Daniel, your humor and enthusiasm for practice is infectious. Your description of the experience of 3rd path has renewed some of my previous dharmafuel. Thank you.
Too many times I wished I could jump in the conversation and ask technical questions, so I understand some of the frustations expressed in this thread. Here are some thoughts I had
Weirdly, I think your cynicism has comforted me. Previously I had the perception that most 'spiritual' teachers have a naively optimistic view of the fate of the political, economic, and social landscape. Let it be known that
I found your acknowledgement of the arguably dire situation of the planet even more comforting than
the Pope's.
I was delighted at your man in the head at the controls metaphor. My latest metaphor for considering the paradox of noun-self is thinking about the little man in the head of the man in our head, ad infinitum.
Your discussion of the importance of causality when talking about the Powers brought to mind dreams. Our dreams can be transformational, educational, profound, etc and have a real impact on our daily life. 'Are' dreams 'real'? Red herring.
Also, at one point when you were grasping for words to explain the reduction in suffering of arahatship, Kenneth Folk's 'meta-okayness' came to mind. From my limited perspective it seems like the simplest way of saying it.
Anyway, thanks!

EDIT:
You should highly consider this subtitle MCTB2: Everyone Poops (even buddhas)