What are some books that address Buddhism within its historical context (i.e. books that cover the life of the historical Siddhartha Gautama, the development of the various schools of thought etc)
Also general Buddhist lit thread
**And yes, I checked the catalog and all there was was threads that loosely covered Buddhism as philosophy**
Wikipedia actually points to some traditional biographies from way back in the day. It's all pretty conflicting.
Modern day scholars basically agree that Buddha existed along side other contemporary Indian dudes, like Purana Kassapa who's a pretty rad dude that doesn't believe in spooks, and other such figures.
Other than that everything is up in the air, from a strictly scholary viewpoint.
As for an overview of all the traditions, you're not gonna find that in one book unless it's extremely pleb tier. To get a somewhat decent overview of all the sects you need to read at least multiple books per tradition. Just Wikipedia that shit if you want a decent overview. Wikipedia is surprisingly comprehensive when it comes to this stuff.
Also, you'll probably want to look into meditation. All sect dogma aside, meditation is where the good stuff is at.
>that pic
Wouldn't Stirner hate Buddhism
>>7505028
Stirnerism and Buddhism are fundamentally incompatible .
>>7505414
>
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn47/sn47.019.olen.html
>>7504538
to some extent, History of Pali Literature by Bimala Churn Law
>>7504538
>Also general Buddhist lit thread
aight
Has anyone read the Diamond Sutra? Is it good for a beginner(sort of) to buddhism or are there better texts? I recall an anon saying long ago that the you could find all you needed to know about buddhism in the Diamond Sutra.
>>7505571
Not really. Diamond Sutra will give you the right frame of mind so to say, but can't help you with practical questions; it's mostly metaphysics.
>>7505453
Nice story there m8, but that does literally nothing to disprove my statement.
>>7505571
Read the Dhamapada
>>7505571
Vimalakirti sutra is what you want.
Buy a used copy of Robert Thurman's translation and a used copy of Burton watson's translation for pennies each.
Read the intro of Thurman, it's very, very good and important for understanding the text.
The translation itself is bizarre, so read watson for the text itself.
Buddhism is for degenerates.
>>7507019
s/degenerates/nihilists
>>7507019
oh you came back after all.
>>7507019
spooky lad
>>7504538
>avoiding suffering the goal of life
Worst philosophy other than pessimism desu senpai.
Buddhism is a cuck philosophy.
Prove me wrong.
>>7505571
Read The Gospel of Buddha, compiled from ancient sources.
Paul Carus
>>7504538
The locus classicus for this is What the Buddha thought by Richard Gombrich, its makes the most convincing argument for the authorship of the early textual material being from one single author, the Buddha.
http://www.ahandfulofleaves.org/documents/What%20the%20Buddha%20Thought_Gombrich_2009.pdf
Then there is the beast that is Nakamura's 'Gotama Buddha: A Biography Based on the Most Reliable Texts' (2 volumes). It is massive, but worth a look.
Johannes Bronkhorst has a book called Two meditation traditions in Ancient India, it argues that the major meditation tradition before the rise of Buddhism was Jaina asceticism, that the Buddha practiced and rejected this.
http://www.khamkoo.com/uploads/9/0/0/4/9004485/the_two_traditions_of_meditation_in_ancient_india.pdf
Alexander Wynne has written a text called The origins of Buddhist meditation, he argues, contra Bronkhorst, that the Buddha's main influence was Brahmanic meditation styles taught by the two teacher discussed in the canon (Alara Kalama, Udakka Ramaputta).
http://static.tumblr.com/7fk2aj8/aHEnjyfje/the_origin_of_buddhist_meditation.pdf
Bhikkhu Analayo has been doing comparative studies using the Chinese Agama material and the Sanskrit/Pali Nikaya texts. he has a large collection of papers here:
https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/analayo.html
>>7508776
These are good recommendations. I would add "The Foundations of Buddhism" by Rupert Gethin, which is what got me interested in the Buddha as a thinker in the first place. I don't remember Gombrich devoting much space to the authenticity hypothesis -- one paper I remember that deals with it at length is "The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts" by Sujato and Brahmali. Some of their arguments are more convincing than others.
Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher
states of consciousness and finally go beyond it. The art of
meditation is the art of shifting the focus of attention to ever sub-
tler levels, without losing one’s grip on the levels left behind. In a
way it is like having death under control. One begins with the
lowest levels: social circumstances, customs and habits; physi-
cal surroundings, the posture and the breathing of the body; the
senses, their sensations and perceptions; the mind, its thoughts
and feelings; until the entire mechanism of personality is
grasped and firmly held. The final stage of meditation is
reached when the sense of identity goes beyond the ‘I
am-so-and-so’, beyond ‘so-I-am’, beyond ‘I-am-the-witness-
only’, beyond ‘there-is’, beyond all ideas into the imper-
sonally personal pure being. But you must be energetic when
you take to meditation. It is definitely not a part-time occupation.
>>7506754
Seconding this.
there is a sutta class in live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-EIBSzm_tw
http://uwf.edu/wmikulas/webpage/leaves/website/canon/anguttara/index.html#3
reminder that only white buddhists believe that pumping and dumping is still in agreement with the dhamma.
>>7509639
Lol wut?
>>7504538
Also, what do fellow buddhists listen to?
https://youtu.be/6EQGKh8YqX8
>>7504538
http://www.ahandfulofleaves.org/documents/The%20Buddhist%20Religion%20A%20Historical%20Introduction_%20Robinson.pdf
>>7509669
>listening to music
>arousing passion and infatuation with the senses and their objects
Not a chance. inb4 "but you're browsing 4chan," I'm using supernormal powers to remotely post this from a state of deep meditation in the Thai forest.
>>7509631
What's the pic mean?
>>7509715
http://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=9_Jhanas
Those things under there are mental factors 'required' for reaching the Jhanas. Vitarka being something like 'applied thought', pitti means something like 'joy or rapture', and so on.
>>7509669
I listen to manuscript era to baroque era christian chants/hymns.
>>7509715#
>What's the pic mean?
the picture is taken from http://www.theravadin.org/2008/03/17/the-4-jhana/
it explains what the jhanas are: some contemplative states, like the hedonist chases so much for their pleasures, but wherefrom the follower of the dhamma builts knowledge regarding the impersonality, the impermanence and therefore the impertinence of your sensations/emotions/ideas/knowledge/mind
this is the blog of a theravadin monk. I do not think that he disclosed his identity
>>7509715
so to be clear, the charts show what you feel the most in each of the state.
by the way, his statement
> Footnote: Do not mistake “contemplations” (chatting and wandering of the mind with concentration and single-pointedness. The happiness resulting from the former is more a kusala-vipaka, no meditative absorption)
shows that he does not know the definition of contemplation, contemplation which he takes to be discussion, or also meditation.
what people call meditation today is contemplation, even though meditation can lead to the beginning of a contemplation.
>>7509702
First of all, only monks are not allowed to listen to music.
There is actually a sutta where a monk listens to a sad song being sung by a village girl, and because of it develops disenchantment.
I would say that music could be a skillful means to develop factors of the path. I listen to all sorts of things, but from a Buddhist perspective I would say one may listen to: Relaxing music, sad music (blues, etc) which develops dispassion and awareness of dukkha, and music which has dharmic themes (Buddhist chants, etc).
Music which would technically be unskillful would be angry music or music which focuses on greed and desire (fuck bitches, get money, etc.)
>>7510329
for most people, the point of listening to music is to be entertained; but you are right that your perspective to used it for the path is acceptable, especially if the tie to music is to difficult to break at the beginning.
>>7510329
>Music which would technically be unskillful would be angry music
Actually I've found that whenever I'm depressing stuff like black metal relax me a whole lot. Noise, shoegaze and the heavier types of music produce a type of oversaturation of the senses which leads can leave the listener in a pretty restful state of mind; after all shoegaze started as a sort of "humble" music movement which made the artists blend in with the background (i.e. they ended looking like they were gazing at their shoes), by way of its wall-like sound.
I do agree music is kind of bringing a gun to a knife fight when it comes to experience though, it just manipulates the listener subconsciouly in a way almost no other artform does.
>>7510419
I actually enjoy some Black metal, not all of it, but the more atmospheric type is actually excellent at capturing the Buddhist sense of existential suffering
>>7510434
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a09cQMyGvDk
Like so?
>>7510329
Zen Buddhist monks are allowed to engage in the arts though.
