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> The entire article reeks of fear-mongering on the basis of rare and extreme anecdotes. At least in vipassana, the dark night period is considered to be a pha
by Alex3917 10y ago
> The entire article reeks of fear-mongering on the basis of rare and extreme anecdotes.
At least in vipassana, the dark night period is considered to be a phase along the path or whatever. In other words, you basically can't reach enlightenment without having a complete mental breakdown and losing your ability to hold down a job and function normally in society, often for a couple years if not permanently. C.f. her interviews on the Buddhist Geeks.
You're not going to have issues if you're just meditating for fifteen or twenty minutes a day or whatever, it's only if you're doing this for hours every day and getting into the ego dissolution stages.
- GavinMcG 10y agoI feel that "at least in vipassana" is too broad to be useful – "vipassana" in Pali just means "insight", and there are an awful lot of different groups that lay claim to the term. That's especially true without more resources that support that claim. I'm no expert in this, but I have explored the meditation ecosystem a bit, and this is the first time I've heard the claim that the dark night is necessary.
- Alex3917 10y agoEach tradition within vipassana has a slightly different roadmap, but they all seem to have some sort of 'completely losing your shit' stage somewhere in the middle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81-%C3%B1%C4%81%E1%B9%87a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81-%C3%B1%C4%81%E1... See also Daniel Ingram's book, which Buddhist Geeks also talks about all the time: http://www.buddhistische-gesellschaft-berlin.de/downloads/mastering-vers-3.pdf http://www.buddhistische-gesellschaft-berlin.de/downloads/ma...
- neurobuddha 10y agoI meditate two hours a day, every day. Mostly Zazen. I haven't experienced mental breakdowns. However, when I first started using imagery as a focal point, I would weep uncontrollably about mid-way through my meditation session. I think it was a release of pent-up emotion. It lasted about a week and then stopped completely.
- dlevine 10y agoI sometimes start crying midway through a meditation (I do mostly Goenka-style mindfulness meditation). At this point, I just sort of see it as normal.