Religion and Spirituality

Veeky Forums, I have no religious faith or belief but I am interested in understanding other ways of looking at the world. In order to gain the best understanding, I ideally want the 'best' versions of texts for the following areas e.g. non-sectarian, ecumenical and, for want of a better word, broad editions where possible:

The Bible (heard the NRSV is the best for my needs)
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (popular, but maybe not the best place to start.
The Quran (in English)
The Tanakh (or should I just stick with the Torah?)
Buddhism
Taoism
etc.

Help a faithless Veeky Forumsizen out?

>inb4 start with the greeks

The NSRV contains all of the canonical works which are Tanakh. Unless you want a specifically want an edition edited and translated by Jewish people for Jewish people, you'll be fine. The Jewish Study Bible is probably your best bet if you do want that, though.

t. a Jew

google "Frithjof Schuon"

he should be one of your pillars of guidance in understanding other religions and especially the underlying esoteric truth behind all of them.

read his books, also his essays; he was friends with Guenon and other high tier religious thinkers

I'll go with the NRSV and Jewish Study Bible, thank you!

Never heard of him. He sounds interesting. Is there a definitively good place to start? Googling it, I see Art from the Sacred to the Profane: East and West, The Essential Frithjof Schuon and The Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon.

Hijacking this thread,

Has anyone read pic related?
It's a supposed to cover a wide variety of ancient spiritual movements and ideas
Looking for feedback before pulling the trigger

Read The Perennial Philosophy and The Outsider.
Then you'll be in a good place to dive into whatever primary texts you like.

Also Tao Te Ching >>> the rest.

I have it and have skimmed it. Looks very interesting but I definitely wouldn't start with it, it's more of an inventive work than an actual piece of scholarship. Ideas are cool but there's no way to tell which ones he's actually found and which one's he's just making up.
Again, The Perennial Philosophy is the book you want.

>I have no religious faith

I second The Perennial Philosophy. People have lost faith in mysticism because we no longer have wise sages who can see God, but I think there are reasons for that.

>google "Frithjof Schuon"

Isn't it a great shame that the pictures that used to turn up when you googled his name no longer turn up.

I'm talking about the ones where old Fritz is in the n00d save a Native American headdress, sporting an erection and surrounded by scantily clad and equally n00d Pocahontas impersonators.

You know the ones, right?

...

>we no longer have wise sages who can see God
They've been around, but you gotta know what to look for.

Some names you might find interesting

>Rudolph Steiner
>Theun Mares
>Lujan Matus
>Madame Blavatsky
>G.I. Gurdjieff

Most esoteric/occult types are suspect as hell, but you can't go wrong with those IMO. It's the good stuff.

Adding those to the list, thank you. Isn't the TTC damn near impossible to translate?

ebin.

Thanks for this.

>Steiner
I've seen that name around a lot.

Don't get the JPS version of the Tanakh!

Also there's literally no reason to read the Bhagavad Gita if you're going to read any version (abridged or otherwise) of the Mahabharata.

>Don't get a highly respected translation of a jewish text translated by jewish scholars
>Read an abridged version of the Bhagavad Gita

...

The Addiss and Lombardo translation of the Tao Te Ching is very good, and very open about the difficulty of the translation. Highly recommend it.

leftycuck jewdoras detected

Thank you!

Who wrote The Outsider?

Anyone here read Karl Barth? I'm interested in reading his first book but his other working is intimidatingly long. Curious if anyone dipped into it at all.

Colin Wilson

>Steiner
hack

>Blavatsky
>Gurdjieff
double hacks

The Theosophical Society are all late 19th century swindlers. Do not read. The whole esotericism movement in general is just an exotic simulacra of real theological systems, fueled by adolescent contrarianism and imagination. You'd be better off building a system using D&D books.