| | Hi Thomas, I can think of many angles on this quote:
1. The "Insight Disease" quip by Daniel and others. Crossing the A&P, you "contract insight disease", and the only cure is more insight, until the disease goes away (arahatship). It's a funny way to put it, but it's true: once on the ride, you can't get off, and trying to get off will make you miserable. Most people I know don't want to get on that ride. Those who completed it report that it was worth it, and that's where the Buddha quote comes from, I guess.
2. Most people I know, if they are interested in meditation and other "spiritual" practices at all, just want a bit of calm, some sense of purpose, the aesthetics of spirituality (candles, cushions, community life, celebrations, noble ideals), fesivals and rites of passage, and so on. They wish to augment and enhance their lives, not get launched into a spiritual quest. This is perfectly legitimate, and if such a person were to accidentally cross the A&P by unwittingly doing a practice designed for that, their life would be "ruined" in the sense alluded to by Reggie Ray.
3. Meditation is often advertised as something purely beneficial, and expectations are severely skewed as a result. Daniel has a nice rant in MCTB where he compares insight practices to a potent medication that will upset one's brain chemistry as a side-effect. Such a medication would come with warnings and would be prescribed by trained physicians. So Daniel goes to great lengths to describe the possible side-effects.
4. As you say, the article is about specific Tibetan practices. But the "warning" applies to all insight practices.
You mentioned doubt rolling in your mind. In my experience, doubt always follows the pattern of "is this person right? Is that book correct? Will these practices lead to those results? ..." i.e. trying to find a satisfactory ordering of increasing "correctness" for lining up and comparing opinions, to decide which one I should hold. The only "cure" for this kind of spiritual doubt I'm aware of is to actually do the practices, and see for myself.
Cheers, Florian |