| | you make some good points, netineti, but there are a couple i want to address for the sake of clarification:
1- the dark night is more than an egoic backlash resulting from the abstinence from things like 'concepts, desire, forcing thoughts, situations, objects etc'; were it simply that, every dark night yogi who decided to 'relax and enjoy the peace' would make it through the dark night into equanimity regarding formations, which is not the case, as there is a well-known history of meditators stopping to enjoy the peace and getting stuck, particularly in the late dark night (desire for deliverance comes to mind). i find it more useful thinking of the dark night as something - however you wish to further conceptualise it - that one might just have to be willing to go through a bit, whether or not one wants to, at the same time bearing in mind that keeping the drama out or at least keeping it to a minimum will be good for you as well as the people around you. depending on one's style of practice, different things may work, but having a lot of mahasi in my background, i can't advocate enough the benefits of strong noting as well as patient attention to peripheral vibrations and whatever else shows up.
2- stopping and enjoying the peace is not a luxury everyone will find available immediately available to them, as the kind of peace that is on offer in the dark night is an acquired taste and takes some time getting used to.
3- i agree that getting entangled in concepts about jhana is more or less a dead end here.
4- your suggestion to feel fully any desire or thing that arises is, imo, profoundly solid advice, so thank you for your contribution, which i found valuable although a bit roundabout and potentially misleading, hence my commentary. |