Author: Alex002
Forum: The Arising and Passing Away

On page 279 of MCTB, Daniel writes "Note, the A&P event typically shows up only once per path unless a long period of time goes by without practice after it,...". As there's a lot of people here who have attained at least one path, I'd like to know if you can confirm this statement. So if you fall back to the earlier stages after the A&P event, you would work your way up to A&P territory and cross this territory again but typically without the incredible speed & intensity of the "A&P event"?

Welcome to the Dharma Overground, Alex!

I'm convinced that I've been in A&P territory multiple times during the course of last year - but whether I always fell back below the A&P, and entered it again from there, or just slid back into A&P to leave it again is not so clear to me, even though I keep a fairly detailed journal (dreams, mood swings, vibratory quality, focus quality, meditation experiences and so on).

That said, in A&P I tend to have very interesting dreams, and some of them appear to be distinct 3-Doors mimics with obvious dips into unknowing; these dreams were only half dreams, in fact, as I woke up at some point and was awake during the last part and final dip into unknowing. I recorded at least four candidates for such 3-Doors mimic experiences during the past 18 months.

Whether these count as real A&P peak events in their own right I don't know. They seem to have decreased in intensity, though.

The maps are incredibly detailed and astonishingly spot-on, but the territory manifests in diverse ways, and then we as practitioners have to get acquainted with it (sort out one-time odd experiences from recurring themes) before being able to correlate it with the maps with some confidence. That's my experience at least.

Hope that helps - it's just one anecdotal data point, of course.

Cheers,
Florian

yeah, if you keep slugging at it, you're gonna wear the 'a&p peak' down and it'll 1- get easier to cross and 2- wont be much of an event.

regardless of how you cross a&p territory, and whether there's an event or not, you will gain momentum from doing so and you should make good use of it, firming your resolve to keep going (investigating the 3 characteristics) and being prepared to deal with sloppy, less-than-ideal conditions if they arise. if you're doing this on retreat, you don't want to let up a single bit til you reach equanimity, at which point you should double your effort. this means, of course, proceeding with total and utter continuity, keenly aware of your precarious position, being prepared to fall back into the dark night a thousand times if necessary, and acing the curve such that you don't (you only have so much time on retreat to get this done after all).

if working at home, the same advice still applies, but perhaps not as intensely, and watch out for side effects looming on your every day life.