/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6164739]

Books to awaken your inner self.
Personal development boosters.

I begin with Siddhartha.

[Anonymous No.6165319]

For the existentialists

>>6164739
Man the part when his kid runs off and he meditates and realizes its just cycles. He abandoned his father and his son did him man that shit got to me. I hate my father and did the same. I hope if I ever have kids I can break the cycle

[Anonymous No.6165514]

Anything Alan Watts is great for helping in shifting one's views on the very nature of reality

[Anonymous No.6165619]

>>6165514
I found The Book a little annoying. I'm all for deconstructing language, but there were a lot of menial phrases that he took to their literal extreme, when I don't think anybody really meant what contorted those phrases to mean in the first place. For example, there's a section where he talks about the phrase "conquering nature" and he takes it to mean that people that say that are inherently putting themselves outside of what the natural world is, when really they probably just meant surviving the elements. There's a lot of that, but that's one that I could find skimming through just now. Lots of phrases like that in quotations and italicized, as if he was proving something. In general, I like eastern philosophy that confronts the oneness of the universe and seeks to find peace within it, but Watts seemed a little condescending.

[Anonymous No.6165793]

Doesn't have all the answers. Heck it might not have any answers. But it did bring up some interesting questions. And introduced me to authors and books I was unaware of.

[Anonymous No.6166893]

The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle

How To Know Higher Worlds by Rudolf Steiner

The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall

Anything that gets you into Hermetics/Raja yoga in general.

[Anonymous No.6166911]

Later parts of Walden. Avoid the Economics chapter unless you're into political theory/social commentary.

[Anonymous No.6167046]

>>6165319
I second this feel

[Anonymous No.6167387]

>>6165319
>resignation from desire
That's not how it works. Also >what is lay Buddhism.
>Zen buddhism which is less life denying thanks to an infusion of Chinese and Japanese sensibilities [...]
The terms life-denying or life-affirming do not apply to any form of Buddhism as the very assumptions underlying these terms are wrong for Buddhism. To think that Zen is a "cooler" form of Buddhism is a misconception.
The only reason why Japanese monks can marry is because the Meiji government decided to destroy the pre-established monastic organization and laws in the name of Shinto, that and the fact that the overall history of the application of Buddhism by the Japanese is quite a problematic one. In China most monks cannot marry.
In general the relationship between monasticism and art is a matter of debate, as monks are forbidden from becoming passionate about art by enjoying it, but they are not forbidden from making art that will be helpful for practice by inciting dispassion, etc. These are further developed according to each school. In Zen this approach is characterized by the usage of the creative process as meditation, but Zen didn't invent this approach.

[Anonymous No.6167629]

Pippi Longstocking series, it is all about becoming ubermensch

[Anonymous No.6167635]

>>6165319
I find the pic funny but highly flawed.

[ProfessionalGenie !!Qv6yk6q5VeK No.6167701]

>>6164739
Using a book to awaken your inner self is like trying to follow a state map to your imagination.

Eat, Shit, Sleep - what more personal development could there be? Anything else is aside the point, like scurrying around a crowded place looking for your own face.

[Anonymous No.6167724]

>>6165319
This is a retarded image, it's a shame.

How is the sisyphus myth in support of not giving a fuck? It's the direct opposite. It's about identifying a pseudo-meaning (persistence and self-conscious drudgery) rather than "rebelling"

[Anonymous No.6169031]

Can someone help me understand what the fuck is going on in steppenwolf?