What are some books that can help me surpass my earthly desires?

Thanks a lot, I think that's exactly what I'm looking for.

there is no
> truly happy

Well, for me that's the definition of happiness. Just like for a buddhist true happiness would be achieving the Nirvana and for a christian living a life following the commands of God.

What I mostly have trouble with is how people can find happiness by being degenerates and being constantly governed by their own desires, without a proper control of their own thoughts, this kind of happiness leads only to suffering in the end, it's nothing but an illusion.

If you're seeking happiness as an end you're by definition being a degenerate and are no better than the lowest cock sucking whore.
The question of life is not how to find happiness but why allow yourself to suffer

To give up your sins will be the hardest thing, like dying. Therefore, seek this transformation with all your heart, and fix your mind on relinquishing your wants, your pride.

You will fail, many times, and cling to the world. You will return to the warm bosom of the world and its comforts. Therefore, seek out those aspects of your sins which are coldest, that they may be made cold to you. For instance, if you feel pride, see what a small and narrow person it makes you. See how ugly and unattractive you become when you are prideful. It may help to see these characteristics in others--yes, it is often much easier to see the ugliness of sins in others; imagine a lustful man, see how he is bound to his object, see how he has bound her to his desires, and threatened her autonomy thereby. See a glutton, in his lust for food, and imagine how easy it would be (from your perspective) for him to fast and to resist such a silly temptation. Then turn this eye toward yourself, and see the ugliness of your sin.

Yes, you must become disgusted by yourself, and likely you already are to some extent, but this feeling must deepen, perhaps into sorrow, or grief. You must become grieved at your sin, at your ugliness.

See the absurdity of your desire, how it is temporal, transient, always leading to nothing but a greater obsession. See how it is a death spiral, a sickness, a blind passion that becomes lost in an ever-deepening pit.

Like I said, you will continue to sin, and you should not try to indulge it, but you may find that it feeds your disgust, it feeds your desire for something different, for true transformation, for a great leap to a place where you will no longer be who you are now, where you will be free from these bonds. You cannot imagine it now. You will ask yourself why you continue to sin, when you know what a better person you will be without them. But that is just the thing, you don't know. You may wonder if you are making progress, or whether you are falling, and I think it is both.

Perhaps at this point you will begin to feel the gravity of the situation. You see the consequences of this great decision you must make once and for all playing out into eternity; you feel as though everything were on the line, and daily you become more convinced of it. But still you continue to sin, and your sin seems so petty, so commonplace, so pointless in light of all this. But still it pecks at you, and ignores your pleading and your grief, apparently with a most contemptible spite. It wants to own you. To possess you, to have its way with you until it has quenched its thirst for the evening. And then it slumbers, spitefully, arrogantly, knowing full well that it has stolen from you your free will, in fact, all eternity, it has taken and abused for a moment's satisfaction, and yet it does not care. It does not care a bit, and it is glad, perhaps, that you will die, and be damned, and you will never be the man that you want to be.

but m8, neither is there any
>definition of happiness

Shut the fuck up

Meme answer but for good reason

Different user but resisting temptation has always been easy for me, I could live the most ascetic life imaginable. What I find difficult is how to get oneself to take up rightful action, to believe in the significance and the worth of acting well.

Its very easy to see the worthlessness and scorn all the sin that exists in the world, what I find near impossible is seeing anything else.

>The Nu-Male manifesto

Kill yourself

Thank you for taking your time to write that long post for the benefit of all of us sinners who wants to stop. It was a good read.

What a vicious creature, you might say. But it is me, that is the creature? Am I, somehow, consenting to all this, even though I am convinced that I desire to be rid of my sins for good?

This is a difficult question, and one I'm afraid I have not the answer to. You must investigate for yourself. I know for sure that even in one's greatest conviction that one must be rid of these horrible sins, there still lingers an all-enveloping fear of death. A fear of a great abyss, the edge of a waterfall that is gradually approaching. You are afraid to pass beyond this place, and what mortal, what anxious creature such as us should not fear such an experience? We have a right to fear. It is our privilege; for in this fear must also be a little excitement, not gleeful, but sobering, immense excitement at what we might become. What it all might mean. It appears to us as something tremendous, something which we ought not to even speak of. For to speak of it would be sacrilege. This is something beyond our whole lives, beyond all our wildest ambitions; something so grand that we ought not to think of it, how could a fleshy creature such as us ascend to such heights?

Our sins appear to us now as something far below us. Perhaps we shall be able to give up these things for the rewards of heaven, and perhaps, and this we feel deeply, if we acquire the strength to give up our sins, and resist them, and be sober, maybe then we shall be worthy of this fear, and in becoming worthy of this fear, it shall suddenly become a warmth, a calming feeling--a resolution.

See, this fear, this dread, if it finds guilt in us, the guilt of sins that we have lately committed, it at once crushes us; our guilt is too much, we know we are not worthy, we have not the courage to cross the threshold. But if we know in our hearts that we have resisted sin, that we have stood up to our demons and banished them, and dismissed pride from our houses and kept them clean, then, when this fear touches us, it shall find a humble, yet ready man--a man yearning for duty, who has brushed off all other callings, and lies, steadfastly waiting for his true calling, for a holy work by which to justify himself, and atone for his sins.

He has lifted up his burden, his grief. He has kept it for God, protected it from the consolation of demons, from the temporary comforts of the world, and he is ready to receive his duty, his command.

The fear of death that touches this man performs a miracle--prepares him for the impossible. Having been anointed by this oil, which he has earned after so much tribulation, I think, he has guaranteed his resurrection.

>implying nu-males have patience and discipline

cram it soyboy

Where is it from?

Tao Te Ching to give you something to work towards

Capital to destroy your desire to pursue anything

There you go, a path towards the stasis that is "surpassing your earthly desires"

the world as will and representation

>I like a book so I HAVE patience and discipline
Compensate all you like nu-male

>I unironically use terms like nu-male to disparage anything i dont like because i dont have an argument

sure is summer here

>not realizing the argument is implicitly contained within the discourse itself

Git gud

If I didn't have the patience and discipline Papa Aurelius taught me, I'd rape you

It is okay to weep, user--for the world, for oneself. I weep for others, the things they do to themselves, to others. I grieve for myself, for my mistakes and ways in which I have transgressed. While others are laughing, we are weeping, or if we are in a foolish mood, scorning and cursing it all. It is hard for a critical man to be happy in this world, and should he try to be? No, I do not think so.

Where is the goodness, then? It is there, in your tears, in your grief.

What's your recommendation instead?

I'd say Meditations is a shit read for someone who wants to surpass earthly desire. It's pretty good for most materialistic laymen, but if you want to go full monk it's far from the best.

OP, read the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job, in that order. That should give you a good start.

what are some books that can help me lock in my earthly desires?

>Where is the goodness, then? It is there, in your tears, in your grief.

Perhaps but its a squalid satisfaction. Especially when I feel the only thing seperating me from it all is my own sense of inexpediency