Best books on Buddhism or Indian Philosophy in general

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scribd.com/doc/218160907/The-Art-of-Nakedness-Bearing-it-all-for-the-single-nature-of-mind-a-look-at-Buddhist-salvation
webdelprofesor.ula.ve/humanidades/elicap/en/uploads/Biblioteca/bdz-e.version.pdf
terebess.hu/zen/szoto/EncBuddh.pdf
dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/BuddhistRomanticism151231.pdf
accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/jhananumbers.html
dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/TheParadoxOfBecoming.pdf
santipada.org/aswiftpairofmessengers/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/A_Swift_Pair_of_Messengers_Bhikkhu_Sujato.pdf
studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/lam-rim/the-five-paths-to-liberation-enlightenment/the-five-paths
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

From a Western perspective, I've always loved Watts, but my hunch is that Veeky Forums will shit on him.

I want my spiritual lessons in an entertainment format, though.

Buddhism Plain & Simple by Steve Hagen, an American Zen master. I read it just recently and it blew my mind.

Upaniṣads by Patrick Olivelle

Watts a good place to start with him? I've always been curious, but he's got a lot of stuff...

Watts is terrible. He fucked up Buddhism and turned into the castrated therapy bs it is today. He wasn't even a Buddhist.

Ignore him.

Buddhism as it spread to east asia was already heavily syncretized with Hellenic philosophy, and was really just mysticised stoicism.

Buddhism has a great impact and effect on the German tradition of philosophy.

That's where the concept of a lack of self and the concept of "nothingness" came from influencing Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and even Hegel. People who read philosophy are not sensitive to these inflections because they do not read "Eastern" literature.

Do not read "about" Buddhism. Read the actual Buddhist canon. It's pretty obvious that is where you would want to start.

>trying to be a protestant buddhist

If you want to understand Buddhism, it's rather clear that you need to read the Buddhist texts rather than the works of other scholars on the subject. There's much nonsense that is pervaded.

Read the sources directly.

Julius Evola - The Doctrine of Awakening
George Grimm - The Doctrine of the Buddha
Mark Siderits - Buddhism as Philosophy

>Evola

The above is exactly why I also suggest you begin with the Buddhist canon instead of the works of Western scholars.

An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon - Edited by Bhikku Bodhi

Have you read the book and have a valid criticism of it, or are you just imagining what it is like based on what you have heard about Evola? It is a very lucid book, and the reason I always suggest it first is because it acts like a vaccine against all the nonsense of the modernized versions of Buddhism marketed for westerners.

>begin with the Buddhist canon instead of the works of Western scholars

The original texts have their place, but it's unlikely that he will get the right idea if he starts with them. The advantage of reading secondary works is that they can give you an overview that you couldn't possibly synthesize yourself (because of the sheer volume of works to study and crosslink, possible misinterpretations due to ignorance of the language and the culture, etc.).

Think of the difference between people who have just read Plato's Republic and people who have studied ancient philosophy at university and were forced to also read secondary works that clarify all the points with explanations of how the verb "be" worked in ancient Greek, what kind cultural/political situation Plato was answering to, etc.

>all the nonsense of the modernized versions of Buddhism marketed for westerners.

I completely agree with your criticism here, but you cannot trust secondary sources. I have a tonne of issues with them and the opinions, misinformation and bias. It's like learning Buddhism through the German idealists or pessimists, there are too many problems and they'll have you think that Buddhism is a form of negative dialectics.

I get your sentiment though, and now that I think of it, you may be on the right track. You need to destroy people's Western romanticizations towards Buddhism so that they can finally be able to learn it more for what it actually is.

Evola, although I personally hate him, may do just that.

Zen at War

from a western perspective watts also became an alcoholic because he didn't receive the acclaim that he wanted so bad.
>evola
go to /x/

>Implying that letting intelligent people parse the texts is invalid. As long as you're not getting pop-spirtuality books you'll probably do well to start with books or even lectures from professors and academics. Getting historical context is always a big plus when studying a religion.

As long as you get around to reading the texts yourself :P

No he didn't fall for the Buddhist meme.

Wisdom of Insecurity is a good start.

Essential Eastern texts. Secondary literature denoted with an asterisk (*). Secondary literature can be read before or after primary texts, depending on preference.


For Hinduism:
The Upanishads
The Baghavad Gita
The Rig Veda
The Essentials of Hinduism*
The Crest Jewel of Wisdom*
The Life Divine*

For Yoga:
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Yoga: Immortality and Freedom*
Yoga for Yahoos*

For Theravada:
In The Buddha's Words
Mindfulness in Plain English*
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha*

For Mahayana:
The Heart Sutra
The Lotus Sutra
The Diamond Sutra
The Lankavatara Sutra
Nagarjuna's Middle Way*
Dogen's Shobogenzo*
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones*

Vajrayana:
Indo-Tibetan Buddhism*
Flight of the Garuda*
Tantra: Path of Ecstasy*

We did this thread yesterday.

What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula. The single best introductory text.

>Upaniṣads by Patrick Olivelle

Did you read it? I already have The Principal Upanishads by S. Radhakrishnan in my cart on Amazon. Which one would you advise for a total novice but who does have a clue about some of the Hindu/Eastern main ideologies.

>The Principal Upanishads by S. Radhakrishnan
Welp, you are getting some deluxe book there, more Upaniṣads, and a detailed introduction that was republished and translated by itself.

Get it.

Master Dogen - Shobo Genzo

>Dude just read this mountain of translated 2000yo books from the other side of the world it'll make total sense
>Don't worry even if you're still a shitstain after you'll be able to do citations show your genitals are bigger because They don't understand the true Teachings™

thanks, I really don't know much about this stuff. Your list seems comprehensive.

Posted on another thread as a good introduction:

Stilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings from Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence -Alan Wallace

The Seven-Point Mind Training: A Tibetan Method For Cultivating Mind And Heart by B. Alan Wallace

scribd.com/doc/218160907/The-Art-of-Nakedness-Bearing-it-all-for-the-single-nature-of-mind-a-look-at-Buddhist-salvation

webdelprofesor.ula.ve/humanidades/elicap/en/uploads/Biblioteca/bdz-e.version.pdf

terebess.hu/zen/szoto/EncBuddh.pdf

Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka: A Philosophical Introduction -Jan Westerhoff

The Foundations of Buddhism-Rupert Gethin

Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction by Richard H. Robinson

Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition by Prof. Paul Williams

Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree by Prof. Roger Corless

Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations by Prof. Paul Williams

Gateway to Knowledge: v. 3: The Mahayana Journey by Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche

Nagarjuna's Letter to King Gautamiputra -Peter D. Santina & Lozang Jamspal (was used an a Mahayana primer in ancient India)

dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/BuddhistRomanticism151231.pdf

accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/jhananumbers.html

dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/TheParadoxOfBecoming.pdf

santipada.org/aswiftpairofmessengers/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/A_Swift_Pair_of_Messengers_Bhikkhu_Sujato.pdf

studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/lam-rim/the-five-paths-to-liberation-enlightenment/the-five-paths

Alan Wallace's Attention Revolution

The Heart of Meditation: Discovering Innermost Awareness -HHDL

Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment-HHDL

lluminating the Path to Enlightenment: A Commentary on Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana's A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment and Lama Je Tsong Khapa's Lines of Experience -HHDL

Buddhism In Tibet Book -Emil Schlaginteweit

Tsong-kha-pa's Final Exposition of Wisdom -Jeffrey Hopkins

You have to be kidding.

You have countless texts from different schools of thought from different countries in different languages from different time periods having different debates and using terms and concepts in often fundamentally different ways but sure...so easy to pick up as an amateur.

Not only will you miss most of the references, but you are likely to misunderstand phrases and references common to that era and location that if just read literally will just give you the wrong impression. This is exactly how people manage to mistake phenomenology as metaphysical idealism etc., etc.

Best to humble yourself and have faith in the traditions and the secular Buddhologists. They know a shit ton more than you do and most of the traditions and the secular scholars recommend you start with commentaries and other secondary works, and there is damn good reason for this.

Which cannon though and why? The Theravada Tripitaka is pretty late on the scene, so late that several modern scholars argue Theravada can't be considered Hinayana because emerged so much later than those texts. It has the least depth and nuance and is easiest to approach, but it also is like 11,000 pages and currently poorly organized with still a lot of critical disputes on translations for something like 30% of it. Including some very controversial moves that the Pali Text Society has made (a clear example being with atammayata).

> I have a tonne of issues with them and the opinions, misinformation and bias.

On the whole they are far less prone to unsupported opinions, misinformation, and bias than a rank amateur. When taken together they clear up most limitations of this or that author.

> It's like learning Buddhism through the German idealists or pessimists

No, it really isn't. This isn't the 80s and Buddhology has matured by leaps and bounds.

>Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha*

You have got to be kidding me, what a terrible fucking choice.