Alesh Vyhnal:
Michael:
I find it funny that bascially all people here on this forum have insights according to the dominant maps here (4 paths etc.). Now when you look at an Advaita-Forum the type of insights can be vastly different.
I agree completely. Many people are just deluded, fool themselves or report "attainments" after they have read about them in a book. I think it is due to autosuggestion.
I spent ~ 2 months (ordination 7/7/2017, no prior meditation experience) intensively in this practice but did not achieve a cessation, nor do I 'progress' according to the maps. See -> https://www.dharmaoverground.org/discussion/-/message_boards/message/6668994 , would you classify my identification with some of the 'progress' as being affected by autosuggestion? Some of the things I do not completely identify with e.g. Dark Night, I experience unpleasant sensations, they seem all over the place, does not really bother much, etc. I have bad moods but hey I had bad moods before practice so I cannot empirically say the 'dark night' caused my bad moods.
BUT I had an American guy that was here to learn Vipassana meditation and he supposedly (my amateur diagnosis) encountered A&P and 2 days later he was so ill (fever, headache, etc.) I had to send him to the hospital where the doctors found nothing wrong (blood+urine+? tests) with him. He has never read MCTB nor know what Vipassana is before, I gave him the warnings (yes Daniel, I agree warning is necessary) before he started meditating but he knows close to nothing about the maps (I did not want him to script and he agreed). So what else can it be other than the 'Dark Night'? Unless you are saying that I have attained some powers of cursing through warning someone about difficult times ahead or him scripting a verbal warning into making himself sick beyond anything in his life, there is more than 'some' truth in these ancient traditions. I tend to believe that these 'things' are real but not everyone experiences them the same way and I will continue experimenting them empirically.
Also very interesting with regards to attainments -> are the changes really permanent or does one have to keep at it even post completion (e.g. 4th path)?