| | The way I try to think about this issue is very analytical, perhaps it will help.
Try to think of time & achievements as a bell curve. Some people will travel the path extremely quick compared to others, some will travel the path extremely slow compared to others; most will fall in the middle. Ergo, if you see most people saying "it's going to take you a month to master the first Jhana if you are off retreat," then you know that is somewhere around average. That is only used as an example, and the same goes for insight realizations. Some people may take a long time, some people may blow through it. To complicate things, some jhanas may be harder for some people to attain than others, just as some parts of the insight cycles may be tougher for them than they were for others.
In the end, the only answer which will satisfy in this way is having seen duality completely through, which is not something that will be "different" based on one's setting or the way at which one approaches the task of dissolving "this" and "that."
Personally, I have traveled the majority of the path in about 6 months (who knows, maybe I will get hung up here and sit here the rest of my life?), with mostly the internet and a few conversations with Daniel as a teacher. I work 10 hours a day, commute 2 hours, and have a serious relationship. I have not been on a retreat. Why does this matter? Only to say to say that thought of time-frames is irrelevant. Just investigate; you can go fast or slow, and most of this is probably already decided based on how "you" have become conditioned throughout your life.
Pragmatically, all you can do is practice and do your best to figure out what this whole thing is about, in the time you have available. |