Hi Michael,
Mike Kich:
Well I think I'm going to try to order it then. I can't find anything other than a hardcover version, which is annoying, especially given that I have to order it from the UK and so the money-side of it isn't as nice as I'd like...
Believe me, you will appreciate having the hard cover. It's a 1400 page book. I'd hate to imagine that in soft cover. I wouldn't want anything other than a hard cover myself. It will last much longer.
Mike Kich:
I'm a bit curious as to how much rolling uphill into Stream Entry really is like getting a boulder rolling. I meditate for usually a pretty long time, sometimes hours long now, but my body simply doesn't want to spend 4-6 hour stretches of continuously meditating, and I don't know if perhaps that is what is necessary to get the necessary momentum up to make it over the hill. I hope not, since I'd rather accomplish this more gently if possible, but I'd be interested to hear your perspective on how it's accomplished.
I may not have the answers you're looking for. Reason? I didn't pursue Dhamma practice using the same criteria that Daniel and others here followed, meaning the Mahasi Sayadaw method of practice: the Progress of Insight. I read the suttas, read scholar monk's treatises, tried to get at the nuts and bolts of the practice by learning as much as I could by gaining insight into what was being taught (dependent arising, the five aggregates, the four noble truths, the noble eightfold path, the three characteristics of existence, the six sense bases, etcetera) in an effort to duplicate as closely as possible the original training as best we know it to be from the translated discourses of the Buddha that have been handed down to us.
So, while I appreciate Daniel's definition of stream entry (it has its merits), I don't allow my mind to be fit into that box. I'm more apt to use the attenuation and eventual cessation of the ten fetters list as a guidepost for my personal practice, not so much because it is recognized as Theravada doctrine or dogma (which I care little about), but because it is mentioned in the discourses, it makes sense in the context of what is taught, and it works.
As a result, it seems to me that my training has a more rounded quality to it, that things that were left out of other's pursuit of training were not left out in my case, and that therefore it is more complete. So, with that as my point of view, you may or may not wish to accept my thoughts on stream entry.
As far as I am concerned, Dhamma training is a strictly private and personal endeavor. From its description in the discourses, one gains the impression that it was meant to be that way. The ten fetter's guidepost gives the practitioner a way to gauge his own progress at any given moment during the course of that practice, provided he can be truthful and honest with himself according to whatever level of discernment he has reached.
Therefore, if one understands that the self that we identify with is essentially an illusion created within our own minds, that's enough for me to say that one clears that hurdle. Letting go of rites and rituals that have little to do with reconstituting the mind with right view and right thought or intention means clearing the second hurdle. Overcoming inner personal doubt about the Dhamma, the Buddha, and the sangha (such as it is, these days) constitutes clearing the third hurdle. I realize it's a rather simplistic outlook, but it worked well for me. And I'm the only person it needed to work for.
In my own case, it was only when I experienced a profound realization of the efficacy of following the noble eightfold path one day that I knew
for certain that I was on the right path of pursuit, and that I would not give it up until I had completed that path, no matter what it took. That kind of certainty is difficult to come by these days. But it tells you more about a trainee's mental outlook toward the training than any thing else. I considered that stream entry at the time. The stream was the Buddha's stream of teaching, and I was fully committed to following that stream with complete unabated confidence.
So, pick your own stream. But, mind you, pick it well and be responsible for the consequences.
Mike Kich:
Every time I sit down to meditate seriously, usually every or every other night right now, I reach a point that I'd call weak Equanimity, not shockingly calm but comparatively pretty calm, still, with a feeling like I really don't want to stop and I almost have to yank myself out of it sometimes when it's getting late and I really must do homework or somesuch...but it ends then until the next time I spend an hour or so doing insight meditation, though I feel better for the next day or two.
That's a good sign (the area highlighted, that is). It means that you are developing samadhi, which means that jhana cannot be far behind. If in fact it hasn't already been reached.
With regard to your mentioning "but my body simply doesn't want to spend 4-6 hour stretches of continuously meditating," that's perfectly understandable given your circumstance, which is, I gather, that of a student in school. Your education is important to you, otherwise you wouldn't be pursuing it. So, while that remains the main focus of your circumstance, you are right to pursue it. Yet, there is really no need to spend four to six hours at a time meditating given your situation. One only pursues that kind of intensity when one has the right conditions to do so. Two to three hours a day in one hour sits when it is convenient should be sufficient in your case to assist in the reconstituting of the mind.
When you are able to devote more time to the practice (after you have covered your commitment to your studies and once those endeavors come to a conclusion) then do so. I found in my own case that I needed to devote years at a time of undistracted focus to the practice in order to arrive at the place I'm currently in. You may find a similar need. I don't know; you'll have to feel that out for yourself. I spent a three year period and then a two year period on private retreat, reading, studying, and contemplating the Dhamma and its application to reconditioning my mind. What you do with your life is your call.
If you are not able to devote the time that you would like to the practice, be comfortable with the time you have at present. And remember that the object of the practice is to develop mindfulness, to be PRESENT in as much of your day as you are able to muster. That is something that you can have some direct control over and feel good about those moments when you are achieving it. It's a gradual path. Accept that and work within it.
All the best,
Ian