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The Progress of Insight (part two)

The Dukkha Ñanas

There are just two places on the Progress of Insight where yogis get stuck.

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The sticky places are the 3rd ñana and the 10th, i.e. the ascent to the crest of the wave, and the descent into the trough that follows the crest. The 3rd ñana is significant in that if it is not overcome the yogi will not progress to the Arising and Passing Away of Phenomena, and will therefore not enter the realm of true spirituality. Having never penetrated an object of awareness, the pre- 4th ñana yogi will remain ever an outsider, looking in from behind the glass as others have transformitive experiences that the pre- 4th ñana yogi can only imagine. Nonetheless, the 3rd ñana in itself does not present a great deal of suffering. The pain is mostly physical, mostly experienced on retreat, and does not affect the yogis life outside the retreat setting. Such pre- 4th ñana yogis, of which there are many, often become religious, adopting the ideas and trappings of whatever scene they are in. They may become devoted and much-valued members of their spiritual/religious community.

The 10th ñana, on the other hand, is a different kind of animal. It has the power to destroy lives. It is the phase referred to in zen as the "rolling up of the mat," because the yogi has the intuitive sense that meditation is only adding to his misery, and abandons the sitting practice. The 10th ñana is St. John of the Cross' Dark Night of the Soul, a realm of such gut-wrenching despair that the yogi may want to abandon all worldly (and otherworldly) pursuits, pull down the shades, roll up into a ball and die.

Although all of the ñanas numbered six through eight are included in the dukkha ñanas, it is the 10th that causes the hardship, as the tenth is an iterative rehash of the Insight Knowledges of Fear, Misery, Disgust, and Desire for Deliverance, along with some nasty surprises all its own.

Let us look at each of the dukkha ñanas in turn, beginning with the sixth ñana, Knowledge of Fear.

The Sixth Ñana: Knowledge of Fear

The name says it all. Following the peak experience of the fourth ñana, the Arising and Passing Away of Phenomena, the yogi's world began to dissolve. But it was not a problem for the yogi, as the deep orgasmic joy of the crest of the wave was smoothly replaced by a cool bliss. Delicious tingling sensations ran down the arms and legs and thoughts disappeared before they could become the objects of obsession. Now all that changes. The dissolution continues in the sixth ñana, Knowledge of Fear, but the yogi experiences it very differently. He is terrified to see his world falling apart.

About two weeks into my first three-month retreat in Massachusetts in 1991, having already experienced the high of the A & P and the bliss of Knowledge of Dissolution, I was passing the time before lunch by doing walking meditation on the old bowling alley when I was overcome by a wave of abject terror. The hardwood floor of the bowling alley no longer felt solid beneath my stockinged feet. The stark colors of the floor and walls punished my eyes, and the walls themselves seemed to writhe as I watched them. I pushed my hand against the wall beside me, seeking something solid. The wall felt spongy. I fell to my knees on the hardwood floor, oblivious to other yogis who may have been passing by, and pushed my fingertips firmly against the oak, desperate to find a solid place to rest. My fingers seemed to sink into the floor. Tears streamed down my face and tapped onto the wooden floor as I allowed myself to be overcome by an unspeakable dread that I could not understand.

This experience, which lasted about ten minutes, was my first full-blown taste of the sixth insight knowledge, Knowledge of Fear. As intense as it was, momentarily plunging me into what seemed like a bad acid trip from a 1960s anti-drug propaganda film, it was mercifully brief and passed cleanly away by lunchtime.

A traditional description of the sixth ñana describes a mother who has just seen her husband and all but one of her sons executed. As her only surviving son prepares to suffer the same fate as his brothers, the dread that his mother feels is akin to that dread of a yogi who attains to the sixth ñana. Personally, I find this story a bit over the top, but it certainly gets one's attention. And Knowledge of Fear can be very intense, although for some yogis it is not spectacular at all, just unpleasant.

The Seventh Ñana: Knowledge of Misery

The next insight knowledge to arise, the aptly named Knowledge of Misery, is number seven of 16. The body writhes, the skin feels like it is crawling with bugs, and the muscles of the neck and jaw contract unpleasantly, pulling the face into a rictus. It is hard to sit still on the cushion, as the whole body feels unsettled. Unpleasant sensations arise quickly and pass away before the yogi can focus on them, thus taking away one of the strategies that has served the yogi well until now, that of focusing on unpleasant body sensations in order to become concentrated. The experiences I have listed are just some of the many possible ways in which misery can arise. Each individual will have a unique experience. But the seventh ñana will not last long, perhaps not more than a day or two, if that.

The Eighth Ñana: Knowledge of Disgust

The ancient ñana-naming commission once again scores a perfect hit; the eighth insight knowledge, Knowledge of Disgust is just as it sounds. Food is repellant, the thought of sex is nauseating, and everyone smells bad. Again, this ñana is generally short-lived.

The Ninth Ñana: Knowledge of Desire for Deliverance

Do you know what it feels like when you are sobbing, completely at wit's end, overcome by grief and self-pity? The body shakes and rocks, and you feel the release of total surrender to your emotional pain. This is the ninth insight knowledge, Knowledge of Desire for Deliverance.

The Tenth Ñana: Knowledge of Re-Observation

This is where the ancient Buddhist namers of ñanas fell down on the job. The innocuous-sounding Knowledge of Re-Observation, tenth of the sixteen insight knowledges, is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Books have been written about it. It is the stuff legends are made of. This is the Dark Night of the Soul, and the Agony in the Garden. Although some yogis are able to pass through this stage relatively easily, it is common for a yogi's life to be completely disrupted by the tenth ñana.

When the yogi attains to the crest of the wave in the fourth ñana, he believes that he has arrived at his destination. From here on in, he reasons, life should be a breeze. Even if he has been warned, he does not believe the warnings. He is completely unprepared for what is to come and is blindsided by the fury of the tenth ñana, which consists of the four previous ñanas of fear, misery, disgust, and desire for deliverance repeating themselves in a seemingly endless loop, and worse with each iteration. In addition, the strong concentration of the fourth ñana seems to have disappeared; there is no respite from the unpleasantness and negative mind states that flood the body and mind.

Actually, the yogi is even more concentrated than before, but he is accessing unstable strata of mind that are not conducive to restful mind states or happy thoughts. The yogi obsesses about his progress, is sure that he is back-sliding, and devises all manner of strategies to "get back" what he has lost. The meditation teacher does his best to reassure the yogi that he is still on track, but to no avail. The best approach at this point is to come clean with the yogi, lay the map on the table, and say "You are here. I know it isn't easy, but it does not last forever. If you continue to practice, you will see through these unpleasant phenomena, just as you have seen through every phenomenon that has presented itself so far. You are here because you are a successful yogi, not because you are a failure. Let the momentum of your practice carry you as you continue to sit and walk and apply the vipassana technique."

It is interesting to note that a yogi who is well-versed in jhana may navigate this territory more comfortably than a "dry vipassana" yogi, as jhana is the "juice" that can lubricate his practice.

The pre-4th ñana yogi who repeatedly fails to penetrate the object and proceed to the Arising and Passing Away of Phenomena is what Sayadaw U Pandita calls the "chronic yogi." This yogi can go to retreat after retreat, over a period of years, and never understand what vipassana practice is all about. He will, upon hitting the cushion, quickly enter into a pleasant, hypnogogic state, maybe even discover jhana, but go nowhere with regard to the insight knowledges. U Pandita's frequent exhortations to greater effort and meticulous attention to detail in noting the objects of awareness are aimed at this "chronic yogi."

The "dark night yogi," on the other hand, is Bill Hamilton's "chronic achiever." Having sailed through the all-important fourth ñana and subsequent ñanas five through nine, he hits a wall at the tenth, and can easily spend years there. But even the darkest night ends, and when it does, dawn is sure to follow. The next stop on the Progress of Insight, Knowledge of Equanimity, will make everything that came before it seem worthwhile.

Continue with, The Progress of Insight (part three)

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