/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.20844511]

Where should i start with the primary buddhist texts? I feel somewhat overwhelmed, and apparently some of the canon was actually compiled centuries later. Where to begin and what to avoid?

[Anonymous No.20844535]

>>20844511
>Where should i start with the primary buddhist texts?
By googling it.

[Anonymous No.20844539]

>>20844535
I get Eckhart Tolle recommended when i do that.
I dont want to

[Anonymous No.20844556]

Here you go.

[Anonymous No.20844592]

>>20844539
Then don't start the primary Buddhist texts

[Anonymous No.20844638]

>>20844511
Start with the Jeets. Avoid any best-selling pop-lit written by Western laymen.

[Anonymous No.20844736]

>>20844556
>sila before samadhi
what does it mean

[Anonymous No.20844750]

Honestly I'm not sure why you would
The primary sources of Buddhism are usually so boring to read that I don't know why you'd want to read them, just read some summaries as to how they influence doctrine

[Anonymous No.20844783]

>>20844750
>he doesn't know about the buddha sticking his tongue up into heaven and licking it
ngmi

[Anonymous No.20844851]

>>20844783
He doesnt even know about the cringe of Pajapati or le based and ledpirred Pajapati

[Anonymous No.20844889]

>>20844556
>the mind illuminated

The author was charged with sexual misconduct and false speech. A large portion of Buddhism is mitigating hinderances and desires. The fact that this married 80 year old man was still a slave to pussy puts his teachings into question.

"It was recently brought to the attention of Dharma Treasure Board members that John Yates (Upasaka Culadasa) has engaged in ongoing conduct unbecoming of a Spiritual Director and Dharma teacher. He has not followed the upasaka (layperson) precepts of sexual harmlessness, right speech, and taking what is not freely given."

"John Yates, aka Culadasa, author of The Mind Illuminated, has been confronted with charges of sexual misconduct by the Board of Dharma Treasure. The incidents involve adultery with several women, for whom he also allegedly provided financial support."

[Anonymous No.20845161]

>>20844511

[Anonymous No.20845168]

>>20844750
filtered

[Anonymous No.20845185]

>>20845168
t. never read any of the sutta pitaka

[Anonymous No.20845194]

>>20845185
I've read every line of the Digha Nikaya, and probably around half of the Samyutta, not to mention other texts. You were filtered if you found it uninteresting. Although if you made the mistake of starting with the Majjhima that might be partly understandable.

[Anonymous No.20845204]

>>20845194
Maybe you just grew up within an oral culture where constant repetition and exhaustive lists are the norm
For the majority of people those make for incredibly boring reading material

[Anonymous No.20845212]

>>20844511
The Blue Cliff Record. Thats all you need. Everything else is cope by pussies who want spritualism but dont want to actually engage with God and substitute spritual enlightenment with psychedelics like some basic music festival thot.

[Anonymous No.20845216]

I think the best place to start will always be "what the Buddha taught" by Walpola Rahula

If you're then interested in specific areas of Buddhism there's plenty of paths to take, the book has all sorts of recommended reading

[Anonymous No.20845227]

>>20845216
>Rahula's book is an example of "Protestant Buddhism," the Sinhalese version of Buddhist modernism.[3][4][5][6] Due to its rational presentation of Buddhism, which suited western expectations, What the Buddha Taught is a widely read and highly influential introduction to Buddhist thought
Wow it sounds awful
Why the fuck would you want an intro book that breaks from tradition?

[Anonymous No.20845252]

>>20844511
I'm confused about Buddhism. What does liberation entail? Do you simply cease to exist?

[Anonymous No.20845257]

>>20845227
Buddhism has many diverging traditions and offshoots. I think starting with a book that has the very humble objective of just getting absolutely clear on what the actual Buddha taught in his lifetime (he never wrote anything down) is a good way to start the journey of finding which of those traditions most interests you

You can disagree, that's fine

[Anonymous No.20845269]

>>20845252
>I'm confused about Buddhism. What does liberation entail? Do you simply cease to exist?
That depends on what you consider "you."

[Anonymous No.20845328]

>>20844511
start with dhammapada and gita. read a few translations of each before reading anything else. preferably upanishads next imo.

[Anonymous No.20845344]

>>20844511
The best starting point are the four major nikayas (Digha, Majjhima, Anguttara, Samyutta). These are the oldest and most reliable texts (plus some from the Khuddaka Nikaya, but there are some of very questionable authenticity). I would recommend Majjhima --> Digha --> Anguttara --> Samyutta, in the order of least to most repetitive. Majjhima is very readable and full of a variety of really great suttas. With a good foundation in these, you can then go on to read either Theravada commentaries like the Visudhimagga or Mahayana scriptures. Or you can just stick with the nikayas - they are the most reliable after all.

>>20844736
People in the west try to spam their meditation techniques in order to attain what they think is samadhi, blatantly ignoring the Buddha's gradual training which begins in sila. Sila includes development of virtue, sense restraint, watchfulness of intentions, moderation in eating, and seclusion, which all CULMINATE by themselves in samadhi, as one has gradually secluded themselves from unwholesome states of mind.

>>20845252
Uprooting of the possibility of craving/resisting, and therefore of suffering, anything within the 5 aggregates of experience. It is not useful to think of liberation in terms of existence/non-existence, as the ordinary worldlings views in regards to the latter are already confused by appropriation and self-view (see the laymen who became disturbingly distraught upon the Buddha teaching them the nature of nibbana). The uprooting of craving is rather the most accurate idea corresponding to liberation.

[Anonymous No.20845383]

>>20845252
If you see the Buddha on the streets kill the Buddha.

[Anonymous No.20845494]

>>20845227
Read McMahan's Buddhist Modernism and Gombrich's book on Theravada. We are incredibly lucky that Protestant missionaries goaded Buddhists into outcompeting them because otherwise the choice between modern and "traditional" wouldn't even exist. They'd have been replaced with the heirs protestants have everywhere—bariatric gremlins whose religion is consooming

[Anonymous No.20845923]

Um is the hedgehog gonna be okay bros

[Anonymous No.20846149]

>>20845923
no, he's stuck in Samsara

[Anonymous No.20846178]

>>20845227
What part of his teaching is protestant again? Im buddhist but theres nothing protestant like in his teaching. Its a pretty solid basic book. Since its easy to forget the most basic important thing in buddha's main teaching (4 noble truth, brahmavihara, etc), that book easily refresh my own understanding of buddha's teaching.its not perfect but good enough compared with bdk what the buddha taught, which content is pretty scattered here and there

[Anonymous No.20846189]

>>20845212
Based. It's great literature too.
Also read bodhidharmas bloodstream sermon.

[Anonymous No.20846713]

>>20844889
the book is based on asanga's ideas not his own

[Anonymous No.20846719]

>>20844511
What's pic related? I hope that poor animal wasn't hurt...

[Anonymous No.20846725]

>>20846719
Its a hedgehog getting an x-ray. He's sedated

[Anonymous No.20846731]

>>20845227
Something being "protestant" doesnt necessarily mean its a bad thing. Zen can be seen as a protestant form of Buddhism, in that it strips away everything superfluous and leaves only the bare minimum. It's more that the cores of Christianity and Buddhism are very different.

[Anonymous No.20846859]

>>20846178
>>20846731
Again read McMahan and Gombrich. "Protestant" is being used in the very specific sense of a large lay religious movement which developed in response to the introduction of the printing press by Protestant missionaries, who were debated against by Buddhists, Buddhists who articulated their religion in more "rational" terms than is possible than Christianity, thus one-upping the Victorians at being Victorians.