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[MonroeMonkey]

Give a list of spiritual or philosophical books read within the last year, or so.


Here's mine...

Zen Buddhism:
Zen in the Art of Tea – D. T. Suzuki
Zen in the Art of Archery – Eugen Herrigel
The Three Pillars of Zen – Philip Kapleau
Iron Flute: Zen Koans - Nyogen Senzaki & Ruth Strout McCandless
Instant Zen – Thomas Cleary
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones – Paul Reps, Nyogen Sensaki
Zen Poems – Lucien Stryk
Breath Sweeps Mind - Jakusho Kwong
Zen Mind, Beinngers Mind – Shunryu Suzuski
Zen Influence:
The Art of Presence – Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
A New Earth – Eckhart Tolle
Buddhism:
Living Buddha, Living Christ – Thich Nhat Hanh
A Wise Heart - Jack Kornfield
Art of Meditation - Jack Kornfield
Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond – Ajahn Brahm
The Universe in a Single Atom – Dalai Lama
The Buddha's Teachings As Is – Bhikku Bodhi
Tibetan Dream Yoga – Surya Das
The Diamond Sutra, The Heart Sutra – Buddha
Dhammapada – Thomas Byrom
Dhammapada – Sangharakshita
Tibetan Book of the Dead (Partial)
Buddhahood Without Meditation – Dudjom Lingpa
Buddhism – David Eckel
The Teachings of the Buddha (Love This One!) - Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai
True Meditation – Adyashanti
Taoism:
Tao Te Ching – Stephen Mitchell
Tao Te Ching – Feng & English
Tao Te Ching – Hendricks
Second Book of Tao (Works of Zhuangzi) – Stephen Mitchell
The Art of War – Sun-Tzu
Hinduism:
Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi – Ramana Maharshi
Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj – Nisargadatta Maharaj
Deep Meditation – Yogani
The Upanishads – Swami Prabhavanada & Frederick Manchester
The Upanishads – Juan Mascaro
The Upanishads:
Aitareya Upanishad
Chandogya Upanishad
Kena Upanishad
Katha Upanishad
Taittiriya Upanishad
Svetasvatara Upanishad
Maitrayaniya Upanishad
Isha Upanishad
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
Prashna Upanishad
Mundaka Upanishad
Mandukya Upanishad
The Bhagavad-Gita – Stoler Miller
Hinduism – Mark W. Muesse
Silence of the Heart – Robert Adam (Partial)
Islam:
Islam (Lecures)– John Esposito
Quran - (Partial)
Science Books, which can affect spiritual views...
Parallel Universes – Michio Kaku
The Origin of Species – Charles Darwin
The Making of the Fittest – Sean B. Carroll
Why Evolution is True – Jerry Coyne
The Greatest Show on Earth, Evidence for Evolution – Richard Dawkins
The Magic of Reality – Richard Dawkins (Partial)
The Grand Design – Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinov
War of the World Views – Deepak Chopra & Leonard Mlodinov
Etc., etc., etc... I can't remember them all.
Religion & Spirituality:
The Tao of Physics - Fritjof Capra
A Demon Haunted World – Carl Sagan
The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
Letters to a Christian Nation – Sam Harris
A Case For Christ – Lee Strobel
God's Problem – Bart D. Ehrman
Misquoting Jesus – Bart D. Ehrman
Jesus Interrupted – Bart D. Ehman
Did Jesus Exist? - Bart D. Ehrman
The Historical Jesus (Lectures) – Bart D. Ehrman
Life After Death – Deepak Chopra
Near Death Experiences: Evidence of the Afterlife – Dr. Jeffery Long
Gospel of Truth
Gospel of Thomas
The Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
Philosophy:
Artur Schopenhauer
Socrates, Plato, & Aristotle
Immanuel Kant
George Hegel
Friedrich Nietzsche
Baruch Spinoza
Augustine
Thomas Aquinas
David Hume
Soren Kierkegaard
Confucius
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Etc., etc..
Alan Watts (Lectures):
The Tao of Philosophy
Philosophy of the Tao
Zen and the Arts
Images of God
Buddhism - The Religion Of No Religion
Out Of The Trap
Out Of Your Mind (Good)
The Way Of Zen
Who Is It That Knows There Is No Ego
 Zen And The Controlled Accident
Zen Clues
Zen Mind Beginners Mind
Do You Do It, Or Does It Do You?
Watts is a great entertainer, who keeps you interested.

More that I can't remember...


Most profound of them all? The Upanishads and Tao Te Ching! Interpret Jesus as if he's teaching Advaita Vedanta and he becomes as profound as the Upanishads. Of course, Buddha, Aristotle, Kant, and Schopenhauer I found profound too. Schopenhauer's pessimism is an unbearable hell, but his salvation is a sweet heaven, in part; although, I think his nihilism falls short of reality.

Schopenhauer said of the Upanishads, "They are the highest of all human wisdom." I agreed with him before I even read his views on the Upanishads.

Here's a short reading from the Svetasvatara Upanishad.

Svetasvatara Upanishad

[marilyn.monroe]

Quite a journey you are on X.
Presently I am reading Billy Graham's "Unto the Hills", a daily devotional.
I find his beliefs on Angels interesting.

[MonroeMonkey]

Presently I am reading Billy Graham's "Unto the Hills", a daily devotional.

My Utmost for His Highest - Oswald Chambers, is a good daily devotional. I read it about 5 times when I was a Christian.
Streams in the Desert - L. B. Cowman, is good too. Read it a few times. Interestingly, both these daily devotionals were compiled by the author's wives after their husbands died. They put together their husbands works into daily devotionals. And the couples once met.

Even though I don't consider myself a Christian, I still care about those two works.

[Baggins]

Mark Twain, "on the damned human race"...It's a collection of articles he published late in his life in various newspapers, about human failings and how greed and progress always trump common sense and human rights.

[MonroeMonkey]

Read "Autobiography of a Yogi" this week. Finished it today.

I'm not sure if Yogananda is a liar, insane, or honest. Could be a mixture of all three. Was a fairly entertaining 600 page read. As always, Eastern philosophy is somewhat fascinating, at the least.

[MonroeMonkey]

I've been reading the Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Swami Prabhavanada. In my opinion, it's the best translation. Introduction by Aldous Huxley. It's funny people have been mentioning Huxley today, and I happened to be reading a book he wrote the introduction for.

I'd say this may be the most important spiritual book ever written, but the Tao Te Ching, Upanishads, Dhammapada, etc., are up there too!


Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter XIII:


Who sees his Lord
Within every creature,
Deathlessly dwelling
Amidst the mortal:
That man sees truly.
Thus ever aware
Of the Omnipresent
Always about him,
He offers no outrage
To his own Atman,
Hides the face of God
Beneath ego no longer:
Therefore he reaches
That bliss which is highest.

[marilyn.monroe]

I've been reading the Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Swami Prabhavanada. In my opinion, it's the best translation. Introduction by Aldous Huxley. It's funny people have been mentioning Huxley today, and I happened to be reading a book he wrote the introduction for.

I'd say this may be the most important spiritual book ever written, but the Tao Te Ching, Upanishads, Dhammapada, etc., are up there too!


Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter XIII:


Who sees his Lord
Within every creature,
Deathlessly dwelling
Amidst the mortal:
That man sees truly.
Thus ever aware
Of the Omnipresent
Always about him,
He offers no outrage
To his own Atman,
Hides the face of God
Beneath ego no longer:
Therefore he reaches
That bliss which is highest.

But no language is perfect, no vocabulary is adequate to the wealth of the given universe, no pattern of words and sentences, however rich, however subtle, can do justice to the interconnected Gestalts with which experience presents us. Consequently the phenomenal forms of our name-conditioned universe are by nature delusory and fallacious. Wisdom comes only to those who have learned how to talk and read and write without taking language more seriously than it deserves. As the only begotten of civilization and even of our humanity, language must be taken very seriously. Seriously, too, as an instrument (when used with due caution) for thinking about the relationships between phenomena. But it must never be taken seriously when it is used, as in the old creedal religions and their modern political counterparts, as being in any way the equivalents of immediate experience or as being a source of true knowledge about the nature of things. 

-Aldous Huxley

[sammy]

I've been reading the Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Swami Prabhavanada. In my opinion, it's the best translation. Introduction by Aldous Huxley. It's funny people have been mentioning Huxley today, and I happened to be reading a book he wrote the introduction for.

I'd say this may be the most important spiritual book ever written, but the Tao Te Ching, Upanishads, Dhammapada, etc., are up there too!


Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter XIII:


Who sees his Lord
Within every creature,
Deathlessly dwelling
Amidst the mortal:
That man sees truly.
Thus ever aware
Of the Omnipresent
Always about him,
He offers no outrage
To his own Atman,
Hides the face of God
Beneath ego no longer:
Therefore he reaches
That bliss which is highest.

I'll sleep better tonight!

[marilyn.monroe]

I'll sleep better tonight!

sweet dreams.

[sammy]

But no language is perfect, no vocabulary is adequate to the wealth of the given universe, no pattern of words and sentences, however rich, however subtle, can do justice to the interconnected Gestalts with which experience presents us. Consequently the phenomenal forms of our name-conditioned universe are by nature delusory and fallacious. Wisdom comes only to those who have learned how to talk and read and write without taking language more seriously than it deserves. As the only begotten of civilization and even of our humanity, language must be taken very seriously. Seriously, too, as an instrument (when used with due caution) for thinking about the relationships between phenomena. But it must never be taken seriously when it is used, as in the old creedal religions and their modern political counterparts, as being in any way the equivalents of immediate experience or as being a source of true knowledge about the nature of things. 

-Aldous Huxley

We all love them famous people that say mysterious stuff that only college perfessers and them that studies philosophy can understand, don't we? Are the peas ready to pick yet?; In the real world, that's what's important!

[MonroeMonkey]

Marilyn, Huxley was somewhat of a Kantian agnostic that believed we could gain insight through practice; which in a sense contradicts Kantian agnosticism in the way Schopenhauer's insight into the noumenon does. So, he didn't think spiritual philosophy was a waste of time, but certainly limited to a degree; nevertheless beneficial to many in this world.

[sammy]

Marilyn, Huxley was somewhat of a Kantian agnostic that believed we could gain insight through practice; which in a sense contradicts Kantian agnosticism in the way Schopenhauer's insight into the noumenon does. So, he didn't think spiritual philosophy was a waste of time, but certainly limited to a degree; nevertheless beneficial to many in this world.

I'm really amazed at you r knowledge of stuff, but do you ever experience any real-world things, or do you just philosophize all day? do you mow the lawn and stuff? Do you cook? Take the kids to practice? Anything?

[MonroeMonkey]

I'm really amazed at you r knowledge of stuff, but do you ever experience any real-world things, or do you just philosophize all day? do you mow the lawn and stuff? Do you cook? Take the kids to practice? Anything?

You're trolling.


But hey, I'll bite. Sure. Since last commenting here, I finished walking four miles, had some dinner, washed some dishes, did the garbage, all while listening to an hour lecture by Swami Paramarthanada. See, you can live a fairly normal life and educate yourself in relation to your personal interests!

[sammy]

You're trolling.


But hey, I'll bite. Sure. Since last commenting here, I finished walking four miles, had some dinner, washed some dishes, did the garbage, all while listening to an hour lecture by Swami Paramarthanada. See, you can live a fairly normal life and educate yourself in relation to your personal interests!

Sorry, NOT trolling. Can't remember the last time I walked four miles. Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate your philosophy, or maybe I'm just too lazy to pursue  the more esoteric pursuits in life. Anyway, you're way too smart for me to spar with, but I may poke at you from time to time anyway. Hope you don't mind.

[MonroeMonkey]

Sorry, NOT trolling. Can't remember the last time I walked four miles. Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate your philosophy, or maybe I'm just too lazy to pursue  the more esoteric pursuits in life. Anyway, you're way too smart for me to spar with, but I may poke at you from time to time anyway.

Hope you don't mind.

I don't mind. Without some opposition this place would be extremely boring.


Remember a few years ago, when that war over the *Terms of Service* was going on? O the drama! BUT look at the stats around that time. Over a million page views a month, as opposed to 400,000 now.

Men watch UFC and boxing, women watch soap operas, etc... Since the internet some have abandoned TV drama for inter-active drama online! O the fun!

I do need a girlfriend... Lol.