Eastern Literature thread

Has anybody read any of these here?
is this thoths?
love gethin's book, is bodhi's anthology good?

>Read Chinese misery literature
>kill self

Pick two.

How to poo in the loo by Pajeet Rajesh

Reading the Bardo Thodol. Any recommended commentary to read afterwards?

Also spent a week in a retreat in a monastery of the Thai forest tradition.
It was good to spend new year's eve away from parties and drunkards. The Abbot discussed the Rohitassa Sutta, and it's a nice short read.

East or West
India is the best

I'm waiting for The Mahabharata to arrive. I already messed up by not reading the Illiad first when starting the greeks, so I don't want to repeat the same mistake with epic poetry

Only an in depth knowledge of Greece, Egypt, Persia, The Indus and the Himalayas can atone one to true enlightenment desu owo

I'm starting with the Egyptians. What should I read other than the book of the dead and Pinch's mythology?

Middle Egyptian Literature
Includes Story of Sinuhe, Shipwrecked Sailor, Debate between a man and his soul, and the Eloquent Peasant

Zhuangzi says to detach from human conventions in order to liberate ourselves and to come into accordance with Nature and the Way. How would he respond to the idea that human convention is itself an expression of Nature, and that to abandon it is to abandon the Way which is proper to a human being?

Right now, The Tale of Genji. Very enjoyable.

I'm reading a free pdf of Shankaryacarya's commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita that I found online.

archive.org/stream/Bhagavad-Gita.with.the.Commentary.of.Sri.Shankaracharya#page/n0/mode/2up

It's pretty good. I had already read the Gita but was curious about Advaita Vedanta so I checked it out and so far it's top-notch.

>How would he respond to the idea that human convention is itself an expression of Nature, and that to abandon it is to abandon the Way which is proper to a human being?
Zhuangzi believes in ''knowledge'' independent of proof and axioms. When you ''know'' you simply know

I've heard 'Dakini Teachings' should be great - good luck my Dharma mate.

Could you talk a little more about it? I've always been interested in it

Reading journey to the west.
I was planning into taking the other three classic novels but is taking me too long.

Adi Shankara, Sankaracharya is a title

About the Gita itself or Adi Shankara's commentary?

The Bhagavad-Gita is one text of the 3-part prasthanatrayi that forms the basis of Vedanta. The Gita is regarded as being a summation of the important teachings of the Vedas condensed into one text.

All of the major Vedanta schools are based on interpreting the Vedic texts and in particular the prasthantrayi with the purpose of understanding the true meaning of them, with the various schools differing on whether the Vedas teach dualism, non-dualism etc.

The way to properly understand Vedanta other than through a qualified teacher is to read the prasthanatrayi accompanied by the commentaries of the main thinker of the Vedanta school of your choice, they also wrote some good non-commentary works.

Adi Shankara is one of the main thinkers in the non-dualistic Advaita school. He says in the beginning of the commentary that the Gita contains many important teachings but many lay people become confused by it so he wrote a commentary to help people understand the true meaning.

His commentary is just a series of explanations before and after each sloka talking about the meaning of the verse, it's relevance to other ones, the meaning of certain phrases, how it teaches non-duality etc.

I had already read Easwarans translation of the Bhagavad-Gita before but I am really glad I chose to read this. The translation of the Gita itself I think is better and the commentary is also very good. I feel like I'm understanding it better both in how it relates to non-dualism but also generally. His comments and explanations are really good overall and not just where it's talking about non-dualism.

It's a 5th or 4th century BC text commented on nearly a thousand years later by Adi Shankara in the 8th century AD which was translated into english in 1896 (at least my edition) or sometime similar late in the 19th century but despite all that the meaning is crystal clear and I get exactly his explanations and comments.

It's a pretty niche work and assumes you already have a decent understanding of Hinduism but if you are already familar and are interested in Advaita I'd definitely recommend it.

Thanks man, I'll check it out.
So far the BT is quite dope but beyond my understanding, I guess, since I'm clueless both in experience and theory of the tradition. It seems so colorful, eccentric and more ritualistic than the rest.