patrick kenny:
Thanks Beoman,
FYI, I've been thinking about those 3D printers for a while now, maybe they would help with a 4'th path print-out?
Thanks for the feedback. I'm curious about one thing though. You suggest that vipassana jhana's 5-8 don't exist, but in Chapter 25 of MCTB, Daniel mentions Bill Hamilton's VJ model, which does seem to identify them. Is this a subjective thing, or is there some subtlety of meaning here that I have missed (wouldn't be the first time!)?
Many thanks,
Patrick
Oh i see what you mean. i guess 5th-8th vipassana jhana in that case would be analogous to 5th-8th samatha jhana - they are extensions of the 4th. i havent been able to distinguish between a more samatha or more vipassana 5th-8th jhana like i can with 1st-4th though.
also about all this, im not sure how , for example, the Fear stage of 2nd path is different from Fear stage of 1st... i don't think you are 'going' anywhere by doing all this. that is, the sense of progression and stuff is an illusion, similar to the way time is an illusion. what you're doing is just bending your perception in different ways, and in a well-mapped-out way, and using that to gain insight... but i'm not sure where i'm going with this