OK, so this is a summary of my thoughts and feelings after reading too much (here, mostly but also there).
I have been meditating and doing yoga and other things for many years, but not as "hardcore" or consistently as most of you people. I have also had spontaneous experiences of many things since childhood, scary things, peaceful things, spirits, other people's thoughts and feelings, loss of identity in a good sense and a "bad" sense... not something I would call attainment, just sensitivity.
BUT, I don't understand the fixation with stages and the dark night, or stages what so ever. In my opinion, sometimes you're here, sometimes you're there... If there is a state of mind that is free of "ego" or completely accepting the now, perhaps we go to, into, and from, out of, that stage all the time? Why suffer so much? And, perhaps this is my point, why go hardcore? If meditating too much makes us feel bad, why do it when what we are looking for is not dependant on effort but on an acceptance of existance?
My own experience of meditation is that very little is needed for me to feel good, and feel good is what I want, not in the sense of taking a pill, but in the sense of doing something simple and natural that puts me in touch with what's already ther but is hidden behind the stress of social conditioning and our society. Why worry about it? Why talk about dark nights when dark nights have been a reality in our lives since we where kids?
I hope this makes sense somehow, these were spontaneous thoughts and sort of, well just from the heart.
Mattias
