HN Books @HNBooksMonth

For me it was Zen, which I heard is in some ways quite similar to Stoicism. A good start is Alan Watts' "The Way of Zen":

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Zen-Alan-W-Watts/dp/0375705104

⬐ hnjm0101

I dunno, maybe I've completely missed the point in his writing, but I just tried reading "The Wisdom of Insecurity" and it seemed like almost complete nonsense to me. There were definitely a few passages that were very insightful, but the other 90% (at least to me) was incoherent rambling.

⬐ href

I didn't mean to recommend Alan Watts in general, though I generally like him. I just think Zen can be a bit hard to get into without some introduction and I consider Watts' decent.

The Way of Zen by Alan Watts is really good. I learned a lot and it helped me view the world differently.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Zen-Alan-Watts/dp/0375705104

Alan Watts' The Way of Zen[1] is a great, rather iconoclastic, introduction to Zen and one if his best works. Another wonderful read is D.T. Suzuki's Zen and Japanese Culture[2]. And R.H. Blyth's Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics is a jewell of a book.[3]

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Zen-Alan-Watts/dp/0375705104# [2] http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Japanese-Culture-Bollingen-Series/... [3] http://www.amazon.com/Zen-English-Literature-Oriental-Classi...

Do you count happiness, contentment, enlightenment, higher states of consciousness, etc., as superpowers? Either of these two books might change your life forever.

Both by Alan Watts: The Way of Zen [1], and The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are [2]

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Way-Zen-Alan-W-Watts/dp/0375705104

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Book-Taboo-Against-Knowing-Who/dp/0679...

[3] https://www.google.com/search?q=filetype%3Apdf+watts+book

[4] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22alan+watts%2...

The concept that verse espouses is Wu Wei. It's worth anyone's time to understand. My favorite explanations of it come from Alan Watts in Tao: The Watercourse Way [0], but Wikipedia [1] is not terrible.

The other concept indicated in the last paragraph on "results tank" not "effort tank" is lust of result. There aren't as many sources discussing this topic directly, but Zen in the Art of Archery [2] is good, as is Watts' Way of Zen [3].

I highly recommend them all for anyone interested in creating things.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Watercourse-Way-Alan-Watts/dp/0394...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Archery-Eugen-Herrigel/dp/0375...

[3] http://www.amazon.com/Way-Zen-Alan-W-Watts/dp/0375705104

If you're looking for a good introductory book to some of the buddhist/taoist/zen concepts touched upon in this article, I highly recommend Alan Watts' books.

Here's one that I've particularly enjoyed:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eastern-Wisdom-Modern-Life-Collected...

It's a collection of lectures that he gave over a decade or so, in the 60s. It introduces most of the really important concepts of eastern philosophy.

This book provides a nice follow-up to the previous one, with a much more complete, detailed, academic view of the topics, which helps gain a better understanding of it all:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Way-Zen-Vintage-Spiritual-Classics/d...

⬐ Estragon

The OP presents a conceptual, ontological claim ("...that all things lack absolute identity and are interdependent."), whereas in Buddhist practice, it refers to the experience of looking for some inherent existence, and seeing nothing. It's not an ontological issue in that context: There could actually be an absolute identity, but it would have no bearing on the practice.

Alan Watts only ever confused me. These two guys made it a whole lot clearer for me. (Particularly Ken. I consider him my teacher.)

http://unfetteredmind.org/audio/podclass.php?code=AP#here