Hi Ian -
I am glad you liked the post and had favorite quotes.
Here is one that I did not remain neutral to ; )
So as a teacher, he tried to instill in his students these qualities of self-reliance, ingenuity, and a willingness to take risks and test things for themselves. He did that not only by talking about these qualities, but also by forcing you into situations where you'd have to develop them.
Had he always been there to confirm for you that, "Yes, you've reached the third jhana," or, "No, that's only the second jhana," he would have short-circuited the qualities he was trying to instill.
He, rather than your own powers of observation, would have been the authority on what was going on in your mind; and you would have been absolved of any responsibility for correctly evaluating what you had experienced.
(spacing added by me for ease of reading)
I am both blown away sometimes by the unique insight offered up by the mind in meditation and the opposite use of mind: my volitional ignorance brushing meditation off of the top of my daily to-do's. *sigh* Par for (my) course...