Hello, /lit/. Could you please recommend me any books about buddhism?

>>8987226
Siddharta by Herman Hesse is a good way to put Western readers into a more Eastern mindset, or for inspiration, but is not very accurate. I suggest starting with for for inspiration.

Also, if you are familiar with Greek Philosophy there is a great book out there called "21st Century, the age of Sophia : the Wisdom of Greek philosophy and the Wisdom of the Buddha," another way to compare and contrast the Western tradition with the Eastern.

Beyond those two, there are many great books out there that summarize such ideas, such as The Religions Book by DK, or the Dummies series.

For more in depth and advanced reading, the Sutras are essential.

>>8987323
Thanks :)

>>8988888
>wasting quints on a bump
You will die by Kek's slimy hand.

>>8987226

Rupert Gethin's 'The Foundations of Buddhism' is a great place to start. It's scholarly and comprehensive but easily readable.

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>>8988888
Never post on my board ever again

>>8988965
Thank you. I needed this image in my life.

>>8987323
Nothing wrong in your reply, but OP should be clear that "Siddharta" doesn't talk about Buddhism at all, not even the basic principles. There is only a brief episode where the main character meets the Buddha, before going on in the same way he has abandoned all the other experiences.

I find it totally fucking baffling that people recommend Siddartha. It's like someone asking for books on Christianity and someone telling them to read Philip Pullman's The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. Siddhartha's relevance to the historical and doctrinal reality of Buddhism is basically nil. It's a fine novel and one you can breeze through in an afternoon, but when people seriously recommend it as a "book about Buddhism" it's an immediate red flag that they have no clue what the fuck they're talking about.

One good recommendation in this thread: Gethin's The Foundations of Buddhism. I can add one more, What The Buddha Thought, by Richard Gombrich. Together, they will give you a deep and thorough background on Pali Buddhism.

>>8989569
Thanks.

>>8989569
I completely agree.

>>8988965
Who's that inbetween Pynchon and Stirner?

>>8991710
Mccarthy

I thought the new posts where suggestions relating to Buddhism. That's what I get.

Old Path, White Clouds - Thich Nhat Hanh

Easy read, Thichy used a broad brush to paint an overview of Gautama's life. It covers most of the important sutras, gives historical insight and generally makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

>>8993088
I read a bit of Hann once before. Something about his writing that really rubbed me the wrong way.

>>8989569
this.
I'll never understand why ppl do not read the Buddhist scripture, the suttas themselves.

They're rich as hell

Any good academic texts that people could list?

>>8987226
Siddharta by Herman Hesse
(mentioned above)

Way of Zen by Alan Watts

Doctrine of awakening by Julius Evola

>>8994450
please stop fucking around.
the first book has nothing to do with buddhism.

alan watts was an attention whore who is responsible for the hippy shit you see today in westen buddhism

>evola
whatever

Old Path White Clouds is a gentle and easy read, but it's not to bad to be quite frank, you'll want to ignore the obvious campiness, but it's written by a monk so what do you expect, Thich Na Hah i think

>>8994471
>hippie shit
You mean people not taking themselves so seriously? Anon, if you were all together Buddha and Watts would have got on like old buds, secretly wishing you would either lighten up or just leave.

>>8994553
watts has nothing to do with buddhism.
idc if he's stupidly often the westerner's first intro into buddhism

read the pali canon

>>8994557
>nothing to do with Buddhism.
What do you even mean by this? His perennial understanding of nearly all Eastern religions including Buddhism (spanning their social history, main tenets, overlapping values and patterns if mythology, teaching practices, and psychological goals) is fucking excellent.

Is Buddhism a club that you need to register for now?

>>8987226
my diary desu

>>8994583
Just saw you meme this up in another thread at the same time. Godspeed, anon.

>>8994578
>What do you even mean by this? His perennial understanding of nearly all Eastern religions including Buddhism (spanning their social history, main tenets, overlapping values and patterns if mythology, teaching practices, and psychological goals) is fucking excellent.

holy shit...

>>8994593
I can't believe I'm about to even write this, but...

Not an argument.

>>8994578
man, i feel bad for buddhists with buddhism being castrated into some secular self-help therapy club or some elitist club of shrouded materialists who wear badges of self-importance and are self-absorbed and buy expsensive shit. Watts was partly responsible for this.
Just look at what happened to yoga
Refer to >>8984245
or read this: http://www.pacificbuddha.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/In-the-Buddhas-Words.pdf

You can have a respectful Western scholar right about it, but not fucking alan watts.

>>8994625
I just don't agree, anon. I love some of the teachings that have trickled down through Buddhism to myself, through many people who have talked about them and shared their interpretations. But I don't think there is one right way to DO Buddhism, and I think that positing it as AGAINST materialism encourages a false duality that begets suffering.

Watt's attitude was both respectful to the core benefits of eastern practices, while also scoffing at tradition for the sake of it and he definitely laughed at those who used "enlightenment" within ego games.

I honestly don't understand where the hate comes from.

>>8994636
I would add to this that I have seen so many people say variations of

>>8994625
>but not fucking Alan watts

And yet I have never seen anyone actually deconstruct anything he's said as being wrong or shallow.

>>8994643
> and I think that positing it as AGAINST materialism encourages a false duality that begets suffering.

Have you read anything?
In the suttas themselves the buddha speaks against the materialism of Ajita.

Read the damn discourses.

>>8994643
>alan watts
He gets thrown around so much that it's annoying. To a buddhist group and you'll see the same annoyance towards him

i liked "what the buddha taught" by walpole rahula

Buddhism has two branches

Theravada: the earliest form, originated in India. The awakened One is known as "Gautama"

primary texts:
-Pali Nikayas (best source is "In the Buddha's Words," published buy Wisdom)
-Dhammapada (i like the translation by Max Muller)

Mahayana: formed in far east Asia.has far more subdivisions than Theravada and also more texts. they believe the essence of Buddha it's the most popular form of Buddhism. The awakened One is named Shakyamuni.

texts in chronological order:

-The Lotus Sutra (published by Wisdom)
-The Lankavatara Sutra (find the brief version translated by DT Suzuki)
-Prajnaparamita aka Transcendent Wisdom texts. The wisdom of these texts is superhuman. This is a large collection of the earliest Mahayana writings. The most significant of these texts are
1. The Diamond Sutra (translated Edward Conze)
2. The Heart Sutra (Conze)
3. Complete Transcendent Wisdom (you can find a PDF of this by searching "Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines"

NON CANONICAL IMPORTANT TEXTS
-(Theravada) Path of Purification: an analysis of Buddhism written by a renowned monk.
-(Theravada) Buddhacarita. A poem that tells the story of Gautama and his awakening.
-(Mahayana) Shantideva's guide to becoming a bodhisattva (aka monk). Obviously not everyone wants to devote their lives to spirituality, but the author was a monk so it's a good read. Get the Oxford World's classics edition
-Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. A work of fiction and brief exploration of Buddhism's themes from a western POV.
-The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The travels and haiku of a Zen Monk.
-The Zen poems of Ryokan.

i don't recommend wasting your time with the mutated subdivision of the subdivision of Buddhism called "Zen." Before I learned about Buddhism I would hear the word "zen" and associate it with Buddhism. Zen is actually Buddhism combined with Taoism, and its a messy form of Buddhism–influenced by Chinese and Indian and Burmese and Tibetan forms means it has no consistent doctrine. As far as I've been able to discern, Zen has no very few ideas that aren't already represented in earlier canonical texts. it seems the canonical texts are always more comprehensive and illuminating than anything taught in Zen, ESPECIALLY the countless "guides to zen"

>>8996005

mistake in this post: Mahayana Sutras are NOT in chronological order. the Prajna paramita is considered the earliest.

>>8988888
FUCKING TRAGIC

>>8994668
Like I said, I don't think there's a right way to DO Buddhism, so you can keep your dogma all to yourself thanks.

>>8996044
Zen is an action method, not a fucking spinnoff in a /lit series.

You guys realise that the teachings are meant to be alive, right? It's not supposed to be a bunch of rules in a book, it's a spontaneous dialogue about how to live well and see the truth.

>>8996823
>buddhism is whatever i want it to be even though sakyamuni himself held positions against certain contemporary philosophies of his time

seriously, stop projecting your own values into it and read the damn text. This is why buddhism is such a distorted joke in the west.

>>8996833
>discourse
>whatever I want it to be
These are not the same thing, anon.

We do not need more religion in the world. We need more consciousness. You are treating ancient wisdom like you're fucking stamp collecting.

>>8996853
Buddhism is a religion, you hippie. Get over it.
Go annoy the Jains or something or resurrect some other forgotten thought.

there was a buddhist in the other thread who actually knew what he was talking about
>>8984245

I know you haven't read the text.

>>8996867
>people who don't value tradition over results are obviously uninformed and inexperienced.
Get outta here. You clearly have some guru to asskiss.

>>8996887
it isn't even about "tradition"
That's what buddhism is which of course you would't know if you if you learned it through a hippie king who is Watts.

Im not a buddhist by the way, but as I said, i feel bad for them.

Read any time.

>>8996903
Keep taking shots in the dark about what I have or haven't read, it seems like a very meaningful practice for you.

Also, just profile a whole bunch of people as hippie or pseud so you can automatically exclude their work and attitudes. That'll save you lots of time.