Time Magazine Dark Night article

Matthew, modified 10 Years ago at 9/18/13 2:21 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 9/18/13 2:05 PM

Time Magazine Dark Night article

Posts: 119 Join Date: 1/30/13 Recent Posts
http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/17/aaron-alexis-and-the-dark-side-of-meditation/

This article is notable for 1) bringing in Dr. Willoughby Britton (pragmatic dharma scientist; runs Cheetah House) as The Expert and 2) floating concepts originating with MCTB, but otherwise the article is a shallow treatment that doesn't differentiate between types of meditation, much less describe what kind of meditation Alexis was doing. You could mad lib this article to link any of the subject's habits to violence: "Scientists say gaming/meditation/alcoholism/mental illness are sometimes bad for you. Could that activity be solely to blame for this horrible rampage?"

If the reporter had cared to cover the subject properly instead of scaremongering, Dr. Britton could've given the reporter more useful information. I wonder if this is the first instance of the media using Daniel's (originally Bill Hamilton's?) "dark night" nickname for the dukkha nanas.
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Tony K, modified 10 Years ago at 9/18/13 6:05 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 9/18/13 6:03 PM

RE: Time Magazine Dark Night article

Posts: 18 Join Date: 2/9/11 Recent Posts
According to another newspaper, Alexis did spent time at a local Thai Buddhist Center and even tried to learn meditation there. But according to a buddhist monk at the center, Alexis never really made any effort to learn the meditaion. Alexis was attending the meditaion session in attempt to pick up Thai woman.

Alexis' best friend (who is a Thai) confirmed that Alexis even travelled to Thailand but he spent time at massage parlours and tried to pick up women but got dumped. Alexis had some serious mental problems. When he started to attend the local Buddhist Center, he went there purportedly to learn meditation to release himself from suffering but the true motive was to pick up a Thai woman.

So this deranged guy Alexis committing crime has nothing to do with dark night! Alexis never meditated seriously enough to even reach the dark night stages.

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