(Part 2) Best eastern religions books according to redditors
We found 511 Reddit comments discussing the best eastern religions books. We ranked the 204 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Be Here Now by Ram Dass
The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science by Culdasa
The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary
As a man born into Catholicism but now an atheist, it's my opinion that Buddhism is the most logical and reasonable religion that I've been exposed to. As someone mentioned before, it's almost like a philosophy mixed in with religion. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about Buddhism.
My favorite is the Steven Mitchell translation.
Okay so
I'll divide this into a few sections, assuming you can only speak English and want books in a somewhat reasonable price range.
Though if you're at uni or have access to a uni library: make the most of it.
Oh yeah before I forget, as a general rule, if you're reading an explanation or exploration of a culture's beliefs or stories, find something written by someone who comes from the actual culture if you can. It's always best as a foreigner to have your first insight being from someone who's grown up with it. Avoid people like Alan Watts like the fucking plague. Though of course actual academics on the mythology and religion generally write quite well about them.
First up, Shintoism.
The perfect primer for Japanese mythology is the oldest book extant in Japan's history: the Kojiki. In English, you really cannot go past the Philippi translation. It is incredibly comprehensive with cross referencing and explaining basically any term you could want to know. Philippi explains the history of the book, the intracies of the language involved, and competing theories regarding contentious points alongside with the translation. The one downside here is that it's rather pricey. The book is out of print due to copyright issues, so you can only really get it for around $100 at the lowest. Still, it's a pretty great resource. A word of warning though, there are a lot of boring chapters in the Kojiki if you're interested in myths. Part of the reason why the Kojiki and the Nihongi were commissioned at the time was to legitimise imperial rule, so you have a lot of chapters that just talk about lineage, connecting the Imperial family back to Amaterasu. "Emperor Steve was born in this year, had six kids with three wives and died. He was succeeded by Emperor Greg." Stuff like that.
If you want something that isn't a primary text and is a little more accessible, The Kami Way is supposed to be quite good. It's very cheap, written by two academics (one from Japan one from the West), and quite short, making it easy to dive into. The one downside is that it's a little old, so its scholarship might not be quite as current as some other books.
Next up, Hinduism.
Hinduism is fucking terrifying to tackle because there is just so much stuff on it. Keep in mind that Hinduism is more a collection of belief systems than one unified belief system, keep in mind that it has an incredibly well preserved written and oral history, keep in mind that it's an offshoot of one of the oldest attested religions on Earth... there's a lot here.
and then you have the five hundred books written by western people about the TRUE way to Awaken Your Chakras
Now two of the most important texts here are the Rig Veda and the Upanishads. The Rig Veda is one of the oldest religious texts in the world, a collection of religious hymns. Until recently, there was no good full translation into English. Sure you can find one on the Sacred Texts website but... it's crap from 19th century England. Scholarship was not the same then as it is now. However, in 2014, an absolutely fantastic resource was completed. It is the full Rig Veda, unabridged, with commentary on every single one of over a thousand hymns. The poetry sings, the commentary is insightful... and it costs 400 american dollars all up. I only got to read these through my university library.
There's a few good Upanishad translations for cheap though. A lot shorter too, normally clocking it at only around 500 pages. I picked one up from Oxford World's Classics. This is pretty essential if you want to understand what the Brahman concept from Digital Devil Saga actually is.
In terms of a general introduction though, probably this book is the best. It's a pretty thorough overview that covers the history of Hinduism from ancient times to today, the mythology of it, etc.
Next, Buddhism.
Buddhism has a similar problem to Hinduism in terms of scope, though somewhat less pronounced, as Buddhism is genuinely just one belief system, separated into sects that are much more comparable to Christianity's variations. You do probably get even more "Namaste Bro" type people with Buddism than you do Hinduism though.
My knowledge here isn't as much up to scratch though, as up til now I've read more about the practice and history of Buddhism as opposed to going in depth about the mythology and cosmology of it all, which I only really know on a very superficial level. I'm trying to change that right now though; it's super interesting to learn what Hindu gods became in the Buddhist belief system, and how they evolved further upon reaching Japan.
If you're looking more into the mythology side of things, don't read something like the Dhammpada, which is a sayings text. Of course it's interconnected, but you'll probably want something a bit more direct.
I'd recommend again going to an academic text rather than straight into the three baskets. And in this case, I'd recommend this book, which I picked up purely because of a certain coincidence and have found very interesting. By framing it around the cosmology of Buddhism, this book naturally leads into talking about Buddhist deities, and other things you're more likely to be interested in, without skimping on explanation about how this connects to the Buddhist belief system.
Finally, Taoism
all i can recommend you here is the tao te ching and the zhuangzi, get them with a good commentary, i don't know enough about other texts that explain taoism to recommend any
That's about what I'd recommend. If anyone wants to suggest any improvements to this list please do!
Two of my favorite books on the topic are very in-depth and detailed:
I seriously can't recommend them enough. I think they are brilliant. They are more academic than "scriptural" if that makes sense. They're the sort of books you'd read in college that are about Tibetan Buddhism.
I've heard it said that Western Philosophy is all footnotes to Plato. That is, discussions stemming from the things that Plato first wrote about, and generally staying within the framework that he established. Now I'm not saying it's 100% accurate, but I do think that Western Philosophy has a pretty unified tradition, where thinkers can refer to a rather set canon, and there is a long history of people responding to their predecessors. The west didn't really discover Eastern Philosophy until the eighteenth or nineteenth century (this is not exactly true, but accurate enough for my point here), by which time there was a deep tradition established, and academic philosophy as we know it was pretty set. So there wasn't a lot of room for Eastern thinkers to squeeze into the canon. Also, it has to be said, the West first encountered Eastern Philosophy in an imperialist way- these were the philosophies of the conquered "savages" (from the 18th century perspective), and were largely not deemed worthy of study.
Also Also, Eastern thinkers didn't engage in a lot of Western arguments. The assumptions that a Lao Tzu makes means that the Tao and the Bible (or plato, or whoever you want) kind of talk past each other more than they talk to each other. I mean, there's some really interesting attempts by the first europeans who translate the Tao, where they're trying to figure out if Taoism is some sort of Chinese "knowledge" of the Christian God. They were so far apart that it was mostly mutual incomprehension, for a good while.
So for western thinkers, it seems to be that Philosophy was a good game that we'd been playing for hundreds of years, and Chinese/Asian philosophers were playing a different game. Asking "why don't western philosophers know chinese philosophy?" is kinda like asking "why don't football players shoot 3 pointers?". It's not an exact comparison, and I think that there is increasing blending of the two (Wittgenstein seems fairly eastern to me in places), and I think articles like these are part of this blending effort. Just my 2 cents.
If anyone is interested in learning more about Chinese/Asian thinkers, I really enjoyed this series:
"Great Minds of the Intellectual Tradition"
from the Great Courses series. I listened to the whole thing on Audible in like a week when I was stocking shelves on the night shift. It's a really broad overview, but it has great context/starting points for further exploration. Highly recommended.
Reading the most excellent A Comprehensive Guide to Daoist Nei Gong and working on many short (5 minute-ish) periods of zhan zhuang daily. Multiple short sessions seems to be more beneficial for me than one longer one, the latter of which I also have more resistance to actually doing.
>True. I just think emphasis is perhaps more essential than name.
Yeah, from a practice point of view, one should treat the differences very seriously. It's the critical historians who like to insinuate that it was mostly rhetorical.
>the actual Jatakas were kind of entertaining, anyway, and their mere presence doesn't mean Chan would have been all hard-line about rebirth
I agree these stories are also very entertaining. Sometimes, those who grew up in predominantly Christian cultures have a hard time seeing humour and entertainment as anything other than secular pursuits. My experience is that Chinese religions very frequently incorporate humour and irreverence, and that these are quite compatible with an attitude of religious piety. So Westerners see Yunmen calling Buddha a "shit-stick", and think there's no way he could possibly have been a pious Buddhist. I disagree with that.
I suppose I'm waiting to find a clear indication from a traditional Chan source that rebirth is nothing more than a fancy joke. Until then, I'm going to assume the teaching was taken seriously.
>I don't know if it was you I already asked, but how/when did you learn Classical Chinese?
My undergraduate degree was in Chinese Studies. I got the opportunity to take a course in basic Classical Chinese around my second or third year, and a more advanced course in my fourth year. (Sadly, the latter course has since been axed at my institution.) I just kept at it when I began postgrad studies. The first year of my PhD was pretty much all spent translating Chan texts. That was a great year.
I'm on leave right now, and might never return (?), but last time I was lecturing I was the course co-ordinator for the same introductory Classical Chinese subject which I'd taken as an undergrad. And also for a complimentary subject in Chinese philosophy, which dealt with much the same sources albeit in English translation.
EDIT: btw, if you are going to learn Tibetan and Chinese, you might be able to do work on the Tibetan Zen corpus from Dunhuang. Sometimes those Tibetan translations shed light on things which are not too clear in the Chinese, for example Bodhidharma's "wall-gazing" meditation technique. Also, you would be well-placed to tell the world how Nyingma Vajrayana and Chan Buddhism might have influenced each other. That would make Padmasambhava-related posts on /r/zen a real possibility. ;)
Yours on Amazon for only 115.89$! (kindle is cheaper, though)
https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Doctrine-Fundamental-Treatise-Other-Emptiness/dp/155939238X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+mountain+doctrine&qid=1572009076&sr=8-1
I'd be really interested to hear more about their philosophy and why they were considered "heretical".
Yeah it's not easy, but I had a lot of trauma and heartbreak to actually face and move on, which was holding me back because I was starting to resent people that just seemed to have life just fall into place for them, while mine was falling apart. It all started to change about a year ago when I read the book, "The Practice of Lojong". It's a bit difficult to read sometimes, but it will start to get your brain on the "right track" and start to see life, and other people in a different light.
http://www.amazon.com/Practice-Lojong-Cultivating-Compassion-Training/dp/1590303784
Ok, I've given you enough assignments now.... lol. Now go prosper, and spread the good word, and shine your light for others!
This may help:
http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/study/comparison_buddhist_traditions/tibetan_traditions/intro_compar_5_traditions_buddhism_bon.html
I can also recommend three comprehensive books:
http://www.amazon.com/Indo-Tibetan-Buddhism-Buddhists-Tibetan-Successors/dp/1570629730
http://www.amazon.com/Indestructible-Truth-Spirituality-Tibetan-Buddhism/dp/1570629102/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321049941&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Vajra-World-Tantric-Buddhism/dp/157062917X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1321049984&sr=8-3
Good luck!
So I read #21... "Never stray from the Way" and the article's analysis of the meaning of this precept was "The way is your path. Your mission through life. You need to spend your life finding the beginning of your path. Then, the rest of your life walking as far as your feet will carry you."
This is an entirely inaccurate analysis of the precept. He was talking about "The Way" as described in Taoism.
https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/the-taoist-influence-on-japanese-martial-arts-by-dota/
Check out that article.
If you are further interested let me recommend The Tao Te Ching as translated by Redpine. (It has many commentaries on each passage that help you understand the material.) Additionally and perhaps more important is the Chuang Tzu by Zhuangzhi. Here is a decent copy with commentary;
https://www.amazon.com/Zhuangzi-Essential-Selections-Traditional-Commentaries/dp/0872209113/ref=sr_1_24?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524947461&sr=1-24&keywords=Chuang+Tzu
It's very important to get editions with commentary because many of the concepts are very difficult to understand without the commentary explaining it owing to differences in language, culture, and time period.
Here is a quote from the Chung Tzu;
The Empty Boat:
Who can free himself of achievement and fame,
Then descend and be lost
Amidst the masses of men?
He will flow like Tao, unseen…
He will go about like life itself.
With no name and no home
Simple is he, without.
To all appearances he is a fool.
His steps leave no trace.
He has no power.
He achieves nothing.
He has no reputation.
Since he judges no one,
No one judges him.
Such is the perfect man.
His boat is empty.
— Chung Tzu
The most accurate in relation to the original language is the translation by Addiss and Lombardo. Although that's my 2nd favorate after the translation by Feng and English.
I really appreciate lojong training and think it's pretty underrated. The Great Path of Awakening, Training the Mind, and The Practice of Lojong are great texts to work with.
Like contemplating insight, studying lojong is a pithy way of integrating / absorbing dharma. I've found that studying them intensively allows them to arise in the conditions they best benefit in. For example, yesterday I was feeling contracted and the slogan regard all dharma [experience] as dreams spontaneously arose in mind*,* which effected an instant release and shifted perception into a dreamlike state.
>Slogan 19. All dharma agrees at one point -- All Buddhist teachings are about lessening the ego, lessening one's self-absorption.
This reminds us to not get caught in sectarian squabbling, or perhaps help us appreciate whatever tradition is most available and keep us from continuously shopping for something "better."
>Slogan 22. If you can practice even when distracted, you are well trained.
This can help prevent us from overly-criticizing our practice when our minds are frantic rather than still, recognizing that we are being mindful all the same.
Hopefully you'll find something worth exploring in the slogans listed on the wiki!
Stephen Mitchell's translation of the Tao Te Ching
Plus the illustrations are nice.
Are these the books? Tao te Ching and the book of Ecclesiastes
Definitely read The Tibetan Book of the Dead at least once in your life. Preferably with a proper commentary, such as:
Luminous Emptiness
>The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a best-seller for three decades, is one of the most widely read texts of Tibetan Buddhism. Over the years, it has been studied and cherished by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. Luminous Emptiness is a detailed guide to this classic work, elucidating its mysterious concepts, terms, and imagery.
And, as for the movie, the advice is the same:
The Tibetan Book of the Dead on DVD
In terms of becoming familiar with general eastern philosophical climate, I was recommended this by a user here a year and a half ago. I found it to be super useful.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Minds-Eastern-Intellectual-Tradition/dp/B00DTNVNT2/ref=nodl_
In terms of cost, you get a free month and a free credit. So you can just do that and then cancel after you’re done
Buddhists and others have argued intensely about this very thing for thousands of years, and that's just here on this planet. The argument has been going on for endless aeons if you want to look at it that way.
(People really really want to know if ultimately anything Exists or not -- despite all the precautions against using the illusory organ of the conceptual mind to assert a relative idea. Who can blame us, though.)
I recommend buying this book,
Mountain Doctrine: Tibet's Fundamental Treatise On Other-Emptiness And The Buddha Matrix
if you want to get your feet muddy. Dolpopa's opponents will claim he's clearly "taking sides", but there exists no singular better exploration of the issue in words, if you ask me.
a nice book covering some methods and objects: https://www.amazon.com/Contemplating-Reality-Practitioners-Indo-Tibetan-Buddhism/dp/1590304292/
There's the reading list in the side-bar, but that doesn't really have secondary books on Hinduism.
There's Gavin Flood's An Introduction to Hinduism. I haven't read it yet, but it's the only thing I got off the top of my head. If you want, I can look through the copy I found on the sidewalk and tell you about it.
But Flood seems to have a pretty good pedigree. But I don't know if he's a Hindu. I would also recommend Eknath Easwaran's translation of the Bhagavad Gita. I have it, and his intro goes into Hindu concepts. This book also seem well-received, though I don't have it.
There's a public domain book called The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India. There's also The Wonder that was India, which is good. And apparently the same guy wrote The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism.
Most Indian history books talk about Hinduism, so maybe the Cambridge History of India?
Ahh well, I was a philosophy major in college (Philosophy of Mind).
I honestly prefer Buddhism (Vipassana & Zen are my specific focus) to Yoga, when it comes to deeper matters, but I find the comparative difference between the two vastly interesting and informative.
Sadly, I don't know where to send you for more. It's a complicated subject, and to be honest, I've had the idea of writing a book for a while now since I'm not finding the kind of information which I believe is important out there and packaged usefully. Yoga people tend to point to the Bhagavad Gita for Philosophy and Spiritual basis, which is more like reading the christian Bible (archaic, obscure, and easily mis-interpreted)
I think that this audio lecture course (36-parts, ~20 hours, $15 on audible) is extremely valuable when getting oriented and having the context to understand more deeper things: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Minds-Eastern-Intellectual-Tradition/dp/B00DTNVNT2 ..
The Compass of Zen by Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim is an excellent introduction to Buddhism in general, and more specific introduction to Korean Buddhism.
You and I both know that the three turnings doctrines didn't originate from a Korean monk, but from sūtras such as the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra and the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra. You try so hard to discredit the doctrine, to the point where you're pretty much lying.
/u/thecowisflying Dölpopa's Mountain Doctrine is actually a pretty great read. Dölpopa, in the text, makes sure to use evidence from sūtras and tantras. He even cites from people like Candrakīrti and Nāgārjuna, whom are often thought to be in direct opposition to Tathāgatagarbha thought.
Yea, I just got home. I'm bored, mini rants incoming.
When I first heard of The Four Agreements, I was in detox back in 09 or something. And this tweaker chick kept going manic. She'd be happy/sad/angry/empty... just over and over. She was throwing chairs, and freaking out, but she kept telling me to read that book. So I had to, because she had excellent chair throwing skills. It was a great read, ... very very interesting take on spirituality but it is pretty applicable. It's a feel good philosophy warrior book thing.
The Power of Now. I had what AA would call a "spiritual awakening" and it really wasn't much like a burning bush, but A LOT like this guy talks about in this book. When I was about to kill myself with a teener of dope, I had this very very strange experience where I couldn't identify with myself anymore. .. "Who is this person that wants to die so badly?... Who am I?" It really changed things. The power of now was the most powerful thing I've read.
The New Earth is pretty interesting. I have to disagree with some points, because traditionally, you can't really get rid of the ego. The ego is necessary to survive. But it's interesting. It's worth a read, especially someone stuck in a facility with only their remorse and addiction to keep them company.
I personally LOVE Gabor Mate. This guy deals with the most tragic cases of addiction in Vancouver, and he's a neurologist and he has some pretty good insights on addiction. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. It's partly where I came up with my flair.
Rational Recovery was another I would suggest. It's a lot like those Allen Carr Easy Way to Quit Smoking. But the basic idea is disassociation from the "Addictive Voice". That it's not ME that wants to get high, but my addiction. That shit rocked my world when I learned it, and I immediately integrated it into my first step in Narcotics Anonymous.
EDIT, Rational Recovery, and Jack Trimpey are VERY AGAINST 12 step ideology. He HATES IT, and he hates the God idea. I get that, but I cannot and will not deny the therapeautic value of one addict helping another. Nothing compares. Even Bill W. in AA wrote about it in his memoirs and grapevines and the Big Book. "When all other measures failed, work with another alcoholic saved the day."
Tao de Ching really helped me. Although it may be missattributed, the whole "Living in the Past is living in depression, living in the future is living in anger and fear, living in the now is living in peace."
So, as you can see, I really like the "now" concept, but it's helped me stay clean and be happy about it. Non-fiction would probably be great too. But these are very spiritual new agey ideas.
This reminds me, I need to read The Spirituality of Imperfection.
THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS THOUGH:
I highly recommend the NA Basic Text, and I love the Step Working Guide.
I got this version of Zhuangzi that has a lot of added traditional commentary, along with good explanations of words like “Tao” and “Virtue” plus a lot of other stuff. I’ve only made it through the first chapter, since it’s a bit of a tough read, but it’s worth it.
This is the version I got: Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0872209113/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_PbUBCbH8QN404
The Tao of Pooh wasn’t at all bad, it was actually pretty enjoyable :) if you’re not very familiar with the concepts of Wu Wei and the Uncarved Block, then it’s a great way to learn about those.
Uhm to be honest I don't know any good resource, and I don't know much about that either.
The details might vary some depending on the context, my experience comes from Taijiquan (Tai Chi) and Nei Gong. This Nei Gong book explains some of it, although it might not be easy for beginners.
It's nice as a confirmation of your own practice, but not so much as a learning resource. Kind of like the Tao Te Ching :p
The best place to start, I think, is with the Analects. I prefer the Edward Slingerland translation, which also includes commentary from himself as well as translations of traditional Chinese commentaries.
Without a doubt it was Think on These Things
https://www.amazon.com/Buddhist-Bible-Dwight-Goddard/dp/0807059110/ref=mp_s_a_1_1
The Tao Te Ching is also neat (if not strictly Zen) – the Taoist influence on Zen is pretty strong. For the poetry of it, I’m really fond of the translation by Jane English and Gia-Fu Feng, but in terms of a helpful explanation of the text, I really like Wai-tao’s translation included in Dwight Goddard’s compilation A Buddhist Bible. A Buddhist Bible is also an amazing compilation that I love (my copy’s gotten pretty beat up over the less-than-a-year that I’ve had it), but I’m not sure how helpful it is specifically in terms of understanding Zen.
(If you want to read really difficult but very integral Zen text, I’ve also started reading the Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross translation of Master Dogen’s Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye.)
Uh... either Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or The Compass of Zen.
The tao's teachings correlate well with my studies of Nietzsche, Socrates, and other famous philosophers. For myself, "The Way" is about accepting and understanding the natural way of things and finding balance through this. Each maxim should be read and considered multiple times before moving on; it's not the type of book where you finish #1 and get started on #2. I'm fortunate that my copy has explanations for each maxim in the back that sometimes rope in the work of other philosophers. My edition can be purchased here
I'm unique in my minimalism that I love having lots of books. It's a goal to one day have a personal library, and I'd rather be known for a collection of literature than videogames and movies/episodes. However some of y'all are different, so I've compiled different translations below:
Cheers!
I have to agree with Growupandleave and suggest The Essence of Other-Emptiness by Jetsun Taranatha. This book presents Shentong in the context of a tenets book on the various tenet systems and is a very readable book on the subject.
Just as an aside, Taranatha was an important systamatizer of Shentong, but wasn't the progenitor of it. It was brought to Tibet by the early founders of the Jonang school and popularized by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. Dolpopa's magnum opus Mountain Doctrine has been translated, and lays out in detail how Dolpopa interprets all the Indian treatises, sutras, and tantras to fit his view.
Besides these Jonang sources there is a strong tradition within the Kagyu school of Shentong although it is not quite the same as Jonang Shentong. Karmazopa already mentioned Jamgong Kongtrul's Commentary on the Uttaratantra which is the standard commentary on that text in the Karma Kagyu school.
Karmazopa also mentioned Book 6 Part 3 of Kongtrul's [Treasury of Knowledge] lays out the Tenet systems, and includes a section on Shentong.
Earlier in the Kagyu school there was the Third Karmapa's Commentary on In Praise of Dharmadhatu translated by Brunnholzl.
In terms of modern books, Thrangu Rinpoche has a book that is a Commentary on the Uttaratantra that is quite readable.
I'm not sure what you've read thus far, but the three most important books in the Daoist canon are, in generally agreed upon order:
Sometimes the trip is about what's around you. But you can have some of the most powerful experiences just from lying down, closing your eyes, clearing your mind, and submitting to wherever the headspace takes you. No background music or TV.
Like The Beatles sang: "Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void."
They were quoting from a landmark guidebook written by none other than Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Ram Dass. You can buy it at many bookstores, and it's also floating around the Web as a PDF, for example. There's even the original audiobook narrated by them, which you can find on YouTube.
Well, Griffith was a Major General or something. Probably considered himself a gentleman-scholar. Which is cool, but Cleary? That mofo was a SCHOLAR-scholar. I think he's a monk or priest or something and he's translated a shit ton of Taoist texts. Buddhist ones as well. I mean practically all of them. He has a few three and four volume compendiums of various Taoist and Buddhist texts he's translated. Tao Te Ching, I Ching, Art of War, Book of Balance and Harmony, like fifty more. Shambala press makes a damn cottage industry just on that guy almost. I mean not really but he's done a load of translations. And he seems to be pretty intent on doing it right.
I think the RL Wing texts are out of print but if you're into this type of thing I'd recommend looking on Amazon.
The Tao of Power: Lao Tzu's Classic Guide to Leadership, Influence, and Excellence [A new translation of the Tao Te Ching]
http://amzn.com/0385196377
^^^ I feel like the commentary in the introduction in this is really fucking amazing. It says that the sage (or wizard/wiseman) doesn't try to make shit happen, he just waits for nature to take its course and then positions himself at the forefront of the impulse of energy. He appears to the masses to be creating all this amazing shit but really he's just surfing. It's pretty brilliant.
The Art of Strategy: A New Translation of Sun Tzu's Classic "The Art of War"
http://amzn.com/0850308518
^^^ it's been a while since I've cracked this one open. But I seem to recall it being similarly sublime.
I think I may take a trip to my storage and dig these bitches out. Give them a flip through.
:-)
EDIT: Also, this -> Tao Te Ching
http://amzn.com/0307949303
If you're into TTC, apparently this dude's introduction sets the standard. I haven't gotten through it yet, but I'm a lazy westerner.
Thanks again for the reply. I definitely laughed outloud when reading the middle part lol. You mentioned Lojong in your previous post. The practice of Lojong sounds very intersting to me: training the mind to be more compassionate and positive. Are there any books on Lojong you recommend? Doing a quick google search I found books by the Dalai Lama, Alan Wallace, and Traleg Kyabgon that all sound very interesting to me.
Thubten Chodron - Open Heart, Clear Mind
Link?
EDIT: I wrote his name wrong. Here it is at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Confucius-Analects-Hackett-Classics/dp/0872206351
Bless him for using Pinyin! It makes me so irritated to see people coming up with new versions of the analects not using Pinyin.
There is an excellent book on this topic. Goes deep into the existence of Chan in Tibet early on and how the 2 influenced each other. It uses direct documents from the time. They’re mainly from the border areas of the Tibetan and Chinese empires. It’s called “Tibetan Zen” and is a bit academic, but very interesting read. Here’s a link to it on Amazon: Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1559394463/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_UAEkDb1BD6F8W
For people that already have a daoist energy practice, I highly recommend reading Damo Mitchell's A Comprehensive Guide to Daoist Nei Gong. It is by far the most comprehensive text I've seen so far
There's also a section within it where it goes in depth with zhan zhuang/the wuji posture and highlights important pieces and theory, which I think most other texts don't bother to explain
No problem at all.
The texts I have are Moss Roberts' translation of the Daodejing, Ziporyn's translation of Zhuangzi, and then Ivanhoe and Van Norden's Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy.
The Ivanhoe/Van Norden book has the Daodejing and other works in it so it's probably not worth the money until you've gone through the Daodejing maybe (and want to compare translations), but if you're mostly just interested in the Zhuangzi strain of Daoism the Zhuangzi texts are probably more than enough. Though confusing, they're not quite as abstract as the Daodejing itself (and the commentary in Ziporyn's text helps a lot).
http://www.amazon.com/Dao-Jing-Book-Way-Laozi/dp/0520242211/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301237538&sr=1-1 and
http://www.amazon.com/Zhuangzi-Essential-Selections-Traditional-Commentaries/dp/0872209113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301237406&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Readings-Classical-Chinese-Philosophy-Ivanhoe/dp/0872207803/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301237612&sr=1-1
Cool! I knew the instructor's name sounded familiar. Let us know how it goes.
Thanks, i love my name!
All those noble truths and 8 fold paths and what not arent necessarily as important as they seem. You spend all this time learning about them, and for what? To be a "better" person? To be free of suffering? The most important thing is that you dont become attached to any teaching. The sort of irony in it is that the teachings are designed to free you of attachment. So you use the teachings to be free of them lol. Buddhism, at its core, is full of these oddities/idiosyncrasies/contradictions. It can be very confusing, and some of the teachings are indeed designed to confuse you because they force you into letting go. At the end of the day, nothing can save you. No zen masters, no teachings, no self, no nothing. If that doesnt make sense, then you already understand.
Here is one of the best books ive ever read. It blew my mind so many times, and i only read it after 4 yrs of being a zen buddhist an i sitll got a lot out of it. A++ 10/10 would read again
http://www.amazon.com/The-Compass-Shambhala-Dragon-Editions/dp/1570623295
You can read the first 15 pages on amazon!
Well, I think Zen Koans are different than Buddha stories. Here are a few Koans - then are usually short stories and illustrations that force you to consider truth and meaning and reality and face your doubt.
A Buddha story is usually a longer account of an event that illustrates a deeper meaning, like this:
>The Buddha was sitting under a tree talking to his disciples when a man came and spit on his face. He wiped it off, and he asked the man, “What next? What do you want to say next?” The man was a little puzzled because he himself never expected that when you spit on somebody’s face, he will ask, “What next?” He had no such experience in his past. He had insulted people and they had become angry and they had reacted. Or if they were cowards and weaklings, they had smiled, trying to bribe the man. But Buddha was like neither, he was not angry nor in any way offended, nor in any way cowardly. But just matter-of-factly he said, “What next?” There was no reaction on his part.
>Buddha’s disciples became angry, they reacted. His closest disciple, Ananda, said, “This is too much, and we cannot tolerate it. He has to be punished for it. Otherwise everybody will start doing things like this.”
>Buddha said, “You keep silent. He has not offended me, but you are offending me. He is new, a stranger. He must have heard from people something about me, that this man is an atheist, a dangerous man who is throwing people off their track, a revolutionary, a corrupter. And he may have formed some idea, a notion of me. He has not spit on me, he has spit on his notion. He has spit on his idea of me because he does not know me at all, so how can he spit on me?
>“If you think on it deeply,” Buddha said, “he has spit on his own mind. I am not part of it, and I can see that this poor man must have something else to say because this is a way of saying something. Spitting is a way of saying something. There are moments when you feel that language is impotent: in deep love, in intense anger, in hate, in prayer. There are intense moments when language is impotent. Then you have to do something. When you are angry, intensely angry, you hit the person, you spit on him, you are saying something. I can understand him. He must have something more to say, that’s why I’m asking, “What next?”
>The man was even more puzzled! And Buddha said to his disciples, “I am more offended by you because you know me, and you have lived for years with me, and still you react.”
>Puzzled, confused, the man returned home. He could not sleep the whole night. When you see a Buddha, it is difficult, impossible to sleep again the way you used to sleep before. Again and again he was haunted by the experience. He could not explain it to himself, what had happened. He was trembling all over and perspiring. He had never come across such a man; he shattered his whole mind and his whole pattern, his whole past.
>The next morning he was back there. He threw himself at Buddha’s feet. Buddha asked him again, “What next? This, too, is a way of saying something that cannot be said in language. When you come and touch my feet, you are saying something that cannot be said ordinarily, for which all words are a little narrow; it cannot be contained in them.” Buddha said, “Look, Ananda, this man is again here, he is saying something. This man is a man of deep emotions.”
>The man looked at Buddha and said, “Forgive me for what I did yesterday.”
>Buddha said, “Forgive? But I am not the same man to whom you did it. The Ganges goes on flowing, it is never the same Ganges again. Every man is a river. The man you spit upon is no longer here. I look just like him, but I am not the same, much has happened in these twenty-four hours! The river has flowed so much. So I cannot forgive you because I have no grudge against you.”
>“And you also are new. I can see you are not the same man who came yesterday because that man was angry and he spit, whereas you are bowing at my feet, touching my feet. How can you be the same man? You are not the same man, so let us forget about it. Those two people, the man who spit and the man on whom he spit, both are no more. Come closer. Let us talk of something else.”
I don't really have a source for these stories, I just try to collect them when I see them. I usually just get books on Buddhism and read them, and buy the ones I like. You can usually order most any book from your local library for free. Each person has different needs and grows in a different way, so what is meaningful to me may be different from what is meaningful to you.
I gravitate mostly to Zen, and the idea of Direct Pointing. So I like to read books like D.T. Suzuki's Zen Buddhism. I am also currently reading The Life of the Buddha: According to the Pali Canon for a more complete understanding of the Buddha and his teachings - and so far, it is fantastic. A more basic book on the Buddha, and a good place to start in my opinion, is Buddha by Karen Armstrong. However, it is somewhat her interpretation of the Pali Canon's account... and many Buddhists would rather go directly to the source... but I think it's a good beginning.
I also bought this version of the Tao Te Ching. I think it's fantastic, even though it's technically Tao instead of Buddhism... but I find it practically indistinguishable from Koans in its value and wisdom. And the text can be found online for free, but there are many translations.
As mentioned before, I would always first recommend The Way Of Zen as it had the most profound effect on my life and mind of all the books I've read.
Also, make sure to engage in meditation. The direct realization of non-duality is of utmost importance. Book learning and words are the shadows of meaning - direct realization is entering in the gates.
Read this book. I read it at age 23 and have given it as a gift approximately 20 times. Think on These Things
I recommend the Addiss/Lombardo translation
For a good overview of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, try this one.
[Indestructible Truth - The Living Spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism Vol 1, by Reginald Ray]
(http://www.amazon.com/Indestructible-Truth-Spirituality-Tibetan-Buddhism/dp/1570629102?ie=UTF8&keywords=indestructibe%20truth&qid=1465296734&ref_=sr_1_sc_1&s=books&sr=1-1-spell)
Part 2 within Vol 1 of this book, delves on this topic.
You are experiencing modern angst. If you had lived only 100 years ago these feelings [for the most part] would not have had a chance to have arisen in the form you are expressing [stardust, universe experiencing itself] - be grateful you can do do it at all [I'm not saying people didn't have these feelings, like Camus, Neitzche, Descartes and others but that most average people didn't have the chance to worry like this, in the information laden way you are spitting it, since most people were busy feeding themselves and their families by farming etc]. So, yes, you are alive and it's all so crazy to think about.
Oh and yes, we do actually understand more than a "spec" of reality.
You say that if I am calm about what your saying then I am missing the point and haven't grasped the full implication of it's meaning. I say truth is relative and the truth of what you're saying is one of many perspectives I can tap into and get lost in. You seem to be hyperventilating only one stream of thought - your existential purpose, validity, meaning.
You seem to want someone to validate your feelings with an equal amount of shock and awe. Well you might get it, so what then? I'm not saying the knowledge you are talking about doesn't lead one to existential angst and confusion, but just remember what the Buddha said about the nature of reality. All is change. All is impermanent. This isn't some lofty metaphysical concept that is impossible to apply to everyday life. On the contrary, it is imminently important to understand so as to get a grip on your situation. If all is impermanent, then your feelings, opinions, knowledge etc.. is all impermanent. You are holding onto the feelings of utter confusion and awe. You have made a mistake unconsciously, that everyone does, when they mistake their immediate phenomenal experience as a permanent "thing" in reality. To be consistent with the Buddha's revelation one must relax, quiet the mind and understand the nature of reality - impermanence.
Read - Buddhism: Plain and Simple and also Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Questioning, the kind you seem to be doing, is just spinning your wheels if not tempered with a calm awareness and composure. Do you want to seek contentment and happiness? Do you want to feel resolve? Then shut your mind up for a moment. Listen to the birds chirp. Sit quietly in your room and watch your breathe. Work with your hands and feel reality in all it's textures. Just be aware. Hopefully you will have a long life to ponder these questions you have but for now don't make the mistake that so many neurotics do; mainly the mistake of attaching oneself to a overly anxious perspective while neglecting other modes of thought that are just as easily attachable. You have control over your mind, and your mind is doing all this anxious thinking.
If you want to have these questions turned upside down and be thrown into a different sort of thought then you must read Krishnamurti and his musings about life, love, truth, intelligence, nature.... "A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove." Jiddu Krishnamurti - more quotes here.
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers” - Voltaire
Apply this quote to yourself. Spend time with it. What are you really asking and what answers are you really searching for?
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” - Buddha
Good luck.
>all religions are based on faith
Interestingly, this is one point where Hinduism can fairly claim to be different from other major religions.
Originally, in ancient times, being a Hindu had much less to do with what you believed and more to do what you did--specifically, whether or not you performed your dharmic duties. The rituals, rites, etc. are primary; your belief in them secondary. This is why some argue even today that you can even be a Hindu atheist. So long as you are doing your dharma, cosmic order is maintained.
Obviously, like with anything practiced by billions of people over many centuries, different schools and beliefs emerged about all of this. The Upanishads, as one example, were one of the earliest attempts to make beliefs and mindset also important to the rituals. Then you have things like bhakti-yoga in The Bhagavad Gita, written much later, that starts to have the flavor of more faith-based religion and which also condemns ritual without the proper mindset. But it was not always so, and in non-Vaishnava traditions can still not be the case.
Ultimately the emphasis in Hinduism can still be fairly said to lie in actions, not beliefs. Not doing a puja at all for a certain event will be seen as a greater "sin" for a Hindu than doing it but in your head thinking it was BS. Contrast this with, say, Christianity where going to Church on Sunday is meaningless if in your head you think it's all BS.
My source for all this.
As with everything: yes this is all highly debatable, so feel free to debate!
The Now Habit
The Power of Habit
Thinking fast, thinking slow
Tao te Ching
"J krishnamurti Think on these things" I was 15.
Think on these things
I agree with other commentators, this may be (in my non-medical opinion) mild to moderate depression. (Again, this is just an idea, diagnosing people over the internet with little information is not entirely ethical). I would like to suggest to other posters that depressive disorders are somewhat diverse.
Depending on your personal and financial situation, I cannot recommend seeing a psychologist enough, as I have been in this same situation. Whether you come from a background of hard science or spirituality, I would urge folks to see therapists/psychologists as a teacher that can help you understand what what is real, and how to have a good relationship with your thoughts/feelings.
I would like to suggest a few books that I have found to be personally helpful in this regard:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), very good read which outlines how your mind, Buddhists might call it the ego, creates a fake reality in a depressed state, and methods to counteract it:
Burns, David Feeling Good
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a different but similar approach to dealing with challenging thoughts/feelings, borrows a lot from Buddhism. Main idea is to be aware of thoughts and feelings as occurring, and not good or bad (and not "you"). To accept thoughts and feelings, not as reality but just as thoughts or feelings, and to take action towards something you value:
Harris, Russ The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living
If you're on a little, or big, Buddhist kick, I'd recommend the writings of Zen Master Seung Sahn. This particular book takes his bright and connectable style, and examines a variety of Buddhist traditions to see how they alleviate dukkha/suffering/stress/etc. in different ways:
Seung Sahn The Compass of Zen
Please do check out these books and post questions if you have them. If you are interested in finding a psychologist, and it is something that takes personal buy-in, I would suggest taking a look at Psychology Today or on your insurance company's website, if you're American.
Have a great night! =D
I went ahead and ordered this copy, I couldn’t find who did the translation. What do you like about Hua Ching-Ni’s version?
I’m slowly building my collection of spiritual works. Right now my favorite is The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche.
you think that just because you take a drug and experience something out of the norm that that must be a truth because TPTB are keeping it from us. and you do this all without mastering the experience of psychedelics? theres more to the art of "trippin".
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XMQ78YK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
On the topic of emptiness, I thought I'd recommend this book too, Contemplating Reality by Andy Karr. It's a summary/distillation of the ideas present in the Mahayana/Vajrayana development over hundreds of years. Armstrong has a background in Mahamudra/Dzogchen as well, but I don't know how much of his book delves into the worlds post-Pali Canon.
Contemplating Reality: A Practitioner's Guide to the View in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism https://www.amazon.com/dp/1590304292/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_p3GczbDC94KSZ
The translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English has wonderful black-&-white photography in it that, I feel, really helps to illustrate the concepts, emphasizing negative space and challenging your perception of objects, etc.
The Amazon page for this book includes the "look inside" option to see a few of the photos.
ETA: I would also strongly recommend reading at least 2 or 3 different translations, side-by-side (it's a tiny book). That's the best way of really getting a sense of the variety, subtlety, and (... ambiguity? ... equivocality?) of meanings in the verses ... you know ... without actually learning ancient Mandarin.
Tao Te Ching
My mistake. Francesca Fremantle also wrote a commentary to the Liberation by Hearing called Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
So, back to the Fremantle Trungpa book. I don't think that book contains Chapters 1-5 that the Gyurme Dorje book does contain. Indeed, I think the Fremantle Trungpa book is only about Chapter 7. As is Fremantle's Commentary, which is more of a guided meditation, really, which is nice.
So, I guess it all depends on which you prefer, only Chapter 7, which is pretty awesome or the "Soup to Nuts" version, which is the Colemen, Jinpa, Dorje book. I prefer the Dorje book. The first 5 Chapters were pretty great. Chapter 6 is very similar to Chapter 7, but more of a Sadhana. Chapter 8 is an extended confession based on Chapter 7. (I say Chapter 7 but it's really all about the 100 Deities of the Zhitro.)
Up to you. Amazon-wise on price, they are the same. So, hey, you "get more for your buck" by purchasing the Coleman-Jinpa-Dorje book. Enjoy!
I like the Buddhist Bible!:)
http://www.amazon.com/Buddhist-Bible-Dwight-Goddard/dp/0807059110
Of course you could be very wrong. There is only one true tradition and that is Buddhism the rest are like different medicines for the ignorant. Zen, Mahamudra, Dzogchen all stem from Buddhism (baudda in Sanskrit). Btw, have you read the bk. Tibetan Zen?
Open Heart, Clear Mind by Thubten Chodron, great book and easy to read, I have to say the best beginner book on Buddhism I have ever read. She has her email at the end and she will actually write back to you.
Open Heart, Clear Mind: An Introduction to the Buddha's Teachings https://www.amazon.com/dp/0937938874/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_WIw7CbRQ6T3N0
If you are looking for something more studious you can get the Buddha's discourses, they are a bit dry at times but they are the closest thing to the Buddha's own words you will be able to find.
The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya (The Teachings of the Buddha) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0861711033/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jIw7Cb6WRBSMW
This is the closest I've found... (600 pages) https://www.amazon.com/Buddhist-Bible-Dwight-Goddard/dp/0807059110/ref=pd_aw_sbs_14_1/137-2682056-1767958 There are other versions of this book with the same title but missing a lot of content, so be careful to get this isbn/edition.