| | Sup Bruno,
I'm only going to answer based on my experience, as a self proclaimed arhat, and from no other perspective. Doing so as a matter of expedience and practicality because these points vary widely and are hugely effected by one's personal proclivities, life situations, the stages of insight themselves, one's interpretation of the insights gained through the process, and so forth.
I was "shoved" into the path in a very similar way. Had a bad trip, landed in the "rabbit hole" upside down, thought maybe the whole buddhist thing might fix my world.
(1)(2). Dan speaks vaguely due to what I mentioned in the first paragraph. Of everyone I've met, I'm probably the least appreciative of enlightenment, and it's still the best thing I've ever done. Invaluable to me in nearly every facet of the transformation. The reason we can't "accurately" say what that transformation is, is because it's predicated on non-dual logic, rather than duality based logic. Thus, it's sort of like mixing two sets of logic together and hoping that someone with knowledge of only one will somehow understand the synthesis-- it just doesn't really work out.
(3) Correct. Note that the stages change vastly in their manifestations in one's life, and based on your interpretations and life situations. Also note that most of us consider the end result to be quite "normal." Not such a big holy damn deal as it is through other parts of the path. But yes, again, permanent and irreversible.
(4) Personality might change, but for me specifically, this was mostly stage specific. When the path was all said and done, I was quite similar to as I was before stream-entry. That said, the loss of self afforded me a flexibility to manipulate my personality in ways that I had previously been unable to. I missed my family, friends, and still do.
(cont.) |