/lit/ - Literature

if a book cqan inprove ur life ur life wasnt meant 2 b good from duh start

American Psycho

>>19157023
The Last Battle- C.S Lewis.

>>19157023
Unironically the complete works of Plato gave me a completely different perspective on life

The Long Walk by Stephen King. Most memorable King novel I've read.

I never read a book or saw a movie/tv show that would change my life in any way. I honestly can't even comprehend how that can happen, the closest I've gotten to this was when I read some books about politics but it didn't really transform my life, just gave me more perspective

>>19157023
The Holy Bible

bible

Robert Monroe trilogy
>inb4 schizo

>>19157023
I guess that would be The Phantom Tollbooth, it hooked me on reading way back in 4th grade.

>>19157045
Could you show an example what changed?

>>19157095
>>19157104
This. I will also add specifically John and Paul.

Improvisation and the Theater

this was a primer for me into understanding post-truth, and led me down semiotics and miscellaneous erudite breadcrumbs eco laid out which acted as further threads to be unraveled. i filter a lot of modern hysteria through the lens of this book

THE NEW TESTAMENT

>>19157023
>improved your life
nice joke

The Tartar Steppe

>>19157211
>pedophile's pendulum

>>19157023
Gorilla Mind

>>19157068
Only good post
/thread

>>19157378
different foucault, dumbass

>Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault and conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation.

>>19157023
The Bible.

>>19157375
Care to elaborate?

Caution: thread is full of NPCs, as signalled by short responses containing their favorite book without elaborating why or how it improved their life. I guarantee you if you ask them specifics, most of them will not have coherent response, since their programming only goes so far as to post the book title.
It's ironic how people who mold their identity about being a reader are the ones with the least to say.

>>19157375
based

Nicomachean Ethics.
It greatly improved the way I think,

>>19157496
2nd only good post
>>19157573
3rd only good post

/thread

gorilla mindset

>>19157023
The Holy Qu'ran.

>>19157573
>Caution: thread is full of NPCs, as signalled by short responses containing their favorite book without elaborating why or how it improved their life. I guarantee you if you ask them specifics, most of them will not have coherent response, since their programming only goes so far as to post the book title.
>It's ironic how people who mold their identity about being a reader are the ones with the least to say.

>>19157023
Meditations - Made me realise that I'll die eventually. No matter what I do, I will die and become nothing. This has negatively impacted me in some ways. I used to be a lot more positive, but now when positive times come along I just remember that I, and all the people I had that fun positive time with, will die. But it started me on this journey of questioning life, and that really was the best thing I have ever received in this life so far.

Keuroacs, Celines, and political leaders autobiographies also gave me a greater insight on how society and peoples minds work, which is honestly all I want to understand in life.
I'm excited to know what comes next as well. I just hate picking up trash books.

If you want to improve your life, read self-help, the genre dedicated exactly to that. I don't know why people think going through obscure philosophy books will somehow improve their life, the books are not about that. Spending time on obscure philosophy and fiction will make you more knowledgeable in philosophy and fiction, that rarely translates to life skills, and there's no reason to expect they will.
Some good self-help books to start:
- Scott Adams' How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
If you haven't read them yet, and you're anywhere close to the average person, there's a very good chance they will improve your life because that's what they're meant to do and that's why they're so popular. After that, you'd have to be a bit more specific. What exactly about your life do you want to see improved? There probably is a book for that.

Leaves of Grass, specifically the part "A song of myself"

>>19157684
>If you want to improve your life, read self-help, the genre dedicated exactly to that. I don't know why people think going through obscure philosophy books will somehow improve their life, the books are not about that.
holy fucking shit, this. All these self improvement retards are like "if you're a depressed young person, do powerlifting, read the Greeks and Nietzsche". You're not some exceptional 1 in a million deep thinker whose soul is crushed by the most burdensome questions of existence, you're a regular person who needs regular help.

You are Not a Rock (mostly because i was extremely OCD brained)

>>19157023
Michel the Montaigne's essays, Seneca's Letters to Lucilious unironically helped me a lot overcoming anxiety (alongside therapy) and lately Miguel de Unamuno's Life of Don Quixote and Sancho has helped me try to be more daring and put myself out there in more uncomfortable situations.

>>19157023

>>19157023
Unironically the Bible. Most of my anxiety disappeared and I've been able to talk to people and now I have a job and things are looking up.

>>19157821
reading it right now. tell me, is the p&v translation good?

>>19157023
None. Weightlifting and fasting did though. Action over inaction.

>>19157869
what passage inspired you the most, anon?

>>19157869
keep it up anon!

>>19157573
>It's ironic how people who mold their identity about being a reader are the ones with the least to say.
It's actually the opposite.

>>19157375
Just picked this up, looking forward to reading it

>>19157375
Don't read if you have depression.

>>19157131
I liked the books but frankly nothing tells me it isn't just delusion. His stance on belief systems was interesting but his experiences remain personal.

>>19157916
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

>>19157068
>>19157496
>>19157573
>>19157599

Glowies.

Unironically? No more Mr Nice guy.
Made me realize how much I put up with just because I thought there was nothing else, broke up with my GF because I wasn't happy with her.

The Bible but it also kinda brought out more autism about the endless curiosity of never knowing how much scripture and manuscripts were lost, removed, and hidden for "reasons"

>>19157023
My diary tho

>>19157820
Don't suppose you have a link to the Unamuno essay in English? I'm obsessed with DQ

I thought Thus Spake Zarathustra had changed my life when I was 21, and maybe it did in some way for a few weeks, but the glow wore off like it always does.

>>19158546
I've read this countless times before but never found it as moving as just now. Life is beautiful sometimes :(

>>19157023
This trilogy. I assume it isn't talked about more because people assume it is "magic" and therefor cringe. What is meant by "magic" in this context isn't what you think. Rather, it is an active, heroic overcoming of the human condition; the practice and knowledge of the esoteric sciences of ancient Western Royal and noble castes. It is the answer to the dead-ends of profane philosophy, similar but superior to Stoicism, Nietzsche, and Stirner, off the top of my head. It isn't "occultism" for LARPing trannies, in fact it makes them seethe. I see people saying "this or that philosophy wore off after a while," this is completely different and will change your life if you take it seriously. At least in my experience. Non-whites and trannies need not apply.

Also in some ways very similar to Tibetan Buddhism, funnily enough.

>>19159217
Also forgot to add that left wing subhumans can stick to new-age african youtubers instead of authentic spirituality as practiced in antiquity.

>>19159217
I've read this and didn't get much out of it. It's just another treatise on esoteric practice, along the lines of Bardon but more well-researched and well written. It did, definitely, wear off after a while as I moved on from esotericism as a whole.

>Robs a milk factory
>Refuses to elaborate further
>Leaves

>>19157023
Umineko visual novel

>>19159265
Yes, I should have mentioned these 3 books need to be studied and practiced rigorously, otherwise you will not get much more out of it than other "occult" books. It isn't something you read once and move on from. Read through it, or just read the first few chapters, practice, re-read and over time more of it will become clear, such as the perplexing symbolism and allusions to certain things which are easily brushed over in a first or even 3rd reading. Ideally practice daily, or at least multiple times a week. Some chapters are more important than others, I'm not saying read each book front to back 10 times. Keep in mind there are 3, which are meant as a set. The other 2 also have information which I found crucial and I think it is absurd they were published in English years or over a decade apart.

Franz Bardon and other occultists are not even comparable imo. These books are the truth, if you dig deep enough you will find high-level underground Rosicrucians who will recommend Evola's work on Hermeticism and the Ur writings. Not fucking Franz Bardon lmao.

>>19159161
>I thought Thus Spake Zarathustra had changed my life when I was 21, and maybe it did in some way for a few weeks
"It is no easy task to understand unfamiliar blood; I hate the reading idlers.
He who knoweth the reader, doeth nothing more for the reader. Another century of readers—and spirit itself will stink.
Every one being allowed to learn to read, ruineth in the long run not only writing but also thinking.
Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it even becometh populace.
He that writeth in blood and proverbs doth not want to be read, but learnt by heart.
In the mountains the shortest way is from peak to peak, but for that route thou must have long legs. Proverbs should be peaks, and those spoken to should be big and tall."

"Slow is the experience of all deep fountains: long have they to wait until they know what hath fallen into their depths."

>>19157646
>Keuroacs, Celines, and political leaders autobiographies also gave me a greater insight on how society and peoples minds work
I find this fascinating as well. Any recs?

>>19157684
Why read a self help book when you can just get the main points from wikipedia?

>>19159332
True Hermeticism is unironically 200+ IQ, it goes way over the heads of almost everyone, very few people understand what it truly is. Hence Evola once again is absolutely correct in identifying it with an aristocracy. If you don't believe me, read that book and try to make sense of it, then try to read the medieval Hermetic-alchemical texts to test yourself.

>>19159357
self help is inherently fascist

>>19157023
Fuck you nigger

>>19159332
No, I know that. I used to have such a practice. In the end I got disillusioned with it all, I don't think that's where the truth lies. Just my opinion though.
I mentioned Bardon because his series is in the same vein as ITM, it's just much more shallow (bastardized hermeticism instead of the Ur group's more rigorous scholarship) and much more practical.
It's just not for me, though.

>>19157068
t.Someone who brags about reading 500 pages a day without actually understanding any of it.

>>19159388
Alright you seem to get it. I am assuming you didn't see many results then...how long did you practice for? The end goal of this is the same as the end goal of all other initiation properly understood, being the reintegration of man into the primordial state, the same definition Guenon gives for the "Lesser Mysteries" I believe.

>>19157023
The one that changed my life the most was The Hobbit because it got me into reading novels, or maybe The Lathe of Heaven because it got me into reading more serious (if not exactly grounded) novels and also sci-fi. It went way over my head at the age of 9 though, I should read it again.
The one that made me the happiest would've been either The Hobbit or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, just because I had fuck all going right in my life when I was in my early teens when I read Fisherman.
I'm not that religious now but I think the Bible did improve my life some, both when I was more religious and now. I saw some concrete examples of mysticism that were fun as well as how grounded religion can be which helps me feel connected to it and respect it, and I got good advice, most of all from Jesus. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a hippy but I really do believe he intended for us to be peaceful and loving above all else and that most people somehow don't grasp that, probably because they haven't actually read the gospel or haven't read it on their own.

>>19159220
Oh the irony.

>>19158546
That's all good and well but it does nothing to stop evil men from thinking of material things and thinking of tomorrow, using this to accrue power, then exerting it over you and your countrymen.
>but they will go to Hell and I will go to Heaven
Letting evil prevail is itself evil; are you still so certain you will go to Heaven if you do not fight?

>>19157023

>>19157375
I just quit this book. I love Un Amore, but couldn't make it through this.

>>19159526
Why are judging and condemning others, when you know for a fact that you are no better?

“In order to find the world’s greatest evil, I have to look no further than my own heart.”
-an Athonite Elder

A Christian’s responsibility is to God, to first of all fight the demons within, once conquered will automatically flee.

>Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

>>19159425
All things considered I practiced for about a year. It's not that I got zero results, I just stopped believing it was a worthwhile path (for me). I don't really believe in esoteric knowledge anymore, I suppose I'm what the Traditionalists would call a sarkic man, a spiritual dalit or whatever else. I'm fine with it, I have no doubt this path is ideal for some.

>>19159578
Don't quote that verse at me, I know it well. I've already cast the beam out of my eye. Even if you think I haven't (which is not trivial to presume), some things are too large and too obviously bad to say "well I mustn't throw stones, live and let live". I may not be an inherently better person than the rich and the politicians and the backwards-ass influencers but I am more grounded and moral than many of them, and I suspect you are too.
I'm not saying kill them or even hurt them. I'm this anon >>19159500 and I believe in love, but I also believe that conflict is often necessary- it should be kept to verbal conflict when possible, and economic conflict after that. As much as I tolerate, I still cannot afford to tolerate those who don't tolerate me, the same is true of you and all of us.

>>19157684
t. subhuman bugman who has no interest in the profound questions in life and cares more about general tips on earning money so you can have sex with whores than in spiritual plenitude

>>19159524
If you think Evola is new age you should go back to huffing gas and chewing duct tape, you dumb abbo.

>>19157869
new testament, old testament or both?

>>19159357
Because the books are more persuasive, contain much more tips and strategies on how to implement the main points, and in general go into much more depth.
It's the same as why you read other books rather than just their cliffnotes.
>>19159796
Self-help books include books on how to achieve spiritual plenitude.
Nobody's saying that you shouldn't read anything but self-help, that's just a broken carricature you've created in your mind. All I'm saying is that if you want to read books to improve your life, you should read self-help, because that's what the books are for.

>>19157023
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

>>19157023
That schoolbook in 4th grade that taught me english

>>19157023

>>19160545
fill me in

>>19160521
Fuck you nigger

Robert A Johnson's She/He/We.

They are beautiful little books that helped me see the humbling elegance of the psyche and the self.

>>19160597
It's okay bro

>>19159217
>Practical Techniques for the Magus
holy cringe..

>>19159681
>humility
I appreciate that. Forgive me if sounded hostile. I really do not believe that conflict is natural. All negativity is due to our fallen state, and our true nature and purpose is to live in paradise with God like Adam before the fall. At least according to an overwhelming number of Christian theologians and is my personal view as well.

>>19159332
What was the use of all that to you?

>>19157023
Probably my boyscout handbook

The unabomber manifesto, I thought it was the deepest shit ever when I was sixteen and it got me into philosophy

>>19157023
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin.

A pleasant read that made me optimistic for the future of young authors.

>>19159406
so tell me which book changed your life, let's see if I simply didn't understand it :)

>>19159796
>t. subhuman bugman who has no interest in the profound questions in life
that's 99% of people, probably including you, even if you don't realize it
>bro but i think about death like it's so deep we're like animals with no meaning holy shit bro I can truly relate to nietzsche now

>>19157023
No media has ever changed my life by itself, everything belongs to the same contigent, correlative chain of events. But if you're asking about which book I think about most often, which one who's content I recall more than any other and which might have influenced future decisions, that would be the world as will and representation.

>>19159155
I've been looking all over for it, but I haven't had much luck in finding it for free. You could buy online for less than 10$, if that's an option for you. I highly recommend you read it; it has changed my view on Don Quixote in many ways. To a certain degree, I'd say that I prefer Unamuno's Don Quixote to Cervantes's.

>>19157800
insect

>>19162246
Gravity's Rainbow

>>19157139
Extremely based

>>19157023
I took the Green Pill =]

>>19164602
This book is recommended as an intro to green pill /x/ shit but I found it to be the opposite, RAW spends the entire book deconstructing everything and by the end you realize how all belief systems are arbitrary bullshit

Christian anons:

How do you know which denomination is correct?
>Just pick one lol
But they each say you will go to Hell if you aren't in their little group/follow their beliefs
>Ok, just ask the Holy Spirit
But Catholics, Prot, East Orth, etc said that also and they are all still divided

Also, how the fuck am i supposed to know whether to read the Bible with or without the removed books (Maccabees for example)?
>Include them
Then all the bible contradicts itself and just sounds kind of like a cult

Indulgences for example just icks me out and just doesn't sound like something Jesus would agree with. Also, i know some Catholics who believe you need to physically to to a local church and confess you sins every time to be saved, why can't i just confess them to Jesus with sincerity? Isn't He everywhere? It just reminds me of how Jesus said physical temples aren't needed to be in the presence of God.

I just do not know anymore.

>>19164679
Yep! No better way to get into esoterica. You need that immunization. Just visit one of those christian threads and see what happens to people who get into mysticism without the guerrilla ontology booster shot.

>>19164700
It made me take the opposite path honestly, I used to be heavily into esotericism and occultism then I read Prometheus Rising and I couldn't buy into anything anymore.

>>19164733
That's not a bad attitude! If life without esotericism is working for you, then perfect!
I suppose for some of us, we still see value in pursuing some of these esoteric practices because they have to do with our goals. The difference is now, I don't get lost in them. I take them for what they are worth, I don't get trapped by word salads and charm. I take what works and I dump what doesn't. That's been the real gift of RAW, for me. I suppose a snaky person might just call this "skepticism", Donno how to convince them it's much more.. Just gotta read the book!

>>19164880
>they have to do with our goals.
What are your goals?
As for convincing others, don't bother. Most people love their dogmatism

>>19164935
I want to do some healing and potential actualization.

>>19164965
Best of luck then.

>>19159217
Yeah I've been slowly cracking into the beginning of that one and it has already really changed significantly the way I carry myself. Knowledge of the Waters, Concentration and Silence, and The Nature Of Initiatic Knowledge are my favorite chapters so far.

As someone with a background in Astrology, having maguses teach me the more intimate significations of each element within the conscious being has made a rather profound science with static charts, a million intricacies and the occasional event IRL, into a literal way of experiencing things where I "Use" and "Refuse" the elements. Partially overcoming the waters and refusing their subtle influence has given me a less irratic conduct and a more immutable disposition. Being taught of the primacy of fire over water has proven very helpful in handling my responsibilities and subjugating my yearings and pains which would always peril my endeavors before. This is what I learned in Knowledge Of The Waters.

With Concentration and Silence I learned the power of experiential differentiative power and the power of silence and secret for honing every effort. When one babbles on or carelessly mingles with a crowd they dilute and disperse their experiential energy which would otherwise remain intact within themselves. Speaking of the interiorities of things is like pouring out the contents of a bottle in varying degrees, what is also occurrent here is that each person may only fill their bottle with their own "fluid" unless initiated in the same rank of the same sect so you're essentially just dumping it out only for it to drip off of them, this applies even when nobody else is present. The teaching of Concentration too was powerful and important for the purposes of honing the disciplines required of experience. Before I had a stirring mind and a few focusing exercises helped me such as focusing on or depicting the ground in all it'd simple rigidity as I took my daily walks. I had some notable mental faitigue in my efforts as it was more than simply viewing. I thought I had likely wasted my time until I came inside and looked around and began tasks and my focus was threefold strong and pure on anything I looked at or thought about and reading was a breeze.

The Nature of Initiatic Knowledge was one I'd heard and read before getting the book and it initially turned me onto Evola because he defeats science and philosophy by pointing out thay they are merely external(in regards to consciousness) relational constructions and entirely neglected a direct perception and conception of the substance of consciousness and it's transformation and use.

Materialist bugmen without the slightest patience or curiosity won't attempt to understand works like these let alone take the time to even read them and get mercilessly filtered as they should.

Spinoza's Ethics. This book made me reflect on how should I live my life.

>>19165088
Regarding your last point, you know it's possible to engage with these works in earnest and still disagree and disregard them, yes?

>>19157023
SELF HELP KINO

The Ultramind Solution by Mark Hyman: This book goes into lifestyle and nutritional advice on how to improve your energy and mood among other things. I've seem many people, even ones who already eat well, say it massively boosted their energy or reduced symptoms of lack of focus or depression.

The Way of the Superior Man: This book has a lot of practical advice but overall presents a great philosophy on how to view yourself as a man.

Psycho-Cybernetics: This book is dense with life changing information and really helps create a core change in your image of yourself.

The Mind Illuminated: This book explains the Buddhist meditation path in an extremely detailed and secular way from beginner to advanced.

>>19165116
Of course, but the potential values in consciousness cannot be overlooked and materialists make the folly if rejecting it into their apex idea.

That last part was simply the truth. Why even live if only to yearn endlessly and confusedly, refusing to overcome and subjugate your human condition?

>>19157095
>t. doesn't understand what nihilism is and why its a problem

>>19157023
Atomic attraction
How to be a 3% man
Denial of death
The adapted mind

>>19165158
>Why even live if only to yearn endlessly and confusedly, refusing to overcome and subjugate your human condition?
This is the perspective given by Evola (well, Traditionalism), it's biased when seen from other perspectives, I don't feel compelled to believe I'm wasting my life if I'm not engaging in esoteric praxis; according to Traditionalists, this condemns me to recycling, spiritual death and annihilation, but I don't share those beliefs.
I'm not a materialist (pretty much the opposite) but I think the systematic disregard of all people who reject esotericism as materialist NPCs is counter productive

>>19161174
Based and Eaglepilled

>>19165185
Let me ask, Why is being "half right", or "half victorious" good enough for you?

Ponder it please.

>>19165167
Explain nihilism to us (:

>>19165207
Why do you assume it is, or that I operate according to the same assumptions as you do? I disregard Traditionalist axioms the same way I disregard physicalistic axioms.

>>19165228
Well if the discussion has truly lead to "why don't you believe [x]" I think it's best we not try to convince eachother and just agree to disagree in our essential reference points

>>19165245
I mean, you asked. My original post was just because the hylic vs esotericist dichotomy where you have to be on one team or the other on here is irritating and stupid.

>>19157023
I havent read much since im still a novice but so far Complete works of Plato. Havent even finished but started tearing up reading Phaedo

>>19157595
>It greatly improved the way I think
how exactly?

>>19157023
Wouldn't say they improved my life, but Meditations and Capital certainly changed my perspective on things.

>>19157023

>>19158546
>For after all these things do the Gentiles seek
what's with this generalization and comparing gentiles to bad people?

>>19165267
faggot

>>19157604
This for me.

>>19157023
"EasyPeasy Method"

Many thanks to the anons who have recommended it.

>>19164691
Orthodox

>>19157646
>>19159342
>Keuroacs, Celines, and political leaders autobiographies also gave me a greater insight on how society and peoples minds work
You motherfuckers NEED to read Malcolm X's autobio. Leave your previously conceived notions at the door and just enjoy it, his life was pure kino from beginning to end.

>>19157023
The Unique and Its property. I had always felt similar to Stirner about the world around me and myself, but was surrounded by far too many mind pollutants and lacked the power to say what I felt. After reading the tome of this corpse, I finally was able to presuppose myself rather than presupposing thoughts. I finally took ownership of my self.

>>19159556
Because of how depressing it is or for other reasons?

>>19157025
did dis dude just did dis. what da dog doin.

>>19157023
Wasn't just one book but the Author's style and prose that helped me realize what I needed and didn't need in my life.

>>19157023
Bible. More specifically Proverbs, Judges and New Testament.

>>19159161
>the glow wore off like it always does.
This truth hurts. Only a very small amount of people can actually change themselves.

All the expected books itt. Really good thread on account of anons actually elaborating on their choices. Comfy /lit/ is back.

Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. It made me realize that self-image is the key to everything. Change your self-image and you will have goals, direction in your life and discipline, motivation to follow through. It is a very light read, full of anecdotes from author's personal life.
>but... did it really improve your life?
It did. When I first picked up this book I was an average junior engineering student. In my senior year I got straight As and made ton of friends, despite working part time as a tutor. It also made me much better teacher. I started tapping into my students' self-image. I pushed them to imagine themselves as engineers, doctors and scientists, made them visualize and it gave them a motivation and resilience to study and dig deep. It works like magic. It also made me better communicator. I learned how to cuddle people's self-image and how not to hurt them by distracting their self-image. This book is not deep enough, it should be called intro to self-image, but implications are powerful and you can seek more ways to work with self-image on your own. Oh, also, Psycho-Cybernetics provided me with a great technique for relaxing. You want to feel better? Relax. Want to make an important decision? Relax. Want to have another perspective? Relax. The technique is also very useful for meditation, because it involves active imagining (imagine yourself as a melting chocolate...).

Influence and Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini
Influence is the best book on communication, negotiation, influence and human behavior. It is highly recommended by several billionaires and taught in many business schools for a good reason. It works like charm. Pre-Suasion extends on similar notes. Seriously, every single person in the world will benefit from reading these books.

Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy. Living a good life made easy. This book is my bible, it serves me as a step-by-step manual to being a good human being, to having a right attitude in the harsh, immoral world. Beyond Tolstoy's take on politics, philosophy and views on essential questions, it is a book of having right mindset to live a correct life and in the end, that is the only that matters.

>>19157646
>I'll die eventually. No matter what I do, I will die and become nothing. This has negatively impacted me in some ways. I used to be a lot more positive, but now when positive times come along I just remember that I, and all the people I had that fun positive time with, will die.
Read Bhagavad Gita and realize that just because your body will die doesn't mean there isn't a reason to carry out your life.

https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/setting-the-scene
Read that^ first

then just hop right in:
https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/1

Don't worry about the commentary on the Gita, you can read that later. Just read the contents of it. It's pretty short as well, you could read it in a day easy. In fact, it can be recited in less than 3 hours! https://mega.nz/file/TnQyXSqZ#j4VkyaWNOzrv5OPo42Z8upyH2FOB62CsfXL1G1e9JJ8
Here is a beautiful reading of the Gita with some background information explained as well.

>>19166769
A lot of people seem to commend Psycho-Cybernetics, and I do believe that there's merit in the book, but I really can't be bothered to read it. Do you think if I just do the exercises that he suggests, I'll get the same result? I get the general gist of it

>>19166796
It is a light read and can change your life, can't you spend two days to read from core to core? It will work to some degree, but more important than exercises is to internalize the importance of self-image. You need to constantly visualize and self-talk to build up your self image and reflect to outside influences in a right way to protect it. I wish there was a better, deeper books on self-image, but I'm not aware of any.

>>19166858
Hmmm yea I guess I can just read it in one go, it's mostly anecdotes anyway. Thanks for the suggestion anon

>>19166769
I enjoyed that book as well, though it did bother me a bit when he took a lot of esp stuff seriously based on a few flawed studies.

>>19165340
I couldn't convince myself that I wasn't getting any pleasure from viewing porn.
I am obviously getting something out of it if I seek it out all the time. The better thing to do than to read easypeasy would be to think about it a little with a pen and paper.

>>19166793
Thank you so much for this anon. This book has come into my life so many times it's insane! But Ive never had time to read it.
First time I tried to read it, the plane trip was too short and I never got back to it. Second time a Normie friend brought it up in conversation. Then about a month ago a Hare Krishna came into my store and gave me a translation of the Bhagavad-Gita.
For some reason I just can't get into it. I hope your links help me.
Thank you!


>>19165430
I will give it a read. Thanks anon.

>>19159342
Ian Smith, the final leader of Rhodesia wrote a great book called 'the great betrayale.' It's an upsetting book, but it really gave me an insight over the amount of stress, especially in regards to international relations. I went into the book thinking it was /pol/ orientated, but it was very insightful and inspiring.
In the end, it was a very questionable situation that no one had an answer to.
It also helps you pin point exactly when the UK government started to be filled with cringe young boomer-orientated politics.

>>19157023
Unironically pic related.

>>19167568
Whoops, wrong pic.

Is there anybody here who doesn't read any depressive piece of literature that only gets you deeper into depression and fucks your brain up? Why shit your brain with some useless irrelevant for your literature? I'm screaming my ass out loud when I see anons who read philosophy and other garbage and claim it has changed them somehow. Damn, guys, I have an impression that you just fall for meme books that actually don't bring anything constructive and positive to your lives and you read the books that are just (((commonly accepted))) as good, decent, life-changing, etc. Prove me wrong

>>19157068
I don’t mean this in a pejorative way but just as you can’t fathom a movie or a book altering someone’s life I can’t comprehend how someone with a genuine love of literature could not have had their life altered in some way by something they’ve read
What sorts of books do you read, and how much do you read?

>>19168116
You lost me when you described philosophy as a whole as garbage, what a pretentious thing to say, and this is coming from someone who gravitates towards optimistic literature and absolutely detests quite a few beloved thinkers (Schopenhauer to name one)
What philosophers have you actually read? And what are you even asking to proven wrong about

>>19165167
This is such a gay 115 iq post, you are a insect in human skin

>>19157023
A few books have but the bible improved my life the most

>>19168116
Philosophy isn't depressing. Most cunts here begin to read philosophy in a depressed frame of mind. It only makes sense a person would begin to fall deeper into a depressed whole while they form all these concept ideas, never actually dealing with their depressive disorders.

>>19167574
looks legit good, will look up

>all this navel gazing
Pic related helped me the most throughout my life so far, alongside Negotiating Rationally by Bazerman and Neale.

>>19157095
Anon I really wish that all people who cannot get into a religious faith had the only obstacle of worldly addictions. This ironically seems to be the biased perspective of someone who's addicted himself. Sadly it is modernity itself that burns away your ability to get in touch with the spiritual. It's the dead end job routine, the asphalt and cars, the state of the society around you, the whore women, the idea that money truly is the only good thing and not a thing that only wicked people value, yes other people's materialistic nihilism hollows you out. In the past there used to be a consciousness that riches and pleasure were ultimately bad and dangerous things, and saints were held up because they reminded everyone of the things that mattered. Even if people failed to uphold these principles they would have this consciousness. Now there's no such thing anymore, if you try to tell people that worldly pleasures lead to entropy people go "omg let people enjoy things you bigot!" if you try to say that riches aren't everything you are envious, and you are an asshole for discouraging others who want to achieve success.
The reason why religion is largely dead is that there are simply no genuine religious communities left either, since the vast majority of Christians are just LARPers whose political stances dictate their religious identity and not the opposite
>but you can be a religious ascetic
Ascetics had a role, they felt they had a role themselves and the people also gave them a role. If you become an ascetic hermit today you're not an ascetic, you're hobo with a Bible.
Consoomer culture, namely porn, is a cancer but the issues is far larger. Also if you are on 4chan you're a failed Christian to begin with. This place is a den of disgusting degenerates no matter where you look.

>>19157023
Unironically the Bible

>>19157068
>politics
>gave me more perspective

yup, now you can whine about rotten society, corrupted powerholders with more well-grounded arguments, unlike prols, who say the same things written in 90% of books on politics without reading books of this kind...
Don't get me wrong, anon, politics books don't contain much sense as only intellectually challenged people can't reflect upon dark sides and hidden rocks of politics and what is happening in the reality they live in.

>>19159796
Based.

>Shakespeare's Hamlet
Read it in high school as a slacker who didn't care much for reading. Something about it got me hooked and completely recontextualized the way I viewed literature. The major contribution from this was that it set the stage for my ability to appreciate everything else on the list.
>Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment
Read this my senior year of high school. I had no interest in philosophy before reading this. We read this, a bit of Nietzsche, and Camus all around the same time, and it activated my nascent religious feelings and thoughts. I was disgusted by the views of Nietzsche and Camus, and Dostoyevsky seemed to be answering their entire worldviews in Crime and Punishment. I started taking morality and God much more seriously because of this.
>Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling
Read this on my own at the end of high school. Not sure exactly what clicked, but this is the book that made me start going to church every week.
>Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics & Politics
Also read in college. I was still a slacker, with just vague ideas of where I was going and what I was doing in life. I was getting okay grades, and didn't really work very hard at anything. Aristotle's view of ethics and the way it intertwined with my relatively new Catholic faith drove me to form habits and view my goal in life as continual improvement, eudaimonia.
>Descartes' Discourse on the Method
Pulled the rug out from under my way of thinking. Made me skeptical of pretty much everything, which actually led to me becoming even more religious.
>Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
After Descartes, I read all the Moderns. I thought I'd got past the skepticism introduced by Descartes and had things figured out. This book completely flipped it, and set the stage for how I view the world today, about five years later.
(cont.)

>>19168286
>Sadly it is modernity itself that burns away your ability to get in touch with the spiritual. It's the dead end job routine, the asphalt and cars, the state of the society around you, the whore women, the idea that money truly is the only good thing and not a thing that only wicked people value, yes other people's materialistic nihilism hollows you out
So ride the god damn tiger.

>>19168798
(cont.)
>Wittgenstein's Tractatus and Ray Monk's biography of Wittgenstein
I read this shortly after the Critique. Came out of this viewing early Wittgenstein (and maybe late Wittgenstein too, haven't made up my mind yet) as another perspective on the same things Kant wrote about. Strangely reading this led to me being much less interested in my philosophy, as it convinced me that it really is, for the most part, just a kind of intellectual therapy that doesn't arrive at any absolute solutions.
>The Bible
Specifically Genesis, Ecclesiastes, Job, and the Gospel of John. I've come back to this many times of the years and each time I get something new out of it. Its impact on me isn't done yet so I can't really say more than that.

>>19157148

Not him by Plato helped me as well.
Phaedo basically makes me not give a shit about death now.

>>19157820
>Michel the Montaigne
kek

>>19167146
>First time I tried to read it, the plane trip was too short and I never got back to it. Second time a Normie friend brought it up in conversation. Then about a month ago a Hare Krishna came into my store and gave me a translation of the Bhagavad-Gita.
Kek, is this entire post taking the piss or something?

>>19157375
How fitting that I would come across this book in a thread the night before moving out of my parents' house. I like it so far, the prose is simple in a way that reminds me of Stoner.

Tao Te Ching taught me to stop being a neurotic faggot trying to latch on to ideologies and belief systems as a way to find a sense of security and identity.

A trilogy I always try to reread now and then is My Big Toe by Tom Campbell. He's one of the physicists that worked at the Monroe Institute very early on and developed and experimented with things like hemi-sync and binaural beats, as well as OBEs and remote viewing. In his trilogy he writes about developing a big TOE (theory of everything) that incorporates everything that has to do with consciousness, from our physical matter reality to nonphysical matter reality. He goes into detail on his theory on how physics in our physical reality came about and its purpose, and what the purpose for our being is both within this physical existence and outside of it. This is all good and well, but the real value for the reader in this trilogy is not Tom's own big TOE, but is in how he teaches you to create your own big TOE with a scientist's mindset of experimentation and data gathering. He presents techniques for doing the experiments and gathering data yourself so that you may fill out your own big TOE based on your experience (because any truth realized on anyone else's experience is their truth, not your truth, so it is necessary for you to get the info on your own.) This series has helped me to look at the world with more of a data gathering mindset capable of looking at ALL of the data I receive during my time as a conscious being and tying it together into something ever changing.

>>19169273
I have this but I thought it was new age stuff. It's worth reading then?

>>19164691
Orthodox. Protestants are clearly a modern deviation who, like you said, threw out books of the Bible and wiped around 1,500 years of tradition. Most Protestant countries are far more atheistic than their counterparts today, which is pretty telling. Catholicism has a lot of obvious problems as well.

>>19157030
How so?

I am reading it now.

>>19165136
>Psycho-Cybernetics: This book is dense with life changing information and really helps create a core change in your image of yourself.

Did I fuck up reading the revised edition and they changed the content? The book keeps referencing a Creator like somehow there is a that God created you to be successful which is absolute buffoonery.

Should i write a suicide note? I was thinking i shouldn't bother. If there's a God(s), i go to hell anyway for the life i led and if there's nothing? Well, that's a load off my mind.

>>19158116
Honestly, this.

>>19157492
Hahaha fag

>>19168768
>Saint Petersburg
Why?

>>19157684
Either one skips self help and reads useful philosophy, or one reads self help and transcends them with philosophy, rendering them obsolete. Your pick. Although if you're a midwit and can't fathom anything more than the material reality and NPC circuit thinking, yes I'd say stick to self help and use it to climb the social hierarchy and be a good slave to the system

>>19170718
>use it to climb the social hierarchy
>be a good slave to the system
Yeah, I'd rather be a wageslave who reads philosophy.

>>19157869
Based anon. Keep it up and follow God's will. He wants you to be loved bd happy

>>19158546
That's the gospel reading for this week as well! Excellently timed.

Brothers K

>>19170670
Don’t kill yourself, anon. What’s wrong?

>>19170738
I'm a pajeet. Don't want this to turn into a pity party so i shall shut up. Thanks for the reply.

>>19170718
>can't fathom anything more than the material reality and NPC circuit thinking
Not him but I loathe all forms of physicalism yet I think philosophy, especially epistemology and metaphysics, are largely a massive jerkoff. What matters isn't reading philosophical works, it's asking questions.

>>19170718
>be a good slave to the system
It's not even the system. It's slavery to the material, to the world, to the mortal. Though, of course, since the times of Christ the mortal was synonymous with the Caesar's, and Caesar's is the system.

>>19159526
Read crime and punishment anon

>>19159526
>>19170777
I found that Kierkegaard has a wonderful essay on this very topic: "Has a Man the Right to Let Himself Be Put to Death for the Truth?"

Because, of course, refusing to fight evil men who exert power over you is in essence the same act as being put to death for the Truth.

>>19157378
Different Foucault pleb.

>>19157023
Reading the Pre-Socratics really brought everything into alignment for me.

The Bible
t. tranny

>>19170718
>useful philosophy

>>19157023
This book taught me how to love myself.

>>19159332
what would be a good reading list and order?

>>19170718
I bet that sounded really good in your head

>>19164691
Just thought you should know, these guys:
>>19165393
>>19169380
Will move on from orthodoxy within a few years. It's a meme on the innernet right now and will fall out of fashion just like everything else.

>>19170746
What don’t you like about being indian? I wouldn’t get caught up in the /r9k/ worldview if that’s what troubles you. Shit is poison.

>>19169057
Nope.
The hare Krishna even gave me some food because I was the only person who was kind and willing to listen to what he had to say that day.
He even gave me a little vego cook book to go with it.

Ironically I was diagnosed with schizophrenia shortly after trying to read this book

>>19157023
Without a doubt the finest literature I have ever supped upon

>>19171843
this book

>>19166999
Study I agree with: sound
Study I disagree with: flawed

>>19157800
Regular people are burdened by questions of existence. Regular people have dark nights of the soul. Self help is for people who can't win 1 friend or influence 1 person.

>>19171377
Finally some good self help

>>19166769
I really didn't like psycho cybernetics and the explanations of the torpedo and the mechanical machine. I found it pretty depressing actually.
My problem is I dont really want to be anything, I just have social anxietys still that still linger.
It also didn't help when he kept repeating over and over again that people don't think these things about you or that you can change it all.

My problem is, I literally don't care about anything ONLY If I can change it, I couldn't care less if someone commented on my shoes or my hair or my choice in clothing or my gut. My problem is when someone points out something, that I cannot change.
It first begins with this worry such as 'damn my nose is pretty big' or 'I have a bit of a weird gait.' Then I brush it off. Then later down the track, while that thought lay dorment, someone will low-key mention my funny walk or my big nose or things I cannot change, that I was not even aware hitherto.
It sucks a lot. I don't want to be successful, and I'm happy with who I am. But people are always judging and it's harsh. It does ruin my self confidence and makes me more of an introvert. This happens everytime I try become more extroverted. I just choose to stay a bit autismo because that's what people believe of me. They always say there's something weird about me.
However, I'm always quick to blame growing up on the internet and my depression phase as a teenager.
My biggest issue is first of all, why bring it up. When you bring up something someone can't change, why do they think people with respond to that positively.

Any books for this feel ?

>>19171469
grail -> hermetic tradition -> revolt

>>19172460
literally just brush it off

>>19157719
original or deathbed?

>>19165623
reading deltarune changed my life I am gay and transgender now

>>19157023
The Quran and how to win friends and influence people.

>>19172558
I do. But subconsciously It makes me sweat a lot and I stutter when I start socialising with people.
I couldn't care less about these things until I come into contact with new people. And when these ideas are coming from people I love it sticks with subconsciously to the point where the thoughts randomly come up in social situations, unless the people are my age.

What is the answer to The Nature vs. Nurture question, friends?

>>19160545
Jamie pull that shit up!

>>19173635
Nature undermines 80 percent of nurture. Nurture can command suicidal or obscuring of all the features nature birthed. Natura means birth or originate. It necessitates fertility including that of the mind. St Luke Smith of Youtube has a video on this.

>>19157023
Sayings and anecdotes, diogenes the cynic
count of monte cristo
brave new world
emersons nature and selected essays

though I don't think one size fits all I honestly think books that improve your life do the following
>challenge your beliefs
>challenge your perceptions
>cause you to do something (go outside, exercise, eat better etc)
>help you become more empathetic
>cause you to be more introspective and self reflective

most recently reading jung has made me start recording and reflecting on my dreams, it's interesting not sure if it'll become something long standing or just something I did for a while

>>19157684
>the self help trash reader
>wafts away philosophy that nullifies and mocks his worthless tweaks on trash living to have trashe living
>no fundamental core to ascend from or to
>if i just get coached with enough mintuae and tips I'll be fine in a low trust collapsing civilization police state technocracy ruled by leaders who would make Caligula, Nero and Justinian look like Marcus Auerelius
>marcus Awho know? I just want Jordan Peterson to wash my penerson ugh go away I want to watch sports!

>>19168701
Can I get any cheap version here, or is there some specific version that stands above the rest? I am so tired of being ignorant and uneducated.

the alchemist by paulo coelho
unironically

>>19174091
Moron.

>>19168701
Can I get any cheap version here, or is there some specific version that stands above the rest? I am so tired of being ignorant and uneducated.
I thought about getting this.

>>19168885
I'm sorry.

>>19174241
>>19174241
Any version "with Apocrypha" that isn't NIV is good, NRSV, NKJV, NASB, EOB are all good. I like KJV too but it's intimidating to some

>>19157378
KEK WHAT A DUMBASS ANON
GET FUCCD

>>19172460
start an onlyfans

Might be weird but after reading Anna karenina, especially levin’s part of the story; it made me go out more. I hated going outside.. nowadays I feel less anxious and I’m grateful for what’s around me, whether it’s nature or my family

This one made me not crippled anymore

>>19157192
i'm interested, how?

>>19170055
It gave me boner

>>19159310
B A S E D

>>19172553
Very helpful, have a good one

>>19175659
Very helpful, have a good one

>>19157023
the ones I have yet to read

>>19171672
The Bhagavad Gita is a good book and I'm sure many of the members are genuinely good people.
Just a heads up about the Hare Krishna. Their movement - the ISKCON - has a terrible secret. They murdered their founder Guru to take it over. Because they noticed how his attitude went against their tribal interests. Most of the conspirators were jews, as is reflected in the current leadership of the group. A fact you check easily via wikipedia.

>>19174835
Already tried it. It's not very rewarding.

>>19157023
Walden

>>19157684
You got a point but all of those books are terrible. Instead read books about specific problems you have from professionals.

>>19168147
Says the midwit Christcuck.

Full body multiple orgasms shared with your partner

>>19157871
yes

>>19177124
>n-nou

>>19157023
Crocodile Mindset

>ctrl+F
>Peter Sloterdijk
>0 results found
????

>>19157023
In a way all of them.
I read Celine's "Journey to the end of the night" and Simone Weil's "need for roots" on one go and it was a fun ride in me brain.

>>19178954
What book and how did it improve your life?

>>19157023
the big book

only one book sir
dont needs to read it

>>19157023
Atlas Shrugged

To have your life changed by a piece of media strongly indicates a lack of self reflection

>>19157800
the fuck ur on, powerlifting will help average man much more than any book

Sneed

>>19176908
>Instead read books about specific problems you have from professionals.
Probably the best post in the whole fucking thread

>>19174223
This book could've been much better if it was written as short children's story, no more than 40 pages, as I believe someone with common sense and intellect is not interested in "Omens" and "Personal Legends"(The book's term for destiny).

>>19168286
Be gone Satan. One can function in modern society and still get close to God. Just live like Christ did and forgive your enemies, and you will see improvement.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

>>19179853
i thought it was not too complex but endearing

>>19157023
Bhagwad Gita

>>19159155
Here it is, anon. :)
https://www.mediafire.com/file/9ejqng4n2js9b4t/Unamuno%252C_Miguel_de_-_Our_Lord_Don_Quixote_%2528Princeton%252C_1967%2529.pdf/file

>>19157023
Plato's complete works

>>19157023
plato's republic, friend recommended it to me when i was 14 and it made me think about everything a lot more i guess

>>19178290
Here is your call

>>19157023
the bible

Have to go with "March of the Titans" because it is so revelatory in many ways especially for young men that get all their education from state schooling.

>>19180760
>Meditations
Have you read at least Seneca and the Dharmapada?

>>19180800
>Bhagavad Gita
excellent choice. I almost picked this or Lord of the Rings.

The Bible

>>19176652
radhanath swami has such a demented look about him

>>19157726
He's not who you think he is.

Also: wash your penis.

>>19157869
No cap I was thinking of finally trying to read The Bible next year. Any specific version you'd recommend or what version did you read?

>>19166769
Just shitty old psychology with a cool name

>>19182391
New International Version for your first read. It's a meaning-for-meaning translation rather than literal word-for-word. It makes it easier to read and understand for first timers. After NIV you can branch out to the New King James Version and beyond.

>>19168286
I know plenty of people that function normally and keep in touch with their religion anon, stop being so dramatic.

>>19174401
Can I ask you to type these out in their full names?

>>19157375
Favorite book I read last year. I would go out onto a green lawn during my lunch break, lay down, eat an apple, and read that book. Highlight of my year.

>>19157023
It was a whitepill when I most needed it.

>>19157023
the original MKULTRA (it'll break you)

>>19179340
In many cases, but on some things you really want assurance that can't be found within.
I needed a book to tell me that hard work, can indeed be enjoyable, to get out there.
No I am not a wage slave.

>>19182333
>He's not who you think he is.
>333
>jesus died at 33 noice! a sign from god!

honestly this, he goes on the joe rogan podcast and talks to russel brand who are both Illuminati shills. you need to also look at who a man hangs around with to get to know who he is. I WOULD NEVER WANT TO BE THE PRESENCE OF BOTH THOSE PEOPLE BECAUSE I KNOW WHO THEY REALLY ARE, AND WHAT THEY REALLY ARE ABOUT. jordan peterson's books are not going to save you from joe rogan and elon musk wanting to microchip you.

>>19169289
Its worth a read. The topics he goes over can be classified as wuwu mysticism shit but it is tied together through logic and evidence based reasoning. The author is a physicist, and while a title may not mean much he is very scientific about his approach to creating a theory that covers everything.

>>19170876
how so

>>19183695
>search author
how the fuck is this guy not welsh?

>>19179084
You must change your life by Peter Sloterdijk
It made me understand that religiosity is normal

>>19157068
t. actual NPC

>>19157023
I don't read much, but there's 2 books in particular that I really enjoyed:
>The Richest Man in Babylon
Pretty much taught me basic finance, very simple book. Should be required reading in highschool if you ask me.
>Bible; Proverbs & Ecclesiastes in particular
Nothing really matters, bad things happen to good people, promiscuous women (and I also interpret porn to be a "promiscuous woman" as well) are a trap for young men and a pathway to destruction, try to live your life with good virtues, but don't let your vices bog you down so much (you're only human after all), and really, just go with the flow and relax man.

>>19157023
I know it's baby first's political book, but pic related.

>>19182170
i plan to read Letter's from a Stoic by Seneca. Why you ask bro?

>>19184733
This and this. I didn't understand that people would want power over others for the sake of power itself because I am an romantic isolationist raised on westerns. I want to be Jeremiah Johnson. Yet here we are in this bullshit world and the best I can do is subsistence homestead and hunt twice a year.

The Old Testament, Aristotle, Atomic Habits, Sapiens and Dom Quixote.

Laugh all you want but its true.

>>19184873
I found the fractional reserve banking and lending section on imperialism to be great in Sapiens. The final fifth of the book was terrible though. While you are reading Joe Rogan core check out Tribe and Empire of the Summer Moon though.

>>19165744
>what da dog doin.

>>19184608
Good answer.

“There is no 'eugenics' in Nietzsche - despite occasional references to 'breeding'- at least no more than is implicit in the recommendation to choose a partner under decent lightning conditions and with one's self-respect intact. Everything else falls under training, discipline, education and self-design - the Übermensch implies not a biological but an artistic, not to say an acrobatic programme. The only thought-provoking aspect of the marriage recommendation quoted above is the difference between onward and upward propagation. This coincides with a critique of mere repetition - obviously it will no longer suffice in future for children, as one says, to 'return' in their children. There may be a right to imperfection, but not to triviality.”
― Peter Sloterdijk, Du mußt dein Leben ändern

>>19184607
Remarkable isn't it?

>>19184875
Maybe we read things for different reasons.
I like books that help me see the way the world really is and how to accomplish goals in life faster and safer.
Would these books help?

Also i forgot to mentindo all Robert Greene and Machiavelli books.
Esther Villar too if you like women.

Phenomenology of Spirit

>>19183860
The basic but irrefutable logic of the Pre-Socratics both grounded the Classical Greek thought I'd been exposed to and resolved some modern dilemmas with such simplicity and precision that I committed myself to only reading excellent works.

>>19184942
No, they just turn you more into an Uncle Ted. TLDR; tribal life is brutal but fundamentally good for the psyche for obvious evolutionary reasons. There were thousands of accounts of Europeans choosing to go native and stay native as opposed to living in 'civilization.' People are psychologically more stable in wartime because it forces us into social cohesion and togetherness that we long for fundamentally as social animals.

My long term goal is finishing my IT degree and 10 certs this year then doing remote work from a 30 acre compound in Kansas while living in a steel building and subsistence raising a few cattle, hogs, and chickens in a rotational pasture while farming sweet potatoes and cassava for carbs as well as peppers and cbd weed because I love smoking weed but not getting high. Steel buildings are extremely cheap as in $12k-165k for a huge barn to a furnished home and land in Kansas is as little as a few grand an acre. Plus that is only 8-10 hours from outdoor recreation in Colorado and in the ozarks of Arkansas. I also want to move my mother out there when my dad dies to help homeschool my kids because I am a tinfoil hat libertarian. Yes I am already married.

So in short no, they will not help you blend in or become normal in the fucked up society we live in, just make you hate it more.

>>19184942
Oh also I have read Machiavelli already and reccomend Jungs sampler called Man and His Symbols which is about mythological archetypes and how they relate to the psyche. If you have already read The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Campbell it is a little redundant though.

>>19165321
The message of Christianity had not been spread throughout the world at the time that these words were spoken. "The Gentiles" referred to all of the pagan nations all over the world who were worshiping idols and engaging in debauchery. This was in contrast to the people who worshipped the One True God, the Israelites. It would later be stated that there is no difference between Jews and Greeks in terms of salvation, and later, clearer texts generally supersede older, vaguer texts.

>>19174241
Get the Douay-Rheims, if you can with the Haydock commentary. The book was written as a reconstruction of a protest-refutation era translation of the Bible, as opposed to the ecumenical nature of most other Bibles used today. It's real value lies in the very clear definition of what the good book says about certain issues that would be obfuscated in other versions to eliminate divisions between the denominations of Christianity.

>>19157375
how many lonely virgins are on this board?

>>19157869
why is lit full of christfags? im tired of their pious bleatings

>>19185171
Sounds like you should read Campbell and Jung.

>>19184754
Respect

>>19185171
WAAAAAAAH
...
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

>>19166769
>Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.
how is that not hypnotherapy?

>>19186716
How is it hypnotherapy?

>>19180653
>Just live like Christ did
As long as you are ready to be crucified

Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes. I realized I believe in God while reading it. It's not so much that I was overwhelmingly convinced by the arguments he makes, I was just reading and boom. Oh, God exists. Cool. No doubt after that point. (I'm not religious by the way, it's just God.)
Also, ironic to follow up on that with this, but, Nietzsche. It lit up the kindling I had been building inwardly for many years about society, myself, and what exactly life is all about.

>>19188292
have you read kant?

>>19172460
Man i have exactly the same problem and the same feelings towards psycho cybernetics. my issue wasnt the internet but the innocent remarks i got from some friends. It’s better now that im older but what i really need is a book that will make me finally have self confidence. It’s all i ever wanted, to be in public and care not about others opinion of me

>>19185068
>It would later be stated that there is no difference between Jews and Greeks in terms of salvation, and later, clearer texts generally supersede older, vaguer texts
Source?

>>19157023
Atlas Shrug