Dark knight help - Discussion
Dark knight help
Jake Frankfurt Middenhall, modified 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 10:07 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 10:07 AM
Dark knight help
Posts: 110 Join Date: 9/12/18 Recent Posts
Hi everyone.
I have the following questions.
1. It is possible to be in a Dark Knight state without even meditate?
2. It is possible to be in a Dark Knight state without crossed the AP?
3 It is possible to cross the AP and be in a Dark Knight state only by doing shamatha (fire kasina)?
Because right now i think the third is happening to me. I was postponing the practice of vipassana because i didn´t want to get in those states in a moment of my life when i can´t meditate that much.
I have the following questions.
1. It is possible to be in a Dark Knight state without even meditate?
2. It is possible to be in a Dark Knight state without crossed the AP?
3 It is possible to cross the AP and be in a Dark Knight state only by doing shamatha (fire kasina)?
Because right now i think the third is happening to me. I was postponing the practice of vipassana because i didn´t want to get in those states in a moment of my life when i can´t meditate that much.
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 10:12 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 10:12 AM
RE: Dark knight help
Posts: 7135 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Hi! I would say yes, no, and yes. However, the 3C nana, which precedes the A&P, can be mistaken for dukkha nanas.
Whatever it is that you are going through, remember that it is temporary and not you. Hang in there!
Whatever it is that you are going through, remember that it is temporary and not you. Hang in there!
JP, modified 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 10:37 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 10:37 AM
RE: Dark knight help
Posts: 175 Join Date: 3/31/17 Recent Posts
I'd say it's very possible for intense but ordinary life pressures to put people into a variety of the Progress of Insight states. I was bullied in middle and high school, and in retrospect a lot of the mental states I went through as I tried to figure out what to do and what it all meant about me as a person were kind of classic Dark Night/A&P states. For example, I'd been a lifelong agnostic despite attending Catholic parochial school. But then one night it suddenly made perfect sense that God was real, I needed to convert to Catholicism, and everything was completely fine. And then that certainty and peace evaporated over the next couple of days and my existential crisis returned. Later on in life I'm pretty sure that the end of some romantic relationships also triggered some classic Progress of Insight cycling.
Meditation is only one approach to getting the mind to heavily scrutinize our sense of self and how it relates to other people and the world. Heavy scrutiny causes synchronized neurochemical changes that cause the manifestation of Progress of Insight stages. Shifts in life circumstances can produce the same intense pressure/pull to scrutinize that relationship to other people and the world, and therefore the same PoI stages. They may not occur with the same clarity or effects or sequence that heavy meditation would cause though.
It's also worth keeping in mind that an interest in spirituality and reading MCTB or this forum is also indicative of having possibly crossed the A&P in your past, even if not recently.
Is it possible to cross the AP and be in a Dark Knight state only by doing shamatha (fire kasina)?
Absolutely yes.
Meditation is only one approach to getting the mind to heavily scrutinize our sense of self and how it relates to other people and the world. Heavy scrutiny causes synchronized neurochemical changes that cause the manifestation of Progress of Insight stages. Shifts in life circumstances can produce the same intense pressure/pull to scrutinize that relationship to other people and the world, and therefore the same PoI stages. They may not occur with the same clarity or effects or sequence that heavy meditation would cause though.
It's also worth keeping in mind that an interest in spirituality and reading MCTB or this forum is also indicative of having possibly crossed the A&P in your past, even if not recently.
Is it possible to cross the AP and be in a Dark Knight state only by doing shamatha (fire kasina)?
Absolutely yes.
Shaun Steelgrave, modified 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 12:05 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 12:05 PM
RE: Dark knight help
Posts: 121 Join Date: 7/7/19 Recent PostsJake Frankfurt Middenhall, modified 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 8:30 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 9/4/19 8:29 PM
RE: Dark knight help
Posts: 110 Join Date: 9/12/18 Recent Posts
Thank you!
I had a lucid dream of a horrific witch (or dead person) looking at me thru a mirror, she had black dead eyes, she stare at me and then a flame appeared in his eyes... Then i feel a inredible energetic rush all over my body, i think that was an AP experience for what i read. That dream was almost a year ago. So i t kinda makes sense for me to be in a Dark Knight phase right know, guess i need to start doing vipassana.
I had a lucid dream of a horrific witch (or dead person) looking at me thru a mirror, she had black dead eyes, she stare at me and then a flame appeared in his eyes... Then i feel a inredible energetic rush all over my body, i think that was an AP experience for what i read. That dream was almost a year ago. So i t kinda makes sense for me to be in a Dark Knight phase right know, guess i need to start doing vipassana.