/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.5706943]

Dude what is spirituality and what book will make me spiritual??

[Anonymous No.5706949]

If you're high and just want something accessible try Steppenwolf by Himmler's Heinie

[Anonymous No.5706956]

man it's like
spiritual
read the bible dude

[Anonymous No.5706975]

I'm being as serious as DTs.

[Anonymous No.5706977]

>>5706949
>Steppenwolf by Himmler's Heinie

ss division 'steppenwolf' :3

it actually has a funny part how that guy muses that the national mentality of germans it's to despise the mind and to like the primordial feelings

[Anonymous No.5706990]

Herman Hesse is a pretty spiritual author, and Siddhartha is a nice way to get into messy hesse

[Anonymous No.5707032]

>>5706949
>Steppenwolf by Rudolph Hess

fixed.

[Anonymous No.5707491]

>>5706943
>Spirituality
For me it's believing in other worlds that exist and coincide with this one.
>What book will make me spiritual?
A book won't really completely convince someone. It's more through experience. If you want to see the spooky side, go to one of the most famous haunted places in your country and wait for the happening. Trust me, if you want to see it you can. That's the creepy side of spirituality.

The brighter side is harder to see first hand and requires more experience.

[Anonymous No.5708212]

>>5706943

Carlos Castañeda

No need to thank me

[Anonymous No.5708437]

>>5708212

isn't he a shaman or something

[« Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ » No.5709516]

>>5706943
It's a spook, and only you can make yourself "spiritual" and apply whatever the hell you want to it.

>>5706949
>If you're high and just want something accessible...
A cereal box'll do.

[Anonymous No.5710134]

>>5708437
Antropologist, he studied the ways of the yaqui tribe, by the teachings of Don Juan, in Sonora desert, Mexico.

His prose is quite clean and rational, while his themes are spiritual and esotheric. His narrative consists of Don Juan teachings of yaqui philosophy through numerous allucinoginous drugs, which Don Juan calls protectors, claiming that help him see the truth

I read the first and I'm reading the second book. Both are very good

[Anonymous No.5710137]

>>5706943
the tibetian book of life and death
/thread.

[Anonymous No.5710139]

>>5710134
>Antropologist, he studied the ways of the yaqui tribe, by the teachings of Don Juan, in Sonora desert, Mexico.
Kek. I bet you trust Hubbard's sayings at face value too.

[Anonymous No.5710154]

read these

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinization_(Christian)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepsis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenosis

to peak your interest

then this
http://holybooks.lichtenbergpress.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/Philokalia.pdf

for the rest of your life

that should do.
You should also read a Catholic catechism like this one http://www.freecatholicebooks.com/books/catechism_of_trent.pdf

and learn some prayers.
learning the rosary is good.

What a lot of people don't realize is that much of the Eastern spiritual praxis like emptying oneself, not entertaining any vain thoughts / images, being dispassionate, etc., are part of Christian spiritual praxis too. The externals of worshiping God are important as a public profession of faith, but the interior practices of denying oneself is the essence of Christianity.

Read this. http://www.basilica.org/pages/ebooks/St.%20Albert%20the%20Great-On%20Cleaving%20to%20God.pdf

It's 30 pages and it's the most concise statement of Christian spirituality I've ever read, by a medieval doctor of the Catholic Church.

[Anonymous No.5710168]

>>5710154
The problem with Eastern practices like Buddhism and Hinduism is that while some of their practices produce very beneficial effects (like dispassion), the truth is that their is a lot of diabolism mixed in with their religion so that you may end up calling on demons. It is generally dangerous to empty oneself as well if one does not know how to "discern spirits", because it's likely that a demon will come to you in a tempting guise and offer you wisdom that will harm you in the end.

>What I experienced in meditation agreed with the Vedic teaching about Brahman, but my experience of life at other times disagreed. In Yogic trance I felt a oneness with the whole universe; I was no different from a bug or cow or distant star. We all partook of the same Essence. Everything was Brahman, and Brahman was everything. 'And that thou art!' said the Vedas, telling me that Brahman was my true Self, the god within that I worshiped sitting in front of a mirror." (Rabindranath R. Maharaj with Dave Hunt, Death of a Guru, Hodder and Stoughton, Great Britain 1986, page 97)

[Anonymous No.5710170]

>>5710168
>"Before the age of ten, in addition to my daily meditation, I practiced Yoga – the positions, breathing exercises, and meditation – on the veranda outside my room from midnight to 1:30 A. M., when everyone else was asleep. I did either Brumadhya Drishti or Madhyama Drishti. This concentration, combined with the breathing exercises, projected me into realms of consciousness totally unrelated to the world around me. Through Yoga I experienced increasingly the presence of spirit beings who were guiding me and giving me psychic powers. The gods were real!" (Rabindranath R. Maharaj, op. cit., pages 89-90); "Nothing was more important than our daily transcendental meditation, the heart of Yoga, which Krishna advocated as the surest way to eternal Bliss. But it could also be dangerous. Frightening psychic experiences awaited the unwary meditator, similar to a bad trip on drugs. Demons described in the Vedas had been known to take possession of some Yogis. Kundalini power, said to be coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine, could produce ecstatic experiences when released in deep meditation – or, if not properly controlled, it could do great mental and even bodily harm. The line between ecstasy and horror was very fine. For that reason we initiates were closely supervised by the Brahmacharya and his assistant. During the daily meditation I began to have visions of psychedelic colors, to hear unearthly music, and to visit exotic planets where the gods conversed with me, encouraging me to attain even higher states of consciousness. Sometimes in my trance I encountered the same horrible demonic creatures that are depicted by the images in Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, and other religious temples. It was a frightful experience, but the Brahmacharya explained that it was normal and urged me to pursue the quest for Self-realization. At times I experienced a sense of mystical unity with the universe. I was the universe, Lord of all, omnipotent, omnipresent." (Ibid., 56-57); "Often while I was in deep meditation the gods became visible and talked with me. At times I seemed to be transported by astral projection to distant planets or to worlds in other dimensions. It would be years before I would learn that such experiences were being duplicated in laboratories under the watchful eyes of parapsychologists through the use of hypnosis and LSD. In my Yogic trances most often I would be alone with Shiva the Destroyer, sitting fearfully at his feet, the huge cobra coiled about his neck staring at me, hissing and darting out its tongue threateningly." (Ibid., page 75).

[Anonymous No.5710172]

>>5710170
>"At the end of my third year in high school, Ma and Aunt Revati invited a large group of neighbors and relatives to join us in a special puja in our home. Those arriving approached to make their respectful bows and to reminisce a bit upon my father's greatness. Their comments, overheard here and there as the room filled, bore out the admiration I read in their appraising eyes. I was a Yogi who would bring fame to our town, a guru who would one day have many, many followers. My inner conflicts were forgotten in the sheer pleasure of being worshiped. Although I was not quite 15, I knew that already I had attained a status among Hindus that was the envy of some pundits. It gave me a good, honest feeling to know that I was not among the hypocrites my Uncle Deonarine despised. Our Baba, Pundit Jankhi Prasad Sharma Maharaj, my spiritual adviser and greatest inspiration, the acknowledged Hindu leader for all of Trinidad, performed the elaborate ceremony. Proudly I assisted. It was a great occasion for me. Fingering a large, fragrant garland of flowers around my neck, I stood near the altar greeting the guests after the ceremony. A neighbor laid several pieces of money one after another at my feet, and bowed to receive my blessing – the Shakti pat that every worshiper craved because of its supernatural effect. I knew her to be a poor widow who earned pitifully little for her long hours of hard labor. The offerings I received at one ceremony would far exceed her wages for a month. The gods had decreed this system of giving to Brahmins, and the Vedas declared it to be of great benefit to the giver, so why should I feel guilty? Uncle Deonarine's words rose vividly before me in all their venom: 'It's a business with all of them; they do nothing without pay … mainly from the poor!' I glanced at her small offering of coins uncomfortably. Of course I had much to give her in exchange. Reaching out to touch her forehead in bestowal of my blessing, I was startled by a voice of unmistakable omnipotent authority: 'You are not God, Rabi!' My arm froze in midair. 'You … are … not … God!' The words smote me like the slash of a cutlass felling the tall green cane. Instinctively I knew that the true God, the Creator of all, had spoken these words, and I began to tremble. It was a fraud, a blatant deception to pretend to bless this bowing woman. I pulled back my hand, acutely aware that many eyes were watching and wondering. I felt that I must fall at the holy feet of the true God and ask his forgiveness – but how could I explain that to all these people!' Abruptly I turned and pushed my way through the crowd, leaving that poor woman staring after me in bewilderment. Inside my room, I locked the door, tore the garland of flowers from around my neck with trembling fingers, flung it to the floor, and fell across my bed, sobbing." (Rabindranath R. Maharaj with Dave Hunt, Death of a Guru, Hodder and Stoughton, Great Britain 1986, pages 107-108)

[Anonymous No.5710174]

So yeah, this stuff is actually very dangerous. Avoid ALL New Age stuff. It talks about "astral travelling", which is a way of getting your soul to dislocate from your body, which is extremely dangerous because you attract the attention of demons in that state and are very apt to be deceived.

> 'An upright heart', says
>Solomon, 'seeks conscious awareness' (cf. Prov. 27:21. LXX), the awareness or perception which he elsewhere calls
>noetic and divine (cf. Prov. 2:5. LXX). It is to such awareness that the fathers urge all of us when they say: 'A noetic
>intellect assuredly acquires noetic awareness. Let us never cease from seeking for this, which is both in us and not in
>us.'' Do you not see that whether we wish to withstand sin, or to acquire virtue, or to gain the reward of the contest
>for virtue or, rather, the noetic awareness which is the pledge of the reward for virtue, we have to bring our intellect
>back into our body and into ourselves? On the other hand, to extract the intellect not from a materialistic manner of
>thought but from the body itself, in the hope that there, outside the body, it may attain noetic visions, is the worst of
>profane delusions, the root and source of every heresy, an invention of demons, a doctrine engendering folly and
>itself the result of dementedness. It is for this reason that those who speak by the inspiration of the demons are out >of their wits and do not even comprehend what they say. But we, on the contrary, install our intellect not only within
>the body and the heart, but also within itself.

From the Philokalia (which I linked earlier)

[Anonymous No.5710182]

>>5710174
Avoid all the stuff that advocates psychedelic drugs (its New Age). Such drugs have been used by shamans and witches for centuries. They are a way of opening up communication with spirits but it will always be deceptive spirits. The reason for this is because God has a strict policy about who receives graces and who doesn't, and if you are trying to acquire wisdom/grace through your own means (like using drugs) rather than asking it in God as you should, God just allows you to be deceived by demonic spirits in disgust of your pride.

[Anonymous No.5710190]

>>5710182
Listen to how this girl talks about her experience with a highly psychedelic drug which she took from shamans in the rainforest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxdm4WBAgg4

The beings she saw were not friendly lol.

This is the thing that you have to learn if you are going to be "spiritual". It's the most important lesson of all - DON'T try and have "spiritual experiences" (whether they be spiritual visions, or spiritual feelings, or whatever). St. John of the Cross calls this "spiritual gluttony", and the problem is that if you hunger after visions and the like, you are very easily deceived. The thing you should aim for is humility and love of God & neighbour and dispassion/detachment. Not grand visions or anything miraculous.

[Anonymous No.5710456]

>>5710190

Thanks. Ya eastern meditations can end up being selfish and delusional in their search for non-self