/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4266325]

How come Western philosophers never figured out how to meditate and explore it meticulously and systematically like their Eastern counterparts?

Also, is Stoicism the closest the west ever got to Zen Buddhism?

[Anonymous No.4266332]

>>4266325
>How come Western philosophers never figured out how to meditate and explore it meticulously and systematically like their Eastern counterparts?

Pretty sure you're wrong here.

[Anonymous No.4266355]

>>4266332
>Pretty sure you're wrong here.

>no citations, no support

Is it a hunch or a gut feeling?

Whatever meditation they did do was extremely superficial and minor, not much analysis at all--

contradict me.

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266357]

>>4266355
>>no citations, no support

Yours must be well hidden.

[Anonymous No.4266359]

>>4266355

Well, what do you mean by "meticulously" are you referring to cosmology?

[Anonymous No.4266369]

>>4266359

I mean a step by step how to guide, explanation and justification of the process, etc.

If you look at buddhist philosophy you'll see that they go to great lengths to expound on the process of meditation, both physical and mental, different levels from beginner to advance, the ramifications, etc...

I don't see meditation much at all in western philosophy unless they hi-jacked it from the east.

Which greeks, pre-socratics, post socratics explored meditation?

[Anonymous No.4266373]

/lit/ is too uneducated to have this discussion.

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266375]

>>4266369
>Which greeks, pre-socratics, post socratics explored meditation?

No. They'd rather spend their time thinking than aspiring to nothingness.

[Anonymous No.4266376]

>>4266325
Why does it matter?

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266381]

>>4266373
>/lit/ doesn't care about my lack of understanding of western philosophy and juvenile love for the east! baww

[Anonymous No.4266382]

>>4266325
How come Eastern philosophers never figured out how to think and explore it meticulously and systematically like their Western Counterparts?

[Anonymous No.4266389]

>>4266369

Well, I don't think "meditation" really becomes a thing in Western philosophy until you get to Christianity's rise to prominence in which prayer and ritual become a central aspect of spiritual life.

[Anonymous No.4266393]

>>4266376
>Why does it matter?

Meditation has many benefits for philosophers and thinkers in general.
Meditation goes very well with stoicism.

The fact that the west didn't practice meditation is curious to me.

But that's a separate issue. Stay on topic.

[Anonymous No.4266395]

>>4266382
Not only can be I be on my own intellectually superior to most induviduals, but when people want to compare cultures and how their culture this or that and involve a whole bunch of people unrelated to them, mine is the best.

[Anonymous No.4266400]

>>4266382
>How come Eastern philosophers never figured out how to think and explore it meticulously and systematically like their Western Counterparts?

They did. I would say they produced work on par or even more meticulous in the analytic sense than the west.

i.e http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nagarjuna/

go read Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266401]

>>4266393
>Meditation has many benefits for philosophers and thinkers in general.
False until proven by you.

>Meditation goes very well with stoicism.
False. It is an act of cowardice.

>The fact that the west didn't practice meditation is curious to me.
It shouldn't be. Not everyone has enough time to lose to spend hours sitting, thinking about nothing.


Move on.

[Anonymous No.4266409]

>>4266389
>Christianity's rise to prominence in which prayer and ritual become a central aspect of spiritual life.

Christian prayer and ritual really has nothing to do with meditation in the sense I mean.

orthodox hesychasm comes close, but still no cigar.

[Anonymous No.4266417]

>>4266355
>analysis

>meditation is not a means to an end, it is both the means and the end

[Anonymous No.4266422]

>>4266400
>I would say they produced work on par or even more meticulous in the analytic sense than the west.

Whatever the fuck that means.

I was making fun of the OPs cultural dichotomy, by the way.

[Anonymous No.4266426]

>>4266401
Meditation can be anywhere - standing, etcetera..

>Stop thinking and end your problems

[Anonymous No.4266428]

>>4266417
>>meditation is not a means to an end, it is both the means and the end

I'm referring to the explanation and teaching of meditation. The East did deep analysis of it in their literature and systemized the various techniques.

I can't find much of anything at all about meditation in the West, until they borrowed it from the east.

[Anonymous No.4266432]

>>4266428
Everything to know of meditation is already explained. What else would you ask? HOW to enjoy the tao?

[Anonymous No.4266433]

>>4266422
>I was making fun of the OPs cultural dichotomy, by the way.

You're making fun of an interesting cultural difference?

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266439]

>>4266417
Empty sentences.

>east

You do realize eastern philosophy is so painfully rooted in différance, it does not have a single absolute it dares care absolute? It's the absolute achievement of nihilism.

[Anonymous No.4266443]

>>4266409

I think your definition of meditation is too strict and particular.

[Anonymous No.4266445]

>>4266439
Universal truths are everywhere.

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266446]

>>4266445
That's just a way of saying there's none, fuccboi.

[Anonymous No.4266451]

Stoics practiced negative visualization as a form of meditation. Imagining terrible shit happening to you and the ones you love, and then being non-reactive to it and accepting.

Reminds me of Hagakure:
>Every morning a warrior should recommit himself to death. In morning meditation, see yourself killed in various ways, such as being shredded by arrows, bullets, swords, and spears, being swept away by a tidal wave, burned by fire, struck by lightening, dieing in a earthquake, falling from a great height, or succumbing to overwhelming sickness. An elder warrior said, “Once out of your front door you are surrounded by death. Once you leave your gate you are surrounded by enemies.” This saying is not merely a parable, but a way to prepare for your fate.

[Anonymous No.4266458]

>>4266433
There is no Eastern "culture" and the practice of meditation is just one of many religious and philosophical practices in the east. It's as meaningful to ask why the West never 'systematically' studied it as to ask why the East never developed the practice of Christian prayer.

Sure, meditation as practiced in Buddhism is interesting and, sure, it's not really a practice that was developed in the West, and it can be interesting to talk about the philosophical and religious roots of the practice in contradistinction to, say, Stoicism.

But it's meaningless to frame the question in terms of an East/West dichotomy.

There are also implications in the OP that Zen Buddhism is somehow more advanced or superior (instead of asking if Stoicism is the most similar philosophical tradition, asking if it's the "closest the west ever got," implying some sort of standard of progression or approximation, where Zen Buddhism is some kind of pinnacle of meditation)

[Anonymous No.4266469]

>>4266409
>Christian prayer and ritual really has nothing to do with meditation in the sense I mean.

Uh, it's essentially the same thing. The christian focuses on the prayer as a mantra and repeats it over and over again to enter a trance-like state.

[Anonymous No.4266470]

>>4266446
Burden of proof is on you to expand on the topic, but to disprove one perception of meaninglessness, pic related

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266474]

>>4266469
You haven't been raised into christianism, right?

[Anonymous No.4266475]

I thought the similarities between Heraclitus and taoism were pretty interesting.

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266476]

>>4266470
If absolutes are everywhere, two absolutes are at the same place, and then each one of them no longer is. Simple logic.

[Anonymous No.4266482]

>>4266476
Interesting when added to that this is all one big vibrating orchestra

[Anonymous No.4266487]

>>4266474

The Lord's Prayer isn't really what most medieval writers meant when they refer to praying and meditation. Try doing a full rosary.

[Anonymous No.4266489]

>>4266451
What is the way to meditate? Iv'e been doing this for years.

[Anonymous No.4266491]

>>4266458
>It's as meaningful to ask why the West never 'systematically' studied it as to ask why the East never developed the practice of Christian prayer.

Meditation transcends particular eastern religions, it is present in basically all schools of Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and doesn't require a set of beliefs or dogma, it can be totally secular actually.

It's benefits are very real and it's interesting to see why it is so rampant in the east and so scarce in the west.

>it's meaningless to frame the question in terms of an East/West dichotomy.

it's meaning is perfectly easy to comprehend. Meditation is ubiquitous in the east and very scarce in the west, the question is why?

Meditation doesn't require a particular religion or philosophy anyway. Christian hesychasm is a form of meditation.

[Anonymous No.4266492]

>>4266487
>>4266469

>>4266426

[Anonymous No.4266496]

>>4266474
>Christianism
>two absolutes are at the same place, and then each one of them no longer is. Simple logic
>>4266482
>big vibrating orchestra

Why does Eastern philosophy draw so many people who are so full of shit.

[Anonymous No.4266498]

>>4266325
>Also, is Stoicism the closest the west ever got to Zen Buddhism?
These are really different. They have similarities, I guess: Pagan, associated with empire... other things? Not really.

[Anonymous No.4266502]

>>4266491
>meditation is the same across three distinct religions
>can be totally secular

Enjoy your white-washed, Western appropriation of meditation.

[Anonymous No.4266508]

>>4266496
>full of shit
>everything vibrates and is thus surely one
Would you explain it another way?

[Anonymous No.4266511]

>>4266491
Either the meditation you are talking about is so broad a definition that it WAS developed in the west, or it's narrow in which case you can't just treat meditative practices in Hinduism and Buddhism as the same thing.

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266512]

>>4266496
I don't understand your point, except for the full of shit part, to which I agree.

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266519]

>>4266508
>Would you explain it another way?
I sure wouldn't. You're using words. Pleb words. This universe isn't centered about you, and surely not around pleb words.

You hope to describe a system using a component of it. How retarded do you have to be.

[Anonymous No.4266524]

>>4266508
>Would you explain it another way?

It's not a matter of phrasing, it's a matter of an idiotic logical leap that aims to sound 'deep' by using mystical sounding words like 'vibration' and 'one'

[Anonymous No.4266529]

>>4266519
>>4266524
Should it be addressed?

[Anonymous No.4266530]

>>4266502
>Enjoy your white-washed, Western appropriation of meditation.

Why would it be any less valid than other countries appropriate Buddhism? Tibet, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, China.

All have huge differences between them, and yet share some sort of fundamental core

[Anonymous No.4266536]

>>4266530
ahh, universal truths

The Way

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4266533]

>>4266530
You're a fucking thai restaurant serving fried chicken along with cheap Heinz soy sauce.

[Anonymous No.4266539]

Why are trips so obnoxious?

[Anonymous No.4266541]

>>4266458

>why did the East develop the number and concept of Zero for mathematical uses, while the Greeks and Romans overlooked...

>well you see it has to do with the differences between their number systems as well as their philosophies; in the east the idea of emptiness was fundamental to most of its

HURR DURR THERE IS NO EAST OR WEST CULTURE
THERE IS NO EAST THERE IS NO WEST YOUR IMPLYING THINGS I DON"T LIKE
RACE IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT EVERYONE IS THE SAME PLEASE RAPE MY FACE

[Anonymous No.4266548]

>>4266530
>Why would it be any less valid than other countries appropriate Buddhism?

Who do you think I take those to be valid?

>All have huge differences between them, and yet share some sort of fundamental core

Which doesn't mean that the core can be extracted and decontextualized without doing violence to it.

[Anonymous No.4266558]

>>4266548
>Who do you think I take those to be valid?
>Who do you think I take?

Don't reply until you are a fully grown human.

[Anonymous No.4266565]

>>4266541
>Taking "India" and "the East" to be identical

Are you really this stupid?

[Anonymous No.4266569]

>>4266565

>doesn't know what a subset is

[Anonymous No.4266579]

>>4266569
I'm sure India will be glad to hear that it's just a subset of a larger culturally homogenous entity called "the East" and that its achievements are to the merit of every other civilization within "the East"

[Anonymous No.4266584]

>>4266565

actually if you read the history of 0 you'll realize the East had a much easier time with it, from Egypt, China, India to the Arab-Islamic states...they all were ahead of the West in terms of this concept and its mathematical use.

The Greeks kept asking themselves "how can nothing be something?" and were confused by 0, leading to paradoxes and religious arguments about it...

>hurr durr there is no East or West, race is a social construct, cultures don't exist, East and West are incoherent to me, im literally this stupid

[Anonymous No.4266589]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.4266591]

>>4266375
THIS.

>>4266325
I think there might have been SOMETHING like it. I believe Epicurus' ideas on ataraxia were like a reverse nirvana, but the main body of his work was destroyed, so I'm probably just making wild guesses.

If I invented it, okay than. Its an easy enough state to reach. More rewarding than "oneness" with your eventual death/the universe.

[Anonymous No.4266608]

>>4266591
>I believe Epicurus' ideas on ataraxia were like a reverse nirvana

elaborate plz

[Anonymous No.4266611]

>>4266584
>arab-islamic states and egypt
>historically part of the east

oh wow

[Anonymous No.4266613]

>>4266584
>The Greeks kept asking themselves "how can nothing be something?" and were confused by 0, leading to paradoxes and religious arguments about it...

Nice copy-paste from Wikipedia.

If you actually took time to read carefully, you'd note for example that China didn't even treat zero as a number, and so had numerical concept of it. In contrast to the Greeks who, may have been unsure of its status as a number, but at least considered the issue. Similarly, Egypt didn't treat zero as a number.

In other words, if you fucking read you would realize that there were a lot of different cultures who had different numerical and non-numerical treatments of zero, which completely undermines your bullshit theory that "the East" had a more advanced conception of zero because "the East" centered its contemplation of emptiness.
And I hardly think the Islamic civilization can be treated as identical with Hindu and Buddhist and fit under the blanket term of the 'East'.

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.4266635]

>>4266608
Ataraxia: Lucid, robust tranquility. (wikipedia's wording)

I get into a relaxed but fully conscious place in my mind and I guess I just release endorphins for maximum euphoria.

[Anonymous No.4266655]

>>4266613
>which completely undermines your bullshit theory that "the East" had a more advanced conception of zero because "the East" centered its contemplation of emptiness.

But that's how it started in india, through their conception of the void or emptiness: Sunya.
It was their hindu philosophers who gave emptiness a positive metaphysical connotation, who played with the idea and eventually mathematizied it.

It's not a bullshit theory its a pretty well known theory that many anthropologists, historians and philosophers find reasonable.

Indian philosophers were playing with "emptiness" and the "void" on a daily basis, while the greeks weren't. It's not surprising they made advances.


http://www.amazon.ca/Zero-Biography-Dangerous-Charles-Seife/dp/0140296476

[FiRez !!tndrCZJHE+I No.4266657]

>>4266325
Dualism generated by the christian tradition it even permeates our story telling.

[Anonymous No.4266662]

>>4266655
>once gain showing a failure to read.

You'll notice how I never talked about India specifically. That's because I didn't deny that the concept of emptiness had a role in India's development of a numerical concept of zero.

What I denied was that the narrative applies outside of India to "the East." It explains a particular development in a particular civilization (ancient India). However, neither the narrative nor development generalize further than India.

[Anonymous No.4266663]

>>4266657
>Dualism generated by the christian tradition

dualism far predates christianity, christianity is just neo-platonism disguised in layers of superstition and makebelieve

[Anonymous No.4266665]

>>4266662
>What I denied was that the narrative applies outside of India to "the East."

India is a huge part of the East, so it logically follows that this development is an Eastern development, not a Western development.

Also the Egyptians, Mesopatamians, Arabs & Chinese were ahead of the West in terms of working with 0, even though they didn't fully mathematize it like the Indians did.

Again the East was ahead of the West.

[Anonymous No.4266677]

>>4266665
>India is a huge part of the East, so it logically follows that this development is an Eastern development

If you mean that in a purely geographic sense, I suppose so. But that's really not saying anything interesting.

>Also the Egyptians, Mesopatamians, Arabs & Chinese were ahead of the West in terms of working with 0

Well, part of that is a function of the fact that Mesopotamia and Egypt are much older than anything you're likely to count as Western, and has nothing to do with 'emptiness'. The Chinese weren't particularly ahead of the Greeks/Romans, actually. And it's clear that in spite of the spread of Buddhism from India in the 1st Century, their use of zero wasn't on a part with its use in India. Another scratch against the 'emptiness'/zero connection.

Whether or not there were more civilizations in the geographic East that had developed numerical and non-numerical uses of zero, those developments are hardly attributable to some sort of common cultural heritage. Of the examples you mention, only India and China even have religious traditions where emptiness is an important concept, and China didn't even use zero the same way India did.

[Anonymous No.4266679]

The "East" had a lot of interesting philosophy, but it never really manifested itself as a discipline in the same way it did in "the west". In places like India or China, philosophy was something that permeated society. Religion, politics, and philosophy were all very entangled. Midievel Europe wasn't very different from them in this sense.

But "the west" got people like Francis Bacon to lay out the groundwork for philosophy and science as disciplines. It's pretty late so the right words are eluding me, but the mechanisms that were created laid the groundwork for the renaissance. The east never had anything like this. Their philosophy was always too inward-facing, but without the development of fields like biology (which eventually led to psychology and everything we currently know about the human brain and conscience) then their explorations were doomed to always remain vague and without a universal framework.

"eastern" philosophy has had large impacts on "western" philosphers though. But the west was able to take these fragments and work them into a larger conversation.

[Anonymous No.4266689]

>muh cultural fetishism of the East

[Anonymous No.4266706]

>>4266689

OP asked a perfectly legit question

[Anonymous No.4266861]

>>4266679
>philosophy and science as disciplines
My sides, my poor sides.

What you call 'a systematic discipline of philosophy' is only a manic sublimation of your inability to reconcile your christian morals with your lack of christian faith.

It boggles the mind that people actually take this shit seriously.

[Anonymous No.4266895]

>>4266584
>dat "sly" defense of racism
If race is not a social construct, then how come that the old easterners and westerners didn't think in terms of "race"?

>>4266613
The thing is that the arabic numerals could've been introduced much earlier to Europe.

[Anonymous No.4266899]

Gnostics didn't consider the void?
Anaximander didn't?
Heraclitus didn't?
Parmenides didn't?

Another tradition became the dominant one in the west, but that doesn't mean that it was never present and thouroughly thought about.

>>4266861
Yes, morals is all philosophy is about. Christian ones Even more so. You figured it out, great!

[Anonymous No.4266901]

>>4266689
>muh
>>>/pol/

[Anonymous No.4266911]

>>4266325
But really, OP, read Schopenhauer.

[Anonymous No.4266921]

>>4266861
Lul
Feeling euphoric faggot?

[Anonymous No.4267072]

>>4266899
>Yes, morals is all philosophy is about. Christian ones Even more so. You figured it out, great!
Way to miss the point and fail at reading, dipshit.

Philosophy isn't about morals. Philosophy is an attempt to be religious by secular people who don't have faith. Thus, philosophy is fundamentally a pointless crutch. It's nothing but a coping mechanism for the cognitive dissonances of a modern secular humanist.

(One example of such a cognitive dissonance: "I want to hold on to Christian morals while at the same time shitting all over Christian dogma and teachings".)

[Anonymous No.4267102]

>>4267072

>Philosophy isnt about morals

>Philosophy is a coping mechanism for people who want to hold to christian morals

excuse me, what? What about people interested in logic? They´re interested in philosophy aswell, but I highly doubt that it has a psychological backround.

Also, your a faget,lel

[Anonymous No.4267111]

>>4267072
reductionism at its finest.

By the way, you forgot to justify the conclusion that "philosophy is fundamentally a pointless crutch" from the preceding premise. It does not follow- show your logic.

[Anonymous No.4267125]

>>4267102
Arguing with illiterates is boring, but I'll make an exception for you. Here's what I actually said:

> Philosophy is an attempt to be religious by secular people who don't have faith

> ONE EXAMPLE ... morals ...
> ONE EXAMPLE

>>4267111
> It does not follow- show your logic.
Philosophy is an attempt to cloak in rationalist smoke-and-mirrors that which is fundamentally irrational.

Attempting to do something so contradictory is, in itself, supremely irrational.

[Anonymous No.4267132]

>>4267072
It is not me failing at reading, as much as it is your poor choice of words. When you write

>a manic sublimation of your inability to reconcile your christian morals with your lack of christian faith.

it doesn't suggest at any point that you are talking about anything but morals.
You should have written something else than "morals" if you didn't want that to be the essence of your post.
The thing is, you couldn't and at the same time keep your argument coherent. Try this:

>a manic sublimation of your inability to reconcile your christian SYSTEM OF THOUGHT with your lack of christian faith.

Which seems to be what you want to say (although you'll probably ass out of that).

Why is that not coherent? Because that is not what philosophy is, in any way. As >>4267102
suggest, the questions of logic is one branch of phil, that is not based on christianity. The same can be said for philosophy of knowledge, ethics, philosophy of mind, etc.

The only area your dispute seems to be regarding is that of metaphysics, with a stupid claim that it is nothing but christian dogma devoid of faith.

First of, your suggest that religious belief is inherently a "pointless crutch" which I wont go into but just leave it to be as the stupid claim that it is.

Secondly, the burden of proof is on you. Show me modern metaphysics that are based on christian beliefs, more so than any other religious belief.

Third, what do you wish to base your stupid claims on? Reason? You do seem utterly ignorant to what philosophy is, while shitting all over it.

[Anonymous No.4267134]

>>4267125
>philosophie is
>philosophie is
>philosophie is

good dog, keep telling yourself that you know what philosophy is, it's not like people way smarter than you have been trying to define it for the past 25 centuries

[Anonymous No.4267140]

>>4267125
> that which is fundamentally irrational.

Nice claim. How did you get there? By using your mental faculty to process your perception of the world?
Shit philosphy is stuped, eh guize??

[Anonymous No.4267240]

>>4267140
>Nice claim. How did you get there? By using your mental faculty to process your perception of the world?
>Shit philosphy is stuped, eh guize??
Logic isn't philosophy. Logic isn't even a subset of philosophy. Those bare-assed niggers in Papua New Guinea use the tools of logic just as well as you and I, but they don't have philosophy.

What you call 'philosophy' is a phenomenon that exists _only_ in Western-European, post-Renaissance society.

The reason it exists is because there are fundamental (existential) contradictions in Western-European, post-Renaissance societies. These contradictions drive the thinking man to neurosis, which he feels he needs to cancel out by inventing pointless, self-referencing systems of systems of circular thinking. Thus: what is called 'philosophy'.

[Anonymous No.4267256]

The repeated prayers of Catholic and Orthodox monks have similar physiological effects as the meditation of Zen monks.

[Anonymous No.4267279]

>>4267240
>What you call 'philosophy' is a phenomenon that exists _only_ in Western-European, post-Renaissance society.

No, that's what you call philosophy. I don't. In fact, if the discussion revolves around what you believe to be philosophy, I don't care much to participate, since I don't really care. If you want to argue about the role of philosophy outside of your unbased definition though, I'll be glad to join.

And again, what meta-vision allows you to make these claims? You're really just spouting opinions.

[Anonymous No.4267290]

>>4266325
The eastern cultures made meditation in the from of pure iner rest achived by focusing on oneself.
In the west things like alchemy achieved the same but by focusing on the things they made.
Read up on it.
P.S. This process is used in many cultures like zen Gardens and working with animal hides and shit.
P.P.S. Sorry for the bad english this shitty tablet with auto correct in dutch.

[Anonymous No.4267294]

Meditation is just a behavior that can be explained through psychology. Eastern philosophy's description of meditation is simply their equivalent of western philosophy trying to describe physics and chemistry, and we all know how that turned out.

[Buddhanon No.4267307]

They did of course, there are similar contemplative practices in Christianity, especially Catholicism and Eastern orthodoxy as well as in Sufi Islam

It's just not as easy to secularize because it's based on a Theistic philosophy (not unlike some Indian forms of meditation in Vedanta and Yoga).

Also I find many similarities in Stoic practices to Buddhist ones. Not meditation itself, but many of the psychological techniques and self training such as meditation on death and the like.

I'd say the closest the west got to Zen was Apophatic Christian mysticism, something like the Cloud of Unknowing, or perhaps some of the pre-Socratics like Heraclitus and Parmenides.

[Anonymous No.4267311]

>>4266355
>hurr durr prove me wrong
>makes claims with no justification whatsoever
>knows fuck all about the occidental contemplative tradition

[Anonymous No.4267315]

>>4267307
Don't forget Pyrrho.

[Buddhanon No.4267316]

>>4267315
Pyrrho is actually a very special case, he traveled to India with Alex and may have picked up some Indian ideas. But yeah, Pyrrhonism is also another similar philosophy to Buddhism, though I don't think they had meditative practices.

[Anonymous No.4267361]

>>4267316

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegesias_of_Cyrene

some say this guy was influenced by buddhism

[Anonymous No.4267373]

>>4267361

>Hegesias of Cyrene, whose ruler may have been Magas of Cyrene, an apparent recipient of Buddhist missionaries from the Indian king Ashoka according to the latter's Edicts, is sometimes thought to have been influenced by Buddhist teachings.

neat

[Anonymous No.4267380]

>>4266375
Well, the core of buddhist principles is pragmatism. We can ponder nothingness, but what will it do for you?

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4267408]

>>4267240
oh wow

>Logic isn't philosophy.
False.

Logic isn't even a subset of philosophy.
>False

>What you call 'philosophy' is a phenomenon that exists _only_ in Western-European, post-Renaissance society.
So, Socrates was herm, a midwife?

>These contradictions drive the thinking man to neurosis, which he feels he needs to cancel out by inventing pointless, self-referencing systems of systems of circular thinking. Thus: what is called 'philosophy'.
Oh wow. You have yet to provide an example of any of these contradictions, to find a system that isn't circular thinking nor self-referencing.

Protip: all thought systems (including eastern nihilist degeneracy, son) are self-referential and circular

Protip: you are using a self-referential and circular system right now without knowing it because you're a retarded little angry teen in his eastern phase. You'll grow out of it. Stop dropping words like "self-referential" when you don't know what it fucking means, because the usage of this very term implies the acceptation of post-Renaissance philosophy (structuralism), which is a huge contradiction with your own point.

[Tallis !!DxrlCMGAS2J No.4267411]

>>4267408
and to find*

[Buddhanon No.4267446]

>>4267361
Interesting, though this particular view (if we go by Cicero's account) sounds more like the Jain practice of Sallekhana - ritual fasting until death.

>>None of this, however, is as strong as the testimony of Cicero,[3] who claims that Hegesias wrote a book called Death by Starvation (Greek: ἀποκαρτερῶν), in which a man who has resolved to starve himself is introduced as representing to his friends that death is actually more to be desired than life, and that the gloomy descriptions of human misery which this work contained were so overpowering, that they drove many persons to commit suicide, in consequence of which the author received the surname of Death-persuader (Peisithanatos). This book was published at Alexandria, where he was, in consequence, forbidden to teach by king Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BCE).

[Anonymous No.4267468]

>>4267446

>in consequence of which the author received the surname of Death-persuader (Peisithanatos)

damn badass

[Anonymous No.4267483]

>>4267134
If philosophy can't be defined then what's the point of talking about it? A concept without a definition is useless.