bernd the broter:
But just because that's what it feels like, does it mean that it's less of a contribution to overall success?
This is also a doubt I share: all the "fruitless" hours of work have had as a result – if nothing else – not making me slide backwards. Maybe other activities (samadhi practices, or light yoga, or dharma readings, or the light work which I hear in some retreat settings is alternated with normal vipassana) would be less effective at keeping one close to the cutting edge. Or maybe not.
Also I'm not quite sure what you mean with "vipassana done right is exhausting". In my experience it's not. Sounds to me like you're going off-balance to some amount.
Maybe I should rephrase that and say: the type of vipassana that in my experience produced tangible results is exhausting. Not exhausting in the sense that it makes me work up a sweat or that it leaves me disoriented, but in the sense that it uses scarce mental resources which at some point run out or are not available anymore in the same amount.