Bill McCloskey:
And finally how to tell a good path from a bad path. In a good path, every day you should see yourself becoming calmer, more dispassionate, more patient and above all HAPPIER. If your path is making you agitated, depressed, unsure, confused, or defensive, it is the wrong path.
And when evaluating a path, look to see if the students of that path exhibit wisdom, patience, calmness, and above all happiness. If they seem agitated, defensive, obsessive, confused and above all not happy, than that is a path to avoid.
Bill, I enjoyed this post and many of your points are spot-on, but I disagree with the one I quoted above.
Here's the Buddha in the
Vitthara Sutta:
Monks, there are these four modes of practice. Which four? Painful practice with slow intuition, painful practice with quick intuition, pleasant practice with slow intuition, & pleasant practice with quick intuition.
If you read the whole sutta, you'll see that for some practitioners, practice is quite painful according to their nature and due to no fault of their own or the technique. The suttas do not support your claim that a good path is necessarily easy and peaceful. I think practitioners who make pleasant progress, which is a consequence of their nature, sometimes believe that others are at fault or practicing incorrectly when they have a difficult experience on the path, when that isn't the case.
It's OK to swear off this forum if you feel that is best for you, but we have benefited from your contributions. It would also be OK to leave for a while and return to contribute more if the inspiration should strike you.
According to the commentaries, the Buddha would sometimes teach almost continuously, sleeping only an hour a night, but other times he would go into private retreat. I've seen many people here stop posting for awhile and then return as the currents of their practice change , alternating between engagement with other practitioners and seeking solitude.
I hope you do decide to participate here and on Reddit again . Your posts in /r/buddhism have also been topical, concise, and illuminating: deserving of all the upvotes.