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Word Gems
self-knowledge, authentic living, full humanity, continual awakening
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Great Books
Summary and Review
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Near East / Far East
Sacred Literature
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Commentary by ChatGPT
Analects
Confucianism — China / East Asia
Avesta
Zoroastrianism — Persia / Iran (Near East)
Bhagavad Gita
Hinduism — India / South Asia (Far East in the older civilizational sense)
Book of Documents
Confucianism — China
Book of Rites
Confucianism — China
Book of the Dead
Ancient Egyptian religion — Egypt / Near East
Brahmanas
Vedic / Hindu tradition — India
Dao De Jing
Daoism / Taoism — China
Dhammapada
Buddhism — India; revered across Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Tibet, China, Korea, Japan
Diamond Sutra
Mahayana Buddhism — China, Korea, Japan
I Ching
Confucianism, Daoism, Chinese religion — China / East Asia
Kojiki
Shinto — Japan
Lotus Sutra
Mahayana Buddhism — China, Korea, Japan
Mahabharata
Hinduism — India
(includes the Bhagavad Gita)
Manusmriti
Hindu legal / sacred tradition — India
Mencius
Confucianism — China
Mishnah
Rabbinic Judaism — Israel / Near East
Qur’an
Islam — Arabia / Middle East (Near East)
Ramayana
Hinduism — India
Rig Veda
Vedic religion / Hinduism — India
Sama Veda
Vedic religion / Hinduism — India
Samaveda Upanishadic corpus
Hinduism — India
Shahnameh
Persian sacred-cultural epic / Zoroastrian cultural memory — Iran
Shijing
Classic of Poetry
Confucianism — China
Shujing
Classic of History
Confucianism — China
Spring and Autumn Annals
Confucianism — China
Sutta Pitaka
Buddhism — South and East Asia
Tanakh
Judaism — Israel / Near East
Taoist Canon
Daoism — China
Tao Te Ching
Daoism — China
Talmud
Rabbinic Judaism — Near East / later Babylonia
Taoist Zhuangzi
Daoism — China
Torah
Judaism — Near East
Tripitaka
Buddhism — India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, East Asia
Upanishads
Hinduism / Vedanta — India
Vinaya Pitaka
Buddhism — Pan-Asian
Yasna
Zoroastrianism — Iran
Yijing
same as I Ching — China
Zhuangzi
Daoism — China
A simple geographic breakdown:
Near East / Middle East
Torah, Tanakh, Talmud, Qur’an, Avesta, Yasna, Book of the Dead
India / South Asia
Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, Tripitaka, Dhammapada
China / East Asia
Analects, Mencius, I Ching, Dao De Jing, Zhuangzi, Five Classics
Japan
Kojiki, later Buddhist sutras, Shinto liturgical texts
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