/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16799473]

>try to 'transcend' myself and become a better person
>remain the same faulty piece of shit who can't avoid transgressions and sin
I've read the greeks, the romans and the medievals, yet I can't change. What's the next redpill?

[Anonymous No.16799479]

>>16799473
The Buddha

[Anonymous No.16799481]

>>16799473
Are you the anon who made that thread recently asking what St. Augustine meant by transcending onself?

[Anonymous No.16799482]

>>16799473
Actively trying to be a better person, which is hard but actually doing it. Not just thinking but doing. Putting it into action. If you are unwilling to do that then you're alway going to be a pieve of shit.

[Anonymous No.16799485]

>>16799473
>What's the next redpill?
Turn to Christ. Join a church, start taking religion seriously

[Anonymous No.16799486]

>>16799473
Maybe you should stop reading books to become a better person. Burn your books. Work on your discipline. stop being gay

[Anonymous No.16799488]

>>16799482
*piece

[Anonymous No.16799497]

>>16799481
You got me. I'm not even sure why that phrase stuck with me, I've read 3 or 4 books since then
>>16799486
Nah dude it's totally not like that. I'm sure the next book will bestow me with divine epiphany. Or perhaps the one after that?

[Anonymous No.16799501]

>>16799486
>Burn your books.
>/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16799520]

>>16799473
buddhism, start with the 7 first steps of the 8 fold path

[Anonymous No.16799524]

>>16799473
read the Indians

[Anonymous No.16799530]

>>16799473
Get a nagging gf to condition you into a better (at providing) man.

Worked for me

[Anonymous No.16799539]

>start with the Greeks
>proceed with the Romans
>continue with the Christians
>advance with the Indians
>push on with the Germans
It never ends OP. We've been duped

[Anonymous No.16799559]

>>16799539
>Indians
>Germans
For what purpose?

[Anonymous No.16799565]

>>16799473
Science and human cognition, read some books on how the brain works and with that knowledge take sensible measures to change the environment that stops you from changing for the better.

[Anonymous No.16799576]

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/candy.html

How is this done? By bringing it out into the open. Both sides of sensual attachment — as habitual patterns from the past and our willingness to give into them again in the present — are based on misunderstanding and fear. As the Buddha pointed out, sensual passion depends on aberrant perceptions: we project notions of constancy, ease, beauty, and self onto things that are actually inconstant, stressful, unattractive, and not-self. These misperceptions apply both to our passions and to their objects. We perceive the expression of our sensuality as something appealing, a deep expression of our self-identity offering lasting pleasure; we see the objects of our passion as enduring and alluring enough, as lying enough under our control, to provide us with a satisfaction that won't turn into its opposite. Actually, none of this is the case, and yet we blindly believe our projections because the power of our passionate attachments has us too intimidated to look them straight in the eye. Their special effects thus keep us dazzled and deceived. As long as we deal only in indulgence and repression, attachment can continue operating freely in the dark of the sub-conscious. But when we consciously resist it, it has to come to the surface, articulating its threats, demands, and rationalizations. So even though sensual pleasures aren't evil, we have to systematically forego them as a way of drawing the agendas of attachment out into the open. This is how skillful renunciation serves as a learning tool, unearthing latent agendas that both indulgence and repression tend to keep underground.

At the same time, we need to provide the mind with strategies to withstand those agendas and to cut through them once they appear. This is where Right Concentration comes in. As a skillful form of indulgence, Right Concentration suffuses the body with a non-sensual rapture and pleasure that can help counteract any sense of deprivation in resisting sensual passions. In other words, it provides higher pleasures — more lasting and refined — as a reward for abandoning attachment to lower ones. At the same time it gives us the stable basis we need so as not to be blown away by the assaults of our thwarted attachments. This stability also steadies the mindfulness and alertness we need to see through the misperceptions and delusions that underlie sensual passion. And once the mind can see through the processes of projection, perception, and misperception to the greater sense of freedom that comes when they are transcended, the basis for sensual passion is gone.

At this stage, we can then turn to analyze our attachment to the pleasures of Right Concentration. When our understanding is complete, we abandon all need for attachment of any sort, and thus meet with the pure gold of a freedom so total that it can't be described.

[Anonymous No.16799582]

>>16799539
>Start with the Greeks
>Recommence with the Romans
>Continue with the Christians
>Investigate the Indians
>Gyrate with the Germans

[Anonymous No.16799584]

>>16799576
The question remains: how does this strategy of skillful renunciation and skillful indulgence translate into everyday practice? People who ordain as monastics take vows of celibacy and are expected to work constantly at renouncing sensual passion, but for many people this is not a viable option. The Buddha thus recommended that his lay followers observe day-long periods of temporary renunciation. Four days out of each month — traditionally on the new-, full-, and half-moon days — they can take the eight precepts, which add the following observances to the standard five: celibacy, no food after noon, no watching of shows, no listening to music, no use of perfumes and cosmetics, and no use of luxurious seats and beds. The purpose of these added precepts is to place reasonable restraints on all five of the senses. The day is then devoted to listening to the Dhamma, to clarify Right View; and to practicing meditation, to strengthen Right Concentration. Although the modern work-week can make the lunar scheduling of these day-long retreats impractical, there are ways they can be integrated into weekends or other days off from work. In this way, anyone interested can, at regular intervals, trade the cares and complexities of everyday life for the chance to master renunciation as a skill integral to the serious pursuit of happiness in the truest sense of the word.

[Anonymous No.16799619]

>>16799473
Read about the Saints, Martyrs and Heros. Take on board the the values, motives and actions of moral exemplars. See how the theory is lived. There’s even a moral theory based on this called moral exemplar theory.

[Anonymous No.16799622]

>>16799473
Go back to the Greeks, then proceed to the Romans and the Medievals yet. Medieval Christianity has not been superseded, men have just found the ideal too difficult and have made excuses for their behavior. Philosphy ended with the medievals. Although if it might help, read Story of a Soul by St. Therese and embrace the Little Way.

[Anonymous No.16799637]

>>16799473
What kind of transgression and sin have you engaged in? It's possible you're just meant to be a bad person and it's impossible to redeem you. I recommend jumping off a cliff in that context.

[Anonymous No.16799650]

>>16799637
>transgression
transgressions*
>sin
sins*
>off a cliff in that context.
in that case*

[Anonymous No.16799655]

>>16799539
>Take up the ass with analytics

[Anonymous No.16799690]

>>16799473
I'm a hero, but I'm not sure if my sin allows for it. When am I ignoring sin and when am I destroying myself to a vain idea?

I've lost the ability to tell with the loss of my self-confidence.

[Anonymous No.16799693]

>>16799539
>>advance with the Indians
>>push on with the Germans
why?
ANGLOS HERE WE GO

[Anonymous No.16799699]

>>16799539
>>16799582
Very nice.

[Anonymous No.16799707]

>>16799582
>Prostrate with the post-modernists

[Anonymous No.16799744]

What a low IQ thread. I've read better threads made by bots based on deep learning algorithms. Everyone in this thread should hang themselves.

[Anonymous No.16799844]

>>16799744
Now that would be sinful anon.

[Anonymous No.16799869]

>>16799844
Jesus, Moses, and Muhammad are all eating shit in hell.

[Anonymous No.16799887]

>>16799869
ok dude, you're really impressing me and other anons with your edgy words

[Anonymous No.16799903]

>>16799887
I'm not trying to be edgy. I'm just stating the truth, Spiritual Semite.

[Anonymous No.16799938]

Why are you a piece of shit? What do you do that's sinful and why can't you control your actions? If it's just thoughts or bad habits the only way to get over those is by replacing them with good habits.

[Anonymous No.16799951]

>>16799473
>I've read
>I'm sure the next book will bestow me with divine epiphany. Or perhaps the one after that?
At a certain point you need to pick a philosophy and apply it to your daily life. I mean a really good philosophy. If you notice a problem with it, but you are moving forward, then continue with it. If you are moving backwards on fault of you philosophy then adapt a small part of it.

On your off time don't just limit yourself to pure philosophy. Novels can offer a philosophy to them as well. Consider everything, but you must pick a path.

>Remain the same
If you have read as much as you have and still have seen no change then you only have yourself to blame. You need to push yourself, and surround yourself with friends and family that will help you push yourself.

>>16799744
Careful on that edge, Anon. You might cut yourself.

[Anonymous No.16799962]

>>16799938
Christianity is not about being a good person. It's about salvation through faith alone.

[Anonymous No.16800102]

Embrace the Tao

[Anonymous No.16800261]

>>16799539
>>16799582
No, no, no... this will not suffice. You will have to go back even further. The Greeks were considered children by the Egyptians. These sons of the Nile were taught everything they knew by the Hyperboreans of Thule, the veritable Atlantis. Learn the pure Adamic tounge of the descendants of Japheth...

START WITH THE SWEDES