46 ms·

Internet Sacred Text Archive

125 points by mahami 5y ago

macintux 5y ago
Interesting that Scientology doesn’t show up in the list of topics.
- hackingthelema 5y ago
  The record of the Babalon workings of Jack Parsons with Hubbard are on there, at least: https://sacred-texts.com/oto/lib49.htm https://sacred-texts.com/oto/lib49.htm More on it @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon_Working https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon_Working
- qart 5y ago
  For copyright reasons, most probably. We know how litigious the bosses* at Scientology are. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_(video_games) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_(video_games)
- slyall 5y ago
  See the FAQ. All of it is copyright and Scientology are a aggressive at defending that. https://sacred-texts.com/faq.htm https://sacred-texts.com/faq.htm " Funny story actually.... I was actually contacted by a very testy lawyer from the Scientologists at one point. She was more than a bit bothered that I refused to post anything about them, until I pointed out that they had sued everyone aggressively for posting proprietary material about them for years, and now they expected me to cover them? She finally admitted that I had a point there..."
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    In the days of yore, people would get burned at the stake for making illicit copies. These days, one gets sued to oblivion. I have to say, it's an improvement! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale#Betrayal_and_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale#Betrayal_and_d...
theartfuldodger 5y ago
I used to print out entire texts from this site from my school library when I was a research assistant with unrestricted access in the early 00's Awesome to see it still exists and is getting views
phendrenad2 5y ago
This is a nice resource!
nvr219 5y ago
Very cool! If you're interested in Jewish texts specifically, check out Sefaria.org which is an absolutely amazing project.
- gadflyinyoureye 5y ago
  Thanks for the pointer. I’m trying to learn more about the intertestimental literature after listening to Mike Heiser’s podcasts.
jacobrussell 5y ago
> Yes, Send Me The World's Wisdom Pretty good call to action.
CPLX 5y ago
For some reason I thought this would be an archive of things like the parsing html answer on stack overflow and similar. Guess I should probably log off for awhile.
- pavel_lishin 5y ago
  That's the opposite of a sacred text; a profane incantation.
- userbinator 5y ago
  It does say "Internet" in the title.
space_ghost 5y ago
When I think "internet sacred texts" I only think of RFC1925. Maybe that's just me. ;)
- pavel_lishin 5y ago
  I can't help but think of "hunter2", and others.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
  Definitely not just you - I expected a collection of Internet lore, famous copypastas, RFCs, etc.
- fragmede 5y ago
  only if you're within 500 miles of the server.
qart 5y ago
Be careful with this. I am an atheist, and by no means am I adamantly defending Hinduism. But the translated Hindu scriptures are mostly over a hundred years old. Most such translations carry heavy biases. Quite a lot of of the time, the translation says what the translator wants it to say. If you have a personal affinity for some of the translators at sacred-texts.com, or if you want a historical perspective of translations, sacred-texts.com might serve you fine. But if you want translations that try to transparently convey what the original scriptures say, you'll have to look long and hard (elsewhere) for academically vetted translations by people who have expertise in the language of the original text. I don't blame sacred-texts.com for offering these old translations. Copyright and all. But I hope they have put the appropriate disclaimers about treating old translations as authoritative. Speaking of vetted... could someone please direct me to a good, transparent translation of Bhagavad Gita? I don't mind the translator expounding on some authenticated background information. I don't want personal commentaries.
- greggsy 5y ago
  So what you’re trying to say is, that some of these need some <citation needed> tags?
- hackingthelema 5y ago
  Have you read Eknath Easwaran's translation of the Bhagavad Gita? Its structure is Chapter-Introduction, Gita Chapter. If I remember correctly, the authenticated background information is mostly what goes on in the introduction to each chapter (i.e. 'Drona was born a brahmin, a member of the priestly caste, but in search of wealth he took up the way of the warrior and excelled in the knowledge of arms,' since the background of the character is not explained in the Gita itself). I don't remember much personal commentary in the chapter introductions, and you can easily skip them and just read the Gita translation itself, since there are no commentaries interspersed with Gita translation. I'm not sure if that meets your 'no personal commentaries' criteria, but I liked the translation. [Edit to add: listing some of the translations you have found wanting might help guide suggestions.]
  - qart 5y ago
yob28 5y ago
aeturnum 5y ago
I was hoping to see a collection of texts like the story of mel[1], but I think it's lovely that someone has collected sacred texts on the internet. I also think it would be fun to collect the texts "sacred" to the internet. [1] http://catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html http://catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html
- fragmede 5y ago
  I started one but I couldn't figure out the markdown peculiarities of Github's renderer. https://github.com/fragmede/internet-sacred-texts/ https://github.com/fragmede/internet-sacred-texts/
its_bbq 5y ago
I can only speak to the Buddhist translations, which are really old and date back to a time before Western audiences really grokked what it was about. For early Buddhist translations, https://www.dhammatalks.org/ https://www.dhammatalks.org/ is an excellent resource
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
hackingthelema 5y ago
To speak to its English contents, not the translations it hosts, as most are speaking of -- 'Thelema' is a decent section, but sometimes the versions on https://hermetic.com/ https://hermetic.com/ are better (footnotes linked, proper unicode symbols), and https://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/ https://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/ are probably the most up-to-date (i.e. the fill->kill correction to be accurate to the Stele in AL[1]). The Theosophy, Grimoires, and Wicca sections are very worthwhile. Where else are you going to get AE Waite's Goetia (etc.)[1] right next to Mathers/Aleister Crowley's Goetia [2]? Edit to add: scans of original editions of Crowley's works are @ https://keepsilence.org/the-equinox/ https://keepsilence.org/the-equinox/ , too [1] https://www.oto.org/legis1.pdf https://www.oto.org/legis1.pdf [2] https://sacred-texts.com/grim/bcm/index.htm https://sacred-texts.com/grim/bcm/index.htm [3] https://sacred-texts.com/grim/lks/index.htm https://sacred-texts.com/grim/lks/index.htm
- violiner 5y ago
  The work at Keep Silence is excellent.

125 points by mahami 5y ago

macintux 5y ago

Interesting that Scientology doesn’t show up in the list of topics.

hackingthelema 5y ago
The record of the Babalon workings of Jack Parsons with Hubbard are on there, at least: https://sacred-texts.com/oto/lib49.htm https://sacred-texts.com/oto/lib49.htm More on it @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon_Working https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon_Working
qart 5y ago
For copyright reasons, most probably. We know how litigious the bosses* at Scientology are. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_(video_games) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_(video_games)
slyall 5y ago
See the FAQ. All of it is copyright and Scientology are a aggressive at defending that. https://sacred-texts.com/faq.htm https://sacred-texts.com/faq.htm " Funny story actually.... I was actually contacted by a very testy lawyer from the Scientologists at one point. She was more than a bit bothered that I refused to post anything about them, until I pointed out that they had sued everyone aggressively for posting proprietary material about them for years, and now they expected me to cover them? She finally admitted that I had a point there..."
- WalterBright 5y ago
  In the days of yore, people would get burned at the stake for making illicit copies. These days, one gets sued to oblivion. I have to say, it's an improvement! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale#Betrayal_and_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale#Betrayal_and_d...

theartfuldodger 5y ago

I used to print out entire texts from this site from my school library when I was a research assistant with unrestricted access in the early 00's Awesome to see it still exists and is getting views

phendrenad2 5y ago

This is a nice resource!

nvr219 5y ago

Very cool! If you're interested in Jewish texts specifically, check out Sefaria.org which is an absolutely amazing project.

gadflyinyoureye 5y ago
Thanks for the pointer. I’m trying to learn more about the intertestimental literature after listening to Mike Heiser’s podcasts.

jacobrussell 5y ago

> Yes, Send Me The World's Wisdom Pretty good call to action.

CPLX 5y ago

For some reason I thought this would be an archive of things like the parsing html answer on stack overflow and similar. Guess I should probably log off for awhile.

pavel_lishin 5y ago
That's the opposite of a sacred text; a profane incantation.
userbinator 5y ago
It does say "Internet" in the title.

space_ghost 5y ago

When I think "internet sacred texts" I only think of RFC1925. Maybe that's just me. ;)

pavel_lishin 5y ago
I can't help but think of "hunter2", and others.
tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
Definitely not just you - I expected a collection of Internet lore, famous copypastas, RFCs, etc.
fragmede 5y ago
only if you're within 500 miles of the server.

qart 5y ago

Be careful with this. I am an atheist, and by no means am I adamantly defending Hinduism. But the translated Hindu scriptures are mostly over a hundred years old. Most such translations carry heavy biases. Quite a lot of of the time, the translation says what the translator wants it to say. If you have a personal affinity for some of the translators at sacred-texts.com, or if you want a historical perspective of translations, sacred-texts.com might serve you fine. But if you want translations that try to transparently convey what the original scriptures say, you'll have to look long and hard (elsewhere) for academically vetted translations by people who have expertise in the language of the original text. I don't blame sacred-texts.com for offering these old translations. Copyright and all. But I hope they have put the appropriate disclaimers about treating old translations as authoritative. Speaking of vetted... could someone please direct me to a good, transparent translation of Bhagavad Gita? I don't mind the translator expounding on some authenticated background information. I don't want personal commentaries.

greggsy 5y ago
So what you’re trying to say is, that some of these need some <citation needed> tags?
hackingthelema 5y ago
Have you read Eknath Easwaran's translation of the Bhagavad Gita? Its structure is Chapter-Introduction, Gita Chapter. If I remember correctly, the authenticated background information is mostly what goes on in the introduction to each chapter (i.e. 'Drona was born a brahmin, a member of the priestly caste, but in search of wealth he took up the way of the warrior and excelled in the knowledge of arms,' since the background of the character is not explained in the Gita itself). I don't remember much personal commentary in the chapter introductions, and you can easily skip them and just read the Gita translation itself, since there are no commentaries interspersed with Gita translation. I'm not sure if that meets your 'no personal commentaries' criteria, but I liked the translation. [Edit to add: listing some of the translations you have found wanting might help guide suggestions.]
- qart 5y ago

yob28 5y ago

aeturnum 5y ago

I was hoping to see a collection of texts like the story of mel[1], but I think it's lovely that someone has collected sacred texts on the internet. I also think it would be fun to collect the texts "sacred" to the internet. [1] http://catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html http://catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html

fragmede 5y ago
I started one but I couldn't figure out the markdown peculiarities of Github's renderer. https://github.com/fragmede/internet-sacred-texts/ https://github.com/fragmede/internet-sacred-texts/

its_bbq 5y ago

I can only speak to the Buddhist translations, which are really old and date back to a time before Western audiences really grokked what it was about. For early Buddhist translations, https://www.dhammatalks.org/ https://www.dhammatalks.org/ is an excellent resource

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

hackingthelema 5y ago

To speak to its English contents, not the translations it hosts, as most are speaking of -- 'Thelema' is a decent section, but sometimes the versions on https://hermetic.com/ https://hermetic.com/ are better (footnotes linked, proper unicode symbols), and https://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/ https://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/ are probably the most up-to-date (i.e. the fill->kill correction to be accurate to the Stele in AL[1]). The Theosophy, Grimoires, and Wicca sections are very worthwhile. Where else are you going to get AE Waite's Goetia (etc.)[1] right next to Mathers/Aleister Crowley's Goetia [2]? Edit to add: scans of original editions of Crowley's works are @ https://keepsilence.org/the-equinox/ https://keepsilence.org/the-equinox/ , too [1] https://www.oto.org/legis1.pdf https://www.oto.org/legis1.pdf [2] https://sacred-texts.com/grim/bcm/index.htm https://sacred-texts.com/grim/bcm/index.htm [3] https://sacred-texts.com/grim/lks/index.htm https://sacred-texts.com/grim/lks/index.htm

violiner 5y ago
The work at Keep Silence is excellent.