I'd like to know what the crowd here thinks about the idea that immediately following stream entry can be a period of difficulty that is similar in many ways to the dukkha nanas both on and off cushion, although not quite the same. This seems to run contrary to the usual description of review as a time in which meditation is supercharged and life off the cushion is enjoyable. The experience I'm concerned with differs from review cycling that involves reexperiencing dukkha nanas stages (possibly with high intensity, as described in MCTB ) in that the strongly unpleasant state is more like a baseline.

I'm part of a sangha in which a few of the members seem to be having this experience. One of our members made a video describing this state in detail and contrasting it with the dukkha nanas: https://youtu.be/sLJuO5YE-A0. I think the video does a better job describing the state and doing the comparison than I could, so, if you're interested, give it a watch and please report back your thoughts.

Any comments at all are welcome of course, but more than a theoretic analysis of whether this phenomenon fits a map or not, I'm very interested to hear personal accounts of similar experiences. Has anybody had a difficult time after stream entry or other significant insight experience? Does anybody's experience match up with what the video is talking about? I'm not totally uninterested in mapping (I am on the Dharma Overground, after all ), so it would also be interesting to hear what people think about how these experiences fit into the progress of insight. A relevant piece of data is that at least 2 people in my sangha did indeed experience clear fruitions that preceded the challenging state in question.

Thanks and metta to all!

I watched the video, and although I haven't had my first cessation yet, it makes sense to me psychologically: a part of the mind rebelling against a new insight. A very similar process can happen in deep therapy, where one has had some important insight but then needs to work through the insight to integrate it.

I read a long time ago about a zen master saying before awakening he was depressed, and after awakening, he was even more depressed. Maybe it was the same process described in the video.

Eckhart Tolle also said he knew people who had initial opening/awakening, and then the ego came back with vengence, and the the path was not over..