Forum: Jhana and Ñana
Kenneth,
thanks for your post. love your chicken herding analogy. have you considered writing "Vipassana or Insight Meditation for Dummies"? i think you should write one

will keep this information handy as i continue with my practice.
btw, your "parlor trick" with your dharma friends reminded me of Ken Wilber's video wherein he played around with his brain waves. here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFFMtq5g8N4
instead of using fingers to signal what jhana you're in, i think it would be cool to have an EEG machine to take a "brain wave print" of each nana/jhana so that we could have an objective way of knowing that you're not just pulling our leg

on a serious not, an EEG machine would be a cool teaching device since it could be used in conjunction with subjective reports to evaluate how a person is progressing in his/her practice.
thanks again and keep on demystifying the path.
~C