.15955749

>>15955740
Is he the guy who advised people to set up personal idols in the "christian-prayer-sphere" to absorb that energy? I'm getting there, calm down you twat

>> No.15955751
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15955751

>>15946158
Borges: In Praise of Darkness
Nietzsche: Thus Spake Zarathustra
Dostoevsky: Notes from the Underground

>> No.15955756

>>15955751
>In Praise of Darkness
>Thus Spake Zarathustra
How exactly did these improve your life? I'm guessing that "Notes from the Underground" made you reconisder your views on life since you were reminded of the underground man.

>> No.15955767

>>15955744

Yes, having the cognitive capability to create a strawman is indeed very sad.
Go on, explain why Materialism Bad

>> No.15955775

>>15955767
>Yes, having the cognitive capability to create a strawman is indeed very sad
What are you, a retard ?

>> No.15955787
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15955787

>>15955775

I'd say, that possibility certainly exists in the realm of likely probability.
Now, would you kindly explain why materialism bad?

>> No.15955791

>>15955787
Oh I'm not the anon you were talking to lol. But if I had to guess I'd say it's because absolutist materialism denies the possibility of any meaningful transcendence, if not the possibility of meaning altogether.

>> No.15955797

>>15952039
Top tier post

>> No.15955854

>>15955791

What do you mean by ''Meaningful transcendence?''

>> No.15955879

>>15955767
It's sad to represent things the way you want them to be instead of how they are. In this case it's my worldview which you fit into such a stupidly reductionistic take (which is ironic since your retarded materialism is even more of a reductionistic view).
Also, if you don't see the problems with materialism you're pretty stupid. Read some philosophy.

>> No.15955902

>>15955756
This thread isn't about book improving your life but people just randomly dropping their favorite ones without looking at the OP

>> No.15955906

>>15955879

I disagree, I think its really fun guessing at chaos with patterns, and then using your reaction as a compass to how accurate I was in my assumptions.
The fact that you cannot explain why materialism is bad, proves to me I hit a nerve.


My smug smile grew 3 inches

>> No.15955922

>>15955854
Transcendence beyond the mere symbolic, transcendence divorced from nihilism.

>> No.15955928

The Bhagavad Gita. Right Ho Jeeves.

>> No.15955932
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15955932

>>15955906
>uses statements which are not materal and thus unable to be empirically verified as an argument for his materialistic views
>hides his insecurity beneath bad shitposts ("smug smile grew 3 inches" etc)
Cringe.
Read and contemplate more, then join /lit/ again in a few years. Only then might you be able to offer some insights of worth and contribute to actually good discussion.

>> No.15956052

>>15955932

Hah, hit me up when you are able to define materialism with your own words, plebian.

>> No.15956056

>>15955922

Do you believe materialism goes hand in hand with nihilism?

>> No.15956085

>>15956056
Not necessarily, but they do sit close to each other I think. Since these two and atheism are usually spoken of and used in the same breath.

>> No.15956110

>>15956085

Do you believe it is possible to be materialistic and live a life full of meaning?

>> No.15956121

>>15946271
Permanent illness sucks but some is not all. If you think you’re an exception you should still try the things that make others happy if you can’t decide what you like on your own. At the very least you will be in a better spot afterwards

>> No.15956133

>>15956110
Yes. Infact I think it's almost impossible to not be atleast a little bit materialistic, since the material world is so self-evident. The problem I see is the exclusive attitude of both materialism and spiritualism. The former can easily lead to a feeling of powerlessness, and the later to solipsism.

>> No.15956156

>>15956133

You seem to have a rather balanced opinion, to what philosophy do you must subscribe to?

>> No.15956261

>>15956156
Something that sounds like syncretist paradoxicalism. Pragmatist means for idealist goals, goals which include more efficient means which facilitate idealist goals, ad infinitum. Whatever serves me ultimately, and since I cannot live without society and yet cannot fully depend on it I am politically an "anarcho-fascist", if that makes sense. There are a lot of words to describe it but in short the view that life is a game of confidence/advantage.