/lit/ - Literature

Visit your local coffee shop and ask the hipsters there for the best books on Zen Buddhism.

Watch the 1979 version of Monkey Magic.

>>1483942
Of course! Because it's impossible to study seriously Eastern philosophy -- or anything for that matter -- and not just ironically.

Buy a book of koans, reading a guide or intro to Zen is kind of anti-Zen.

Alan Watts is a well respected Westerner involved in the Buddhist tradition. John Cabot-Zinn (sp?) is also well known.

>>1483951
I've always been of the opinion that organised Buddhism is anti-Buddhist.

>>1483968
>implying the Buddha did not oversee the first Buddhist monasteries and organized sects

>>1483968
Isn't the Sangha, the community, a part of the triple gem though?

>>1483992

Yes is it.

To the OP, I suggest you find a Sangha, and go sit with them.

I started attending a local meditation sangha in November and love it. Go 2 - 3 times a week for sits. Theravada Buddhism, I don't know much about zen.

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.

>>1484029
Get the fuck out, Tao.

>>1484032

Truthful words are not beautiful.
Beautiful words are not truthful.
Good men do not argue.
Those who argue are not good.
Those who know are not learned.
The learned do not know.

The sage never tries to store things up.
The more he does for others, the more he has.
The more he gives to others, the greater his abundance.
The Tao of heaven is pointed but does not harm.
The Tao of the sage is work without effort.

>>1484041

Tao words are not Zen words. Also, your translation is pretty crappy.

>>1483964
This. What I've read of Watts' work is truly great. I'm average intelligence so I tend to struggle with philosophy. Watts writes in a way that makes an average westerner easily able to understand his message, without it being insultingly dumbed down.

>>1483949
>zen buddhism
>serious
hehe, enjoy your corrupted shit philosophy

>>1484110
Listen Taiga, you sound like a bitch. But I usually only judge people based on appearance. Post a picture of yourself.

>>1484112
He just did.

>>1484112

>>1484082

"No one has done better in conveying Lao Tsu's simple and laconic style of writing, so as to produce an English version almost as suggestive of the man means intended. This is almost useful, as well as beautiful, volume -- and what is has to say is exactly what the world , in its present state, needs to hear."

-- Alan Watts (From the back of one of my translation copies)


So buddy, whats a better translation?

>>1484082

Also: here's a nice little Zen Koan that came with my Zafu and Zabutan.


The Human Route

Coming empty-handed, going empty handed - that is human.
When you are born, where do you come from?
When you die, where do you go?
Life is like a floating cloud which appears.
Death is like a floating cloud which disappears.
The floating cloud itself originally does not exist.
Life and death, coming and going, are also like this.
But there is one thing which always remains clear.
It is pure and clear, not depending on life and death.

What, then, is the one pure and clear thing?