If by "stream of consciousness" you mean thoughts, there is a nice discussion on something very similar to what you describe in the MTCB chapter on the thoughts model...


Bye!

Hi,

My background is Taoist too, involved in Taijiquan, I Ching, Qi Gong, etc for over 15 years, but with no specific lineage I can be linked to. Which one is yours?

In the link below, I summarized for the Wiki section the Taoist Map as taught by Liu Hun Chieh and his disciple Bruce Frantzis. My main practice is derived from buddhist Bhante Vimalaramsi, which I found very similar to the taoist one. If possible, I would like to hear your description on your lineage's stages of enligtenment.

Liu Hung Chieh - Bruce Frantzis

Best,

ps. the map is objective and universal

ps. the map is objective and universal

1) There is only one final enlightenment regardless of technique.

2) No student will ever experience a dukkha nana before the A&P

3) Students at equivalavent attainments are equally pure. ie. All arahants are equally pure.

and I am aware that certain lineagues (non-dual ect.) use direct techniques that let you dip in a single moment (without traveling the nanas) but these examples don't contradict the above.

I'll be more clear:
1) There is only one final enlightenment regardless of technique.

The maps are far from being objective or universal, they're conceptual models of subjective experience based on topographic similarities and, although admittedly accurate in my own experience, are not universal for all practitioners.

1) There is only one final enlightenment regardless of technique.

The ubhatobhagavimutta, "one liberated in both ways," and the paññavimutta "one liberated by wisdom," thus form the terms of a twofold typology of arahats distinguished on the basis of their accomplishment in jhana. The ubhatobhagavimutta arahant experiences in his own person the "peaceful deliverances" of the immaterial sphere, the paññavimutta arahant lacks this full experience of the immaterial jhanas. Each of these two types, according to the commentaries, again becomes fivefold — the ubhatobhagavimutta by way of those who possess the ascending four immaterial jhanas and the attainment of cessation, the paññavimutta by way of those who reach arahatship after emerging from one of the four fine-material jhanas and the dry-insight meditator whose insight lacks the support of mundane jhana.

The highest respect goes to those monks who possess not only liberation in both ways but the six abhiññas or "super-knowledges": the exercise of psychic powers, the divine ear, the ability to read the minds of others, the recollection of past lives, knowledge of the death and rebirth of beings, and knowledge of final liberation. The Buddha declares that a monk endowed with the six abhiññas, is worthy of gifts and hospitality, worthy of offerings and reverential salutations, a supreme field of merit for the world (A.iii,280-81). In the period after the Buddha's demise, what qualified a monk to give guidance to others was endowment with ten qualities: moral virtue, learning, contentment, mastery over the four jhanas, the five mundane abhiññas and attainment of the cankerless liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom (M.iii,11-12). Perhaps it was because he was extolled by the Buddha for his facility in the meditative attainments and the abhiññas that the venerable Mahakassapa assumed the presidency of the first great Buddhist council held in Rajagaha after the Buddha's passing away.

The graduation in the veneration given to arahats on the basis of their mundane spiritual achievements implies something about the value system of early Buddhism that is not often recognized. It suggests that while final liberation may be the ultimate and most important value, it is not the sole value even in the spiritual domain. Alongside it, as embellishments rather than alternatives, stand mastery over the range of the mind and mastery over the sphere of the knowable. The first is accomplished by the attainment of the eight mundane jhanas, the second by the attainment of the abhiññas. Together, final liberation adorned with this twofold mastery is esteemed as the highest and most desirable way of actualizing the ultimate goal.

Tommy:

These are not some arbitrary levels of a video game that we go through to get a reward.

Calling them "maps" is even a misnomer

There is nothing more than deductive logic.

Look at the stages carefully and you will see a linear progression, not unlike something Descartes might lay out:

http://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=16_stages_of_Insight_Knowledge

1) I see everything in the universe is either mind or matter - Namarupa nana

5) I see that if I do not react to the bad feelings they dissolve on their own, never to return. I am so happy! - A&P

6) If everything dissolves, What am I? I will dissolve. I am terrified - Terror Dukkha Nana

7) Everything vanishes after some period of time,I cannot hold onto anything, life is so unsatisfactory -Unsatisfied Dukkha Nana

9) I want out of this - Deliverance

10) I am out - Fruition


Please see the stunning beauty in this. It is an elegant universe.

argue about subjective and objective existence?