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

This brings me to the Cardinal Rule when trying to sort out what all experiences or attainments actually were: try to repeat it again and again and be honest with yourself. It literally took me many of thousands of times through these cycles and experiences at many levels and over many years to get to the point where I could even begin to think about writing a book like this one. I am still quite cautious about hanging my hat on interpretations of my experiences or what seem to be non-experiences until I have attained them 50, 100 or even more times. If you don’t have the necessary level of clarity and mastery to repeat the experience of interest again and again, either do enough clear and diligent practice to attain the required mastery or don’t ask the question.

Studying theory can only be so useful for this. In the end and always, it is practice and continued direct experience that reveals and clarifies.

While it is somewhat true that with clarity comes mystery, this maxim can easily be used as a cop out.

A related question is, “Am I enlightened?” I have met a number of people recently who have exhibited a common but unhealthy

fascination with this question, toying with the possibility that they were enlightened in “past lives” (whatever), were enlightened earlier in their life and “repressed it” (not!), were enlightened by interesting experiences that were bound up in time and space (whoops!), such as A&P Events, formless realm experiences, visions of beings, unusual raptures, etc. For these sorts of people, as well as those working on higher paths who are stuck in the in-between stages, I offer the following:

The first thing one must know about enlightened beings is that Fruitions occur for them, and they do so naturally and fairly often.

True, there may sometimes be an initial period after first attaining a path when they might not happen so often (the range being from once every day to once every week or so at the very longest). However, Fruitions are largely unavoidable. It would take lots of consistent work to keep them from happening, and if one let one’s guard down they would show up again quickly enough. In fact, the longer one goes 248

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without a Fruition, the more the pull towards that which is not any of this intensifies.

Even those who are working on the next path will typically have recurring Fruitions from the current path sneak in even if they don’t want them to. This is one way to distinguish A&P Events from Fruitions, as crossing above the level of the A&P quickly diminishes in intensity, fades quickly as the focus of one’s practice, and fails to provide the consistent sense of release, ease and sense of well-being that attaining a Fruition does.

Before enlightenment, one always had to developing access

concentration, attaining Mind and Body and working from there every time they meditated (unless practicing very strongly, often and well, when one may be able to keep up enough momentum to avoid falling back to the beginning). After attaining a path one begins at the level of the Arising and Passing Away and proceeds with much more skill and confidence. Simply reflecting on reality even slightly will result in a nearly instantaneous shift to a Mind and Body-like state. At a whim, one can begin meditating at the level of the A&P, beginning with the double-dip state shift at the middle and then end of the out breath that is the hallmark of that stage. Thus, enlightened beings can perceive vibrating phenomena at a whim.

In that same vein, the cycles of insight from stage 4 to 11 and then 15 always influence the conscious life of those who are enlightened.

They are inescapable. They cycle endlessly in one’s waking hours and even when dreaming. They subtly or overtly color one’s mood, energy level and perception of the world. As soon as a Fruition is attained, the cycle starts again and proceeds, though the timing and obviousness of this fact may be somewhat variable depending on how much one is practicing, what is going on in one’s life and how good one is at noticing the qualities of these stages. Even when doing concentration practices, these cycles are in the background somewhere. It is possible to ignore them to a large degree for a while when in deep samatha jhanas, though it takes work to do so.

I remember lying down to take a nap after lunch when on retreat in India a few days after my first Fruition. Before I knew it, meditation was occurring. The cycles were showing themselves in order without any 249

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effort or even invitation. They had their individual qualities much as I have explained above, though they move fairly quickly from one to the other, and about 45 minutes later Fruition occurred. Soon thereafter, it was obvious that the cycle had started again.