My intention is
- to keep people who come here practicing instead of wondering where they are on which map and making wrong diagnoses
- to make this site truly useful for people from other traditions, not letting them get lost in the dharma-candy-store, wondering whether to switch to vipassana, or from vipassana to a non-dual path, trying to understand something that does not need to be understood but experienced
- not to give beginners a ton of theory that does not apply to their practice either because it's too high level or because it's much much too detailed for the first cycle (Daniels maps come to my mind, don't know how many people had similar experiences with them)
- and to use a little more of the potential this awesome community has to do something no single teacher could ever do alone
So here is the site I wished I had found imemdiately when first visiting the Dharma Overground. Where I would insert more details I put a . Remember that this thread is not for details, but to discuss whether we can agree on a meta-path and how it would look like. And I'll use samatha = concentration practice and vipassana = insight practice, regardless of the tradition. I had used tabs to write it, but they don't display as intented, neither do spaces, sorry. So here's the best I can come up with:
"
The DhO-Meta-Path from zero till Stream Entry
This path is the result of the experience of this community and considered efficient by the majority of the DhO. It should help you experience your first awakening. We, the DhO, highly recommend that you follow a limited set of practices and wait at least until after stream entry with dipping into other interesting traditions and exploring the vast amount of interesting practices and techniques that exist out there. If you are a practitioner of a tradition other than Theravada, go here first (link to welcome pages for zennies, vedantists, christians, ... so the culture shock is small and the vocabulary clear), otherwise, check the . So here are the three phases of the DhO-path:
A) The Path:1 Prepare yourself [essential instructions]
2 Learn to concentrate on one object (samatha) [general instructions]
3 Learn to see reality as it is (vipassana) Before you begin with phase 3, you should know that you'll encounter fear, anger, misery, boredom, doubts and especially confusion in stage 3.2. So first of all, make your no-bleed-through-resolution. Know that all of these negativities are signs of progress and learn to just sit with these unpleasent feelings in silent acceptance, you do not have to do more. Otherwise, if nothing is happening, you're likely in phase 3.3. Just continue to watch your reality and don't be surprised if your pracice is not linear, but goes back and forth between 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3. If you want to finish it quickly, retreats are recommended.
3.1 A&Pcross the Arising and Passing Away Event through applying a vipassana (= seeing clearly) technique to your object of concentration. Don't get used to the bliss. Practice pure concentration and vipassana together. [insert A&P symptoms]
3.2 Dark Night whenever unpleasant stuff as described above shows up and your practice gets difficult, accept it and don't spend your meditation time with the content. Practice vipassana.
3.3 Equanimityunspectacular phase, be patient, relax. Don't expect anything extraordinary, reality isn't. Practice vipassana and samatha.
[I would put all the really good, precise hints and hard-won experiences here that can be found all over the DhO, like stuff from the Slacker's guide, or Daniels biggest mistake („not realizing that this is it.“), or Alan's instruction on how to deal with pain and confusion (silent acceptance), Constance's advice (take something that is simple and feels good to you, and stick with it)... all these invaluable one-liners]
B ) The Essentials: (should be tradition-independent)
1 preparation
ethical basis
ability to make resolutions
believe that you can do it
2 concentration
chose a concentration object and learn to enter the second jhana
3 insight
[don't know what to put here ...maybe: learn to see reality as it is till something profound changes, and link to a page with 1st-path-experiences / symptoms]
Examples...
C1) ...of details:1 ethical basis:
practice one or all of a list of values (5 precepts, sermon of the mountain, ...)
just be kind to yourself and others
[resolutions, belief, ...]
2 concentration objects
breath
kasina
candle flame
whole body / Focus on Rest (S.Y.)
energy practices
metta / Focus on Positive
[all of them should be links to a page with instructions and descriptions of the first 2-4 jhanas (SOFT jhanas please) and maybe the ñanas also so people can identify them ... I equated what was A&P and dissolution with first jhana or access concentration after misdiagnosing myself pre-A&P because I could not percieve impermanence anywhere]
3 vipassana techniques
Mahasy Sayadaw noting
energy practices / Focus on Change
Shinzen Young's other four ways
surrender / choiceless awareness
zazen
C2)...of the whole path[put your tradition here if they follow the meta-path more or less, otherwise, put them under E ... maybe C2 is better put under the welcome pages, but then if someone had not yet decided on a tradition it would be nice to have them at a glance, for example:
Magick
essentials + additionally
1) ability to do magick + familiarity with synchronicities + symbolic knowledge
3) Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel
3.1 Knowledge and Konversation
3.2 The Abbyss
3.3 Waiting for the Union
I'd also put details on, for example, energy work here, no problem that it does mix up vipassana and samatha as far as I can say ... ]
D) optional1) preparation
upright posture (recommended)
abdominal breathing (rec)
active relaxation (rec)
teacher or at least someone online to talk to (rec)
psychotherapy
tai chi, qi gong, hatha yoga (?)
2) concentration
brainwave entrainment
coffee

3) insight
3.1 A&P
your tips for staying grounded...
3.2 dark night
dance or music (improvised) to express and release difficult emotions
sports
[add anything that was useful for you and/or is still valuable]
E) Variants dry insight
[explanation and pro / con / why it was not chosen as the recommended path]
strong samatha
[phase 2 till 4th jhana, insert pro / con, e.g. more time required]
non-dual
[would replace both 2 and 3, pro / con, e.g. not duable for the majority = unnecessary confusion]
[put traditions and instrucitions that fall under these three categories here as well, e.g. KFD, Vajrayana, Advaita, ... ]
And finally, invite people to contribute, to either give feedback and help us improve this thing or to write about their own tradition if it's not yet represented here.“
So what do you think? Focus on sections A and B please and treat the rest as decoration for now.