There was a fantastic meditation student and practitioner. This account will seem fictional to some, exaggerated to others. It is, in fact, true and accurate:

They followed instructions.

They payed attention.

They practiced well.

When reporting experiences to their teacher, they keep to the phenomenology and to very appropriate dharma topics.

They explored deep concentration and insight practices, building concentration on a concentration object, learning the jhanas in order and building a sound foundation.

They used those for insight work, going horizontally between jhanas and insight stages.

They went up and down the jhanas. They explored true formless realms.

They explored the Dark Night intentionally, with control, with interest, and this when they had such strong concentration that they didn't need to at all to go through and complete a cycle, and could traverse that territory in reamls of light and cool bliss when they wished to.

They had no obvious issues to deal with at all, as their morality was impeccable.

They did not project onto their meditation teacher in any obvious way, either good or bad.

They were mature, balanced, poised, dignified, and took responsibility for their own practice, for their own mind, and simply used good guidance as it was meant to be used.

They developed competence and mastery in a Review Phase.

They obtained to many Fruitions many times a day through clear Doors.

They developed psychic powers, had visions, traveled out of body, saw and felt energy, drew figures in the air, had control of their inner landscape to a relatively high degree.

They delighted in the dharma, in mastery of the dharma, in the promise and fruit of the dharma.

They had appropriate and balanced gratitude for the dharma and the opportunity to practice.

They kept their successes largely to themselves, not wanting to draw attention to themselves and their abilities, and so were humble, yet willing, should the approriate circumstance arise, to share what they knew.

They were, in short, almost like a dream, like a unicorn. How rare to meet a practitioner like this. Would that there were more of them.

berrnd, just hover your cursor over the arrow before the title of the post at the top of the page just above the first post and it will identify the forum section the post was placed in.

In this case, Teachers.

Bernd,

Please be nice.

Nick (mod)

If this is not the forum for such posts, BTB, upon which forum of the wide internet would you suggest reassuring and inspiring accounts such as this one be posted? It would seem to raise the level of discourse, perhaps to a degree too high for this place?

The post is fine (apart from the one broken sentence which I highlighted).

But I genuinely don't understand what this is about. It reads not like a real practice report, but like a fictional story that someone created after reading MCTB. I can't tell from the post alone. Especially the last line "Would that there were more of them" leaves me puzzled.

(@Nick
Therefore I thought it may be in the humour section which I checked and realized it wasn't before even posting.

But you're right, I can feel the quality of my posts going down. Should probably stop posting for a while.

@Ian And: thanks!