Mastering the Core Teachings of Buddha - An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book

attainment of Fruition, there may not have been enough clarity at the time for one’s memory of the way that particular door presented and of the depth of the discontinuity to be clear enough to satisfactorily answer the question.

There are also a large number of possible momentary unknowing experiences that can present in ways that seem convincingly like the attainment of Fruition, even for meditators with years of experience with these issues. I will mention some of the most common events that can be mistaken for Fruition here, though this is far from being a complete list.

Momentary experiences of the formless realms that arise in the insight stage of 11. Equanimity, particularly nothingness and neither perception nor yet non-perception, are common culprits. However, if one is this close, the real thing is very likely to occur sooner or later.

Formless experiences arising from pure concentration practices have fooled people for millennia into thinking they were Fruitions. As mentioned earlier, insight stage 4. The Arising and Passing Away, particularly the Arising and Passing Away Event itself, is a pernicious trickster and has fooled countless practitioners throughout the ages into thinking it was Fruition or the attainment of a path. This may even fool somewhat enlightened beings who are working on the next path. Note, the A&P Event typically shows up only once per path unless a long period of time goes by without practice after it, whereas Fruition is likely to be repeated naturally.

Unusually heavy experiences of insight stage 5. Dissolution can be formless and murky enough to fool some meditators on occasion, as can any really dramatic shift between any of the vipassana or samatha jhanas (as these involve three or four “impulsions” or “mind moments”

followed by a momentary unknowing experience; see The

Abhidhamma in the Pali Canon). Even the first shift into insight stage 1.

Mind and Body can fool some novices if is happens dramatically enough and they get fascinated with how unitive, pleasant and clear the stage can be after the first shift into it.

Often it is not possible to make a clear call about what was what, even if it was actually Fruition. While what follows is routinely considered to be dangerous information, I am happy to go to the far 246

“Was That Emptiness?”

extreme of telling largely taboo secrets if it helps to balance the pervasive “mushroom” culture. These are some basic guidelines that may be used when trying to answer the question, “Was that

emptiness?”:

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If there was any sense of an experience, even of nothingness or something that seemed incomprehensible, particularly anything involving the vaguest hint of the passage of time during it, write it off as something other than emptiness. This is an absolute rule.

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Similarly, if there was any sense of a this observing a that, or a self of any sort that was actually present for whatever happened, write it off as something other than emptiness. If you were there, that wasn’t it.

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If there was not a complete sense of discontinuity and if it makes any sense to think of time, space, perspective or memory continuing across the gap, write it off immediately as something other than emptiness. On the other hand, if the only way to remember what happed involves remembering just forward to the end of the

particular door that presented and then remembering back to when reality reappeared, well, keep reading.

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If on continued repetition of the unknowing event over days or weeks it fails the above tests, write it off as something other than emptiness.

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If continued repetition of that particular kind of unknowing event over days or weeks fails to give any clear experiences of the Three

Doors and to reveal something very paradoxical and profound about the nature of subject and object, be skeptical.

•

If there was a double-dip into unknowing events with a few

profound moments of clarity and altered experience between them, as is characteristic of the A&P Event, with one shift happening halfway down the out-breath and a second shift at the end of that out-breath, write it off immediately as more likely having been that or maybe the early stages of Equanimity.

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If the event cannot be repeated, write it off. Those who have attained a path will attain more Fruitions naturally, maybe one to many per day, as they basically can't help but cycle.

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If there is not a rather predictable pattern of stages and perspective shifts that begins to become clear (specifically following the course 247

“Was That Emptiness?”

of the progress of insight listed above in some way, particularly as regards shifts in perceptual thresholds), write it off as something other than emptiness.