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Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book
The very idea that the teachings can be mastered will arouse controversy within Buddhist circles. Even so, Ingram insists that enlightenment is an attainable goal, once our fanciful notions of it are stripped away, and we have learned to use meditation as a method for examining reality rather than an opportunity to wallow in ‘self-absorbed mindnoise’.
Ingram sets out concisely the difference between concentration-based and insight (vipassana) meditation; he provides example practices; and most importantly he presents detailed maps of the states of mind we are likely to encounter, and the stages we must negotiate as we move through clearly-defined cycles of insight. It’s easy to feel overawed, at first, by Ingram’s assurance and ease in the higher levels of consciousness, but consistently he writes as a down-to-earth and compassionate guide, and to the practitioner willing to commit themselves this is a glittering gift of a book.
Ingram sets out concisely the difference between concentration-based and insight (vipassana) meditation; he provides example practices; and most importantly he presents detailed maps of the states of mind we are likely to encounter, and the stages we must negotiate as we move through clearly-defined cycles of insight. It’s easy to feel overawed, at first, by Ingram’s assurance and ease in the higher levels of consciousness, but consistently he writes as a down-to-earth and compassionate guide, and to the practitioner willing to commit themselves this is a glittering gift of a book.
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First published April 1, 2007
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April 28, 2012
This is not your daddy’s Dharma book! (Your mommy’s neither.)
The differences start with the cover, and no, I’m not talking about the flaming dude with a chakra wheel for his heart. I’m talking about the author’s title: Arahat. Now, Ingram does have a regular title–he’s a medical doctor (M.D.) specializing in emergency medicine–”Everything from hangnails to heart attacks” he told me in a phone conversation. As you ought to know by now (if you read this blog regularly), an arhat (there are variant spellings) is one who has completed the Buddhist path as laid out in the Pali Suttas. “Done is what had to be done and there is no more of this to come!” goes the standard refrain by those who have attained such. Clearly Ingram is, as the suttas say, ready to “roar his lion’s roar” in the spiritual marketplace. He spells the differences out further in the ”Forward and Warning,” wherein he puts you on notice he does not intend to write a “nice and friendly dharma book”; you know you’re in for it when an author tells you he hails from a lineage of “dharma cowboys, mavericks, rogues and outsiders” (16).
That said, the books proceeds normally enough through part one. Ingram begins his discussion of dharma in terms of the traditional “three trainings”: morality (sila), concentration (samadhi) and wisdom (paññā). I especially found his discussion of morality illuminating. Going considerably beyond the standard list of things we shouldn’t do (the five precepts etc), he says
"Training in morality has as its domain all of the ordinary ways that we live in the world. When we are trying to live the good life in a conventional sense, we are working on training in morality. When we are trying to work on our emotional, psychological and physical health, we are working at the level of training morality… Whatever we do in the ordinary world that we think will be of some benefit to others or ourselves is an aspect of working on this first training" (24-5).
He goes on to point out that while absolute mastery of concentration and wisdom (insight) is possible, total mastery in the worldly sphere of ethics is not. And so he calls it, rightly, the “first and last training.”
Chapter 4 (oddly, the chapters are not numbered, only the parts) lays significant emphasis on seeing the three characteristics (tilakkhana) of phenomena–impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha) and not-self (anatta); indeed, this is a fundamental tenet of Ingram’s approach to meditation, derivable in part from his experiences in the Mahasi tradition which has a similar emphasis. His discussion of anatta is clarifying: it means, simply, that when phenomena are investigated closely (as in vipassana), no agent, controller, or subject can be discovered; the things of the world are, in effect, ownerless. This, too, is a significant part of Ingram’s dharma discussion, and comes up repeatedly later in the book. Ingram also discusses the spiritual faculties, the factors of enlightenment, and the four truths.
Most of the above can be found in other dharma books. Where things really start to get interesting is in the section entitled “Practical Meditation Considerations.” Here Ingram’s wealth of experience in formal retreat centers comes to the fore and makes for extremely informative, even entertaining, reading. For example, he lists the things retreatants tend to get neurotic about, such as wake-up bells (“too quiet, too loud, someone forgets to ring it at all”), roommates (“those that snore, smell, are noisy or messy, etc.”), as well as “issues of corruption, romances, cults of personality, affairs, crushes, miscommunications, vendettas, scandals, drug use, money issues, and all the other things that can sometimes show up anywhere there are people” (94)–meaning everything and anything!
This is a section that demands multiple readings. Not because it’s in any way difficult, just because the nuts and bolts of doing a retreat, of daily practice, are often the very things that defeat us. I repeatedly found Ingram’s advice to be forthright, informed, and practical. Many people, for example, get obsessed over posture, but Ingram says simply “we can meditate in just about any position we find ourselves” (96). He notes, for example, how “Many traditions make a big deal about exactly how you should sit, with some getting paricularly macho or picky about such things” (97)–making me recall my experience in a Zen monastery in Japan. He writes how the four postures of sitting, standing, walking, reclining each have plusses and minuses, the principle differences being in the energy level and effects on concentration. He further discusses issues such as meditation objects, the critical role of resolve, and offers some very illuminating remarks on teachers. One clearly gets the sense Ingram knows what he says from firsthand experience.
The fireworks start in Part II, “Light and Shadows.” Little lightning bolts–the sign of something controversial ahead–adorn several chapters. This is where Ingram gets up on his soapbox. Usually, I would say that in a bad way, meaning someone was just spouting. But here, I think, what Ingram does, even if you want to call it spouting, is all to a very good point, and that is to draw attention to some of the unconstructive shadow sides of Buddhist spirituality in America. For example, in the section entitled “Buddhism vs. the Buddha,” he criticizes the religious trappings the Buddha’s teaching–in its original form an applied psychology–has been buried under, and how Americans have contributed to rendering the master’s technology of awakening into dogma or comfort food.
However, Ingram’s purpose here is not controversy. He speaks also about having a clear goal, and encourages asking oneself questions like “Why would I want to sit cross-legged for hours with my eyes closed, anyway?” It’s important you know what you’re seeking, after all, and Ingram hammers this point throughout the book. (It was also one of the first questions he asked me in our phone conversation!) This section also describes the critical difference between dealing with one’s “stuff”–i.e. the content of your life–and seeing the true nature of the phenomena that constitute that stuff. For example, if you’re depressed because your significant other dumped you, trying to figure out why he/she did that to you is reflection on your “stuff,” but patiently observing the emotions of anger or depression as they arise and pass away–i.e. trying to see the fundamental characteristics of those experiences–is insight. The difference here, as Ingram makes clear, is night and day.
Part III, “Mastery,” forms the heart of the book, and this is where Ingram’s starkly non-dogmatic, critical, and pragmatic intellect shows its best. This is also the part most likely to offend and where it becomes clear that if you’re after spiritual pabulum, you’ve come to the wrong man. Ingram is all about “states and stages,” about achieving exactly what the old dead masters achieved. We each have our purposes in our spiritual lives–and he acknowledges this–but he is not looking to comfort or console anyone, or make things seem easier than they are. Ingram’s vision of the Dhamma is, rather, very goal oriented and effort driven. It is a path of achievement, of distinct and discernible attainments. If your mentality does not incline toward this way of thinking and acting, now is the time to bail out!
This section reviews in great, perhaps unprecedented detail, three distinct subjects: the concentration jhanas (1-8), the progress of insight, and the multiplicity of models and definitions of enlightenment. There is plenty here to make for argument, but also to educate, warn, coax and cajole. In short, this is some of the most stimulating, revealing and educational dharma reading I’ve ever done. You could read a hundred dharma books and still not come up with this stuff. And while Ingram is not a particularly great (or even good) writer (more on this below), he is at times eminently quotable. I can’t resist offering a few snippets here. These give you a good idea of what you’re getting into with this book.
You may have heard, for example, about those teachers who say “there is nothing to attain, nowhere to go, no one to get enlightened, your seeking is the problem.” Or, even more intriguingly, that “you are already enlightened.” You find these teachings in some Buddhist schools, J. Krishnamurti, Adi Da, and others. Here’s Ingram’s take on this take on enlightenment:
[It's] "like saying: you are already a concert pianist, you just have to realize it, or you already are a nuclear physicist, you just have to realize it… [It's] like saying to a severe paranoid schizophrenic: you already are as sane as anyone and do not need to take your medicines and should just follow the voices that tell you to kill people, or to a person with heart disease: just keep smoking and eating fried pork skins and you will be healthy…or saying to a greedy, corrupt, corporate-raiding, white-collar criminal, Fascist, alcoholic wife-beater: hey, Dude, you are a like, beautiful perfect flower of the Now Moment, already enlightened (insert toke here), you are doing and not-doing just fine, like wow, so keep up the good work, Man" (360).
I read this while on the train to work and enjoyed an unrestrained guffaw–several times!
However…to double back to my criticism of Ingram’s writing: he’s badly in need of an editor, and the people at Aeon Books let him down. Ingram grossly overuses the word “that”–it’s one of the most overused words in the language, so he is not alone in the bad habit of thatting this and thatting that–and after a while it started grating on my sensitive literary nerves. He also does not seem to know the difference between “phenomena” and “phenomenon,” and, on a different note, sometimes comes off sounding rather immature. There were occasions, too, where he went on unnecessarily about whatever, and a little more self-control would have helped the text out a lot. Again…where were his editors?
But this is minor stuff, mere bitching on my part. Ingram is actually a pretty fun read, and the book is outstanding and unique in so many ways, I/we can and should forgive him. He has much wisdom to offer and we should be grateful for all the hard work he’s done on and off the cushion. I leave you with one nugget of insight that stood out for me:
"When I think about what it would take to achieve freedom from all psychological stuff, the response that comes is this: life is about stuff. Stuff is part of being alive. There is no way out of this while you are still living. There will be confusion, pain, miscommunication, misinterpretation, maladaptive patterns of behavior, unhelpful emotional reactions, weird personality traits, neurosis and possibly much worse. There will be power plays, twisted psychological games, people with major personality disorders (which may include you), and craziness. The injuries continue right along with the healing and eventually the injuries win and we die. This is a fundamental teaching of the Buddha. I wish the whole Western Buddhist World would just get over this notion that these practices are all about getting to our Happy Place where nothing can ever hurt us or make us neurotic and move on to actually mastering real Buddhist practice rather than chasing some ideal that will never appear" (330).
You have your marching orders.
The differences start with the cover, and no, I’m not talking about the flaming dude with a chakra wheel for his heart. I’m talking about the author’s title: Arahat. Now, Ingram does have a regular title–he’s a medical doctor (M.D.) specializing in emergency medicine–”Everything from hangnails to heart attacks” he told me in a phone conversation. As you ought to know by now (if you read this blog regularly), an arhat (there are variant spellings) is one who has completed the Buddhist path as laid out in the Pali Suttas. “Done is what had to be done and there is no more of this to come!” goes the standard refrain by those who have attained such. Clearly Ingram is, as the suttas say, ready to “roar his lion’s roar” in the spiritual marketplace. He spells the differences out further in the ”Forward and Warning,” wherein he puts you on notice he does not intend to write a “nice and friendly dharma book”; you know you’re in for it when an author tells you he hails from a lineage of “dharma cowboys, mavericks, rogues and outsiders” (16).
That said, the books proceeds normally enough through part one. Ingram begins his discussion of dharma in terms of the traditional “three trainings”: morality (sila), concentration (samadhi) and wisdom (paññā). I especially found his discussion of morality illuminating. Going considerably beyond the standard list of things we shouldn’t do (the five precepts etc), he says
"Training in morality has as its domain all of the ordinary ways that we live in the world. When we are trying to live the good life in a conventional sense, we are working on training in morality. When we are trying to work on our emotional, psychological and physical health, we are working at the level of training morality… Whatever we do in the ordinary world that we think will be of some benefit to others or ourselves is an aspect of working on this first training" (24-5).
He goes on to point out that while absolute mastery of concentration and wisdom (insight) is possible, total mastery in the worldly sphere of ethics is not. And so he calls it, rightly, the “first and last training.”
Chapter 4 (oddly, the chapters are not numbered, only the parts) lays significant emphasis on seeing the three characteristics (tilakkhana) of phenomena–impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha) and not-self (anatta); indeed, this is a fundamental tenet of Ingram’s approach to meditation, derivable in part from his experiences in the Mahasi tradition which has a similar emphasis. His discussion of anatta is clarifying: it means, simply, that when phenomena are investigated closely (as in vipassana), no agent, controller, or subject can be discovered; the things of the world are, in effect, ownerless. This, too, is a significant part of Ingram’s dharma discussion, and comes up repeatedly later in the book. Ingram also discusses the spiritual faculties, the factors of enlightenment, and the four truths.
Most of the above can be found in other dharma books. Where things really start to get interesting is in the section entitled “Practical Meditation Considerations.” Here Ingram’s wealth of experience in formal retreat centers comes to the fore and makes for extremely informative, even entertaining, reading. For example, he lists the things retreatants tend to get neurotic about, such as wake-up bells (“too quiet, too loud, someone forgets to ring it at all”), roommates (“those that snore, smell, are noisy or messy, etc.”), as well as “issues of corruption, romances, cults of personality, affairs, crushes, miscommunications, vendettas, scandals, drug use, money issues, and all the other things that can sometimes show up anywhere there are people” (94)–meaning everything and anything!
This is a section that demands multiple readings. Not because it’s in any way difficult, just because the nuts and bolts of doing a retreat, of daily practice, are often the very things that defeat us. I repeatedly found Ingram’s advice to be forthright, informed, and practical. Many people, for example, get obsessed over posture, but Ingram says simply “we can meditate in just about any position we find ourselves” (96). He notes, for example, how “Many traditions make a big deal about exactly how you should sit, with some getting paricularly macho or picky about such things” (97)–making me recall my experience in a Zen monastery in Japan. He writes how the four postures of sitting, standing, walking, reclining each have plusses and minuses, the principle differences being in the energy level and effects on concentration. He further discusses issues such as meditation objects, the critical role of resolve, and offers some very illuminating remarks on teachers. One clearly gets the sense Ingram knows what he says from firsthand experience.
The fireworks start in Part II, “Light and Shadows.” Little lightning bolts–the sign of something controversial ahead–adorn several chapters. This is where Ingram gets up on his soapbox. Usually, I would say that in a bad way, meaning someone was just spouting. But here, I think, what Ingram does, even if you want to call it spouting, is all to a very good point, and that is to draw attention to some of the unconstructive shadow sides of Buddhist spirituality in America. For example, in the section entitled “Buddhism vs. the Buddha,” he criticizes the religious trappings the Buddha’s teaching–in its original form an applied psychology–has been buried under, and how Americans have contributed to rendering the master’s technology of awakening into dogma or comfort food.
However, Ingram’s purpose here is not controversy. He speaks also about having a clear goal, and encourages asking oneself questions like “Why would I want to sit cross-legged for hours with my eyes closed, anyway?” It’s important you know what you’re seeking, after all, and Ingram hammers this point throughout the book. (It was also one of the first questions he asked me in our phone conversation!) This section also describes the critical difference between dealing with one’s “stuff”–i.e. the content of your life–and seeing the true nature of the phenomena that constitute that stuff. For example, if you’re depressed because your significant other dumped you, trying to figure out why he/she did that to you is reflection on your “stuff,” but patiently observing the emotions of anger or depression as they arise and pass away–i.e. trying to see the fundamental characteristics of those experiences–is insight. The difference here, as Ingram makes clear, is night and day.
Part III, “Mastery,” forms the heart of the book, and this is where Ingram’s starkly non-dogmatic, critical, and pragmatic intellect shows its best. This is also the part most likely to offend and where it becomes clear that if you’re after spiritual pabulum, you’ve come to the wrong man. Ingram is all about “states and stages,” about achieving exactly what the old dead masters achieved. We each have our purposes in our spiritual lives–and he acknowledges this–but he is not looking to comfort or console anyone, or make things seem easier than they are. Ingram’s vision of the Dhamma is, rather, very goal oriented and effort driven. It is a path of achievement, of distinct and discernible attainments. If your mentality does not incline toward this way of thinking and acting, now is the time to bail out!
This section reviews in great, perhaps unprecedented detail, three distinct subjects: the concentration jhanas (1-8), the progress of insight, and the multiplicity of models and definitions of enlightenment. There is plenty here to make for argument, but also to educate, warn, coax and cajole. In short, this is some of the most stimulating, revealing and educational dharma reading I’ve ever done. You could read a hundred dharma books and still not come up with this stuff. And while Ingram is not a particularly great (or even good) writer (more on this below), he is at times eminently quotable. I can’t resist offering a few snippets here. These give you a good idea of what you’re getting into with this book.
You may have heard, for example, about those teachers who say “there is nothing to attain, nowhere to go, no one to get enlightened, your seeking is the problem.” Or, even more intriguingly, that “you are already enlightened.” You find these teachings in some Buddhist schools, J. Krishnamurti, Adi Da, and others. Here’s Ingram’s take on this take on enlightenment:
[It's] "like saying: you are already a concert pianist, you just have to realize it, or you already are a nuclear physicist, you just have to realize it… [It's] like saying to a severe paranoid schizophrenic: you already are as sane as anyone and do not need to take your medicines and should just follow the voices that tell you to kill people, or to a person with heart disease: just keep smoking and eating fried pork skins and you will be healthy…or saying to a greedy, corrupt, corporate-raiding, white-collar criminal, Fascist, alcoholic wife-beater: hey, Dude, you are a like, beautiful perfect flower of the Now Moment, already enlightened (insert toke here), you are doing and not-doing just fine, like wow, so keep up the good work, Man" (360).
I read this while on the train to work and enjoyed an unrestrained guffaw–several times!
However…to double back to my criticism of Ingram’s writing: he’s badly in need of an editor, and the people at Aeon Books let him down. Ingram grossly overuses the word “that”–it’s one of the most overused words in the language, so he is not alone in the bad habit of thatting this and thatting that–and after a while it started grating on my sensitive literary nerves. He also does not seem to know the difference between “phenomena” and “phenomenon,” and, on a different note, sometimes comes off sounding rather immature. There were occasions, too, where he went on unnecessarily about whatever, and a little more self-control would have helped the text out a lot. Again…where were his editors?
But this is minor stuff, mere bitching on my part. Ingram is actually a pretty fun read, and the book is outstanding and unique in so many ways, I/we can and should forgive him. He has much wisdom to offer and we should be grateful for all the hard work he’s done on and off the cushion. I leave you with one nugget of insight that stood out for me:
"When I think about what it would take to achieve freedom from all psychological stuff, the response that comes is this: life is about stuff. Stuff is part of being alive. There is no way out of this while you are still living. There will be confusion, pain, miscommunication, misinterpretation, maladaptive patterns of behavior, unhelpful emotional reactions, weird personality traits, neurosis and possibly much worse. There will be power plays, twisted psychological games, people with major personality disorders (which may include you), and craziness. The injuries continue right along with the healing and eventually the injuries win and we die. This is a fundamental teaching of the Buddha. I wish the whole Western Buddhist World would just get over this notion that these practices are all about getting to our Happy Place where nothing can ever hurt us or make us neurotic and move on to actually mastering real Buddhist practice rather than chasing some ideal that will never appear" (330).
You have your marching orders.
March 20, 2020
It is hardly readable and the conceit that oozes from it is too much to handle. I suppose there is something to be said from a number of people gaining a lot from this book. I feel some guilt writing such a negative review when I know (some of) the author's intentions are positive and good but I really think people should avoid this book.
There is nothing 'unusually hardcore' about this. Dharma itself already is unusually hardcore. What is unusual about this book is that the author applies a label of Arahant to himself yet writes a book in such a conceited, arrogant, and egocentric way.
I suspect this book is largely responsible for how the online pragmatic dharma community has developed its culture and it is unfortunate. The worshipping and overuse of maps has lead to an insane amount of scripting which manifests in constant discussion of dukkha nanas and the 'dark night'.
Practicing dharma is a practice of letting go. I am not sure this book will facilitate that and I suspect it will actually lead most readers to pick more up.
If you want something hardcore, Buddhist practice itself is already and there are much better resources to get into it. If you want a detailed guide to deepen insight practices, read Seeing That Frees. For a secular approach and critique of the religion of Buddhism, read Stephen Batchelor. For a meditation manual to jumpstart a practice read The Mind Illuminated. Leave this book unread in your downloads folder.
There is nothing 'unusually hardcore' about this. Dharma itself already is unusually hardcore. What is unusual about this book is that the author applies a label of Arahant to himself yet writes a book in such a conceited, arrogant, and egocentric way.
I suspect this book is largely responsible for how the online pragmatic dharma community has developed its culture and it is unfortunate. The worshipping and overuse of maps has lead to an insane amount of scripting which manifests in constant discussion of dukkha nanas and the 'dark night'.
Practicing dharma is a practice of letting go. I am not sure this book will facilitate that and I suspect it will actually lead most readers to pick more up.
If you want something hardcore, Buddhist practice itself is already and there are much better resources to get into it. If you want a detailed guide to deepen insight practices, read Seeing That Frees. For a secular approach and critique of the religion of Buddhism, read Stephen Batchelor. For a meditation manual to jumpstart a practice read The Mind Illuminated. Leave this book unread in your downloads folder.
March 27, 2025
This book is something I have wanted for a LONG time.
But didn’t really know it existed.
Then, after I knew it existed, I didn’t want it anymore.
Finally, I wanted it, and I knew it existed, and I read it.
And wow.
The timing feels just right.
I’m blown away.
Revolutionary, game changing, world ending read.
Thank you Danieal Ingram.
I’m DEFINITELY/EAGERLY going to re-read this in 2025.
Until then I have nothing of value to share about it.
Other than wow.
5/5 Stars ⭐️
NOTE: just finished first reread.
There will be a 3rd.
ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS!
I wish I had gotten over myself and read it the first 1000 times someone recommended it. But contempt prior to investigation is one enduring character defect that I haven’t quite managed to turn over, work through, remediate, or otherwise resolve.
I’d love to write about this thing in some way that approximates intelligence/clarity. But Daniel Ingram does a much better job of that than I could. So just read this book.
CRUCIAL READ FOR ANY SATLY/SERIOUS MEDITATOR.
AGAIN: ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS.
But didn’t really know it existed.
Then, after I knew it existed, I didn’t want it anymore.
Finally, I wanted it, and I knew it existed, and I read it.
And wow.
The timing feels just right.
I’m blown away.
Revolutionary, game changing, world ending read.
Thank you Danieal Ingram.
I’m DEFINITELY/EAGERLY going to re-read this in 2025.
Until then I have nothing of value to share about it.
Other than wow.
5/5 Stars ⭐️
NOTE: just finished first reread.
There will be a 3rd.
ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS!
I wish I had gotten over myself and read it the first 1000 times someone recommended it. But contempt prior to investigation is one enduring character defect that I haven’t quite managed to turn over, work through, remediate, or otherwise resolve.
I’d love to write about this thing in some way that approximates intelligence/clarity. But Daniel Ingram does a much better job of that than I could. So just read this book.
CRUCIAL READ FOR ANY SATLY/SERIOUS MEDITATOR.
AGAIN: ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS.
January 3, 2013
This book changed everything I thought I knew about meditation and the spiritual path in general. He tackles the taboos and myths around the concept of enlightenment, clearly and succinctly lays out the stages and paths that spiritual progress takes and draws parallels and comparisons between Vipassana (often called Insight Meditation in the west) and other spiritual traditions.
Just when I was about to give up on my meditation practice in despair and disgust, this book reconnected me with my practice. It explained in a tangible way why practice is worthwhile and made the whole process seem realistic and achievable.
I suspect this book will only be of interest to those with some meditation practice and theory behind them.
You can download an ebook and read it for free at: http://integrateddaniel.info/book/
Update Jan 2013: I'm halfway through reading this book again and I have to say it's even more amazing the second time through. Having had a chance to digest much of the material I'm stunned at how much more there was which didn't stick on the first reading.
As a side note Saints and Psychopaths is written by one of the author's mentors, read my review if you're curious. It's a much easier read and covers similar territory from a higher level. Some of the stories were interesting to me from a historical point of view as well.
Just when I was about to give up on my meditation practice in despair and disgust, this book reconnected me with my practice. It explained in a tangible way why practice is worthwhile and made the whole process seem realistic and achievable.
I suspect this book will only be of interest to those with some meditation practice and theory behind them.
You can download an ebook and read it for free at: http://integrateddaniel.info/book/
Update Jan 2013: I'm halfway through reading this book again and I have to say it's even more amazing the second time through. Having had a chance to digest much of the material I'm stunned at how much more there was which didn't stick on the first reading.
As a side note Saints and Psychopaths is written by one of the author's mentors, read my review if you're curious. It's a much easier read and covers similar territory from a higher level. Some of the stories were interesting to me from a historical point of view as well.
November 23, 2021
If Eckhart Tolle is the training bra for spirituality, Daniel Ingram is a cuck’s chastity cage. Daniel Ingrm is like the T Lobsang Rampa of Alabama.
There's interesting questions here: What does Enlightenment mean? Are there stages? Is it sudden or gradual? How does one know for sure that you're Enlightened? Does this Enlightenment come and go, does the Guru or Arahant ever have a bad day? What happens to an awakened person when they’re sick, have a high fever, or get Alzheimer’s?
But then again, maybe someone isn’t all that, isn’t what they claim, but one could still learn from them. Perhaps. But if someone gives you a wrong map and you rely upon it, if it’s not dangerous, it can waste a lot of time. I remember when Apple maps had an issue and there were reports of people driving into lakes. My view is that awakening is largely based on our concepts. That’s why yoga people have kundalini awakenings and zen people have kensho. If one becomes an Ingram fanboy and buys into Ingram’s teachings and his concept of awakening -- it’s like the Bible saying, if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.
First off, just critiquing the book cover, the book cover (first edition), By Daniel Ingram, Arahant, M.D., I don't see how having an M.D. degree contributes to a dharma book anymore than anything else. Someone who did time in the State Penitentiary could have a better background for Dharma then a medical doctor. See the author and inmate Jarvis Jay Masters as an example. It takes some reflection to find Dharma in a Hell realm and some determination to practice there. Someone who works a cubicle job could have insight on how to live a good life where you're working a soul sucking job and are underpaid with only two weeks of vacation a year -- and one of those weeks is usually spent with family at Christmas time, so it doesn't really count as a vacation. Someone who works any customer service job could have more insights into people. A waitress in a bar has probably seen human nature at its drunken worst. If an escort became enlightened, I sure would be keen to read her book. I reckon she'd have great people observations and stories. Plus a prostitute runs her own business, website, and does her own marketing. I have the feeling she'd be real in her writing. After you've been a whore, the whole impressing others bushwa and setting yourself on the guru pedestal, should be abated.
Maybe if Daniel was a psychiatrist, it would be relevant -- but he's an emergency room doctor (with a rather poor 2.5 online rating out of 5). Say, don't doctors have a well-known over-inflated ego problem, talk pontifically, and are often accused of putting themselves on a pedestal? Check.
Authors who put their degrees on their books try to puff themselves up but end up looking weak. Here it's a bit sad and pathetic, yet hilarious at the same time. One of the characteristics an arahant should have, is a loss of the ego, but with Daniel, his overblown ego is on full display even before page one.
Unlike most other dharma books, there’s a dichotomy of opinions concerning Daniel Ingram, his book, his maps, and his claims. Those with relatively little spiritual experience may be blown over by his confidence and level of detail in his 800+ page book. There’s a Dunning-Kruger effect with Ingram fanboys. Ingram's book seems to be extremely popular with western, white, young males with little spiritual experience, who treat it like a Bible.
Ingram’s book reminds me of T Lobsang Rampa's, The Third Eye. The bestselling book, first published in 1956, which had tales of yogic flying and yetis, turned out not to be written by a Tibetan Lama at all -- but by an unemployed plumber in Devon, England. A white guy, without a passport.
I was going to say a useful part of Ingram's book is that he devotes space to covering the Dark Night. A topic I consider important. But then Ingram emphasizes practicing your way through it. His limited range of solutions and his advice urging practitioners to just power through it is akin to meditational malpractice. As a medical doctor, he should know better. As an Arhat, dealing with a common meditation problem arising from practice, he should also know better. Although Ingram covers the Dark Night, he omits Spiritual Bypassing. But of course he doesn't recognize Spiritual bypassing as Spiritual bypassing includes delusion and claims of high spiritual attainment. Mayhaps it hits too close to home and his ego prevents him from reflecting on it.
Ingram writes extensively on St. John’s Dark Night of the Soul. But as Analayo points out, in the source material of St. John, St. John never actually uses these words. Instead, they were composed after his death by others as headings and subheadings.
As Analayo writes in his review:
This in itself rather minor point shows that Daniel Ingram’s assertions about St. John are not based on an actual acquaintance with the latter’s writings. In other words, Daniel Ingram here seems to be quite ready to make confident assertions that on inspection turn out to be spurious.
Good researchers and authors know if you’re referring to some work -- it’s useful to read the original sources. The more important a reference to your work is, the more important it is to read the original source.
Daniel does not get this. In a response, Daniel gets prickly about Analayo’s criticism and brings up the defense What Aboutism. Daniel asks, “What about Jack Kornfield using the same Dark Night of the Soul term?” First, WhatAboutism is a fallacy, it’s not an actual defense, second, I’d say Jack Kornfield is a storyteller, he’s not claiming to be an expert on the Dark Night.
I have another bone to pick with Ingram as he claims his attainments have been confirmed during his stay at a Mahasi center. Ingram for being an MD is weak with details of his confirmations. There's none of the journalist's five W's: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. It's funny because a single blood test would have this information on the form. As an emergency room physician, I assume he's somewhat skilled in asking questions and interviewing patients and realizes the importance of providing important details himself. But no. Although he claims his attainment has been verified by others, he’s scarce with the actual names.
By his email records he Ingram provided with his discussions with Bhikkhu Analayo, Ingram seems to have logical and comprehension problems with basic human communication. For example, Ingram makes the conspiratorial claim that Ven Analayo "revealed" that his article was requested by a meditation teacher to damage Ingram's credibility and make sure no-one believed Ingram again. Analayo did no such thing. What did happen was a meditation teacher sent Analayo a copy of Ingram’s book, apparently in the hope that he would write a critique. But there was no mention of “damaging credibility” or “making sure nobody ever believes you again”. Analayo tells Daniel this, yet Daniel believes what he believes, and holds to his belief, and provides the document as evidence. If you read it, you find Daniel is either lying or delusional.
In an interview on Guru Viking, Ingram tells a story of a meditation teacher after hearing Ingram’s meditation report saying to Ingram: “Some people are only arahants on retreat.” Believe it or not, this is used as verification for Ingram’s arahant claim. Anytime a meditation teacher says the word Arahant around Daniel Ingram -- it’s evidence to Ingram that it means Daniel Ingram is an arahant. It may be subtle but that’s the way Burmese Mahasi monks do it! (According to Ingram).
I don’t think I have to explain how ridiculous this is and there’s liable to be alternative explanations. For example, “Some people are only arahants on retreat.” is a great teaching saying applicable to a wide range of yogis. The real key is integrating one’s insights and dharma practice into one’s life. If you read the feuds Ingram has gotten into -- Bhikkhu Analayo, Jhana Jenny, Kenneth Folk, Culadasa -- I dunno man -- my vision of an arahant is someone with wisdom, clarity, kindness -- and equanimity.
Ingram also claims authorization to teach from Christopher Titmuss. Ingram isn't technically lying here, but man, he's kinda overrepresenting it. Ingram isn't connected to Christopher Titmuss's group these days at all. He attended some ten day retreats with Christopher in India, with fifty plus other people -- over twenty years ago. He didn't attend Dharma teacher training with Christopher. He didn't co-teach. He was one of many in a short ten-day retreat.
It seems like just a one-off. Ingram didn't have a long student-teacher relationship with Christopher. Daniel’s time with Christopher can be measured in days. And Christopher's encouragement was before Ingram established his Arahantship claim. To my knowledge, they do not have an ongoing relationship.
It's like if I attended an Eckhart Tolle and Adyashanti camp and asked them if I should consider teaching a Dharma book club circle in my hometown and if they said okay, sure, why not, go for it … -- now I can print Authorized to Teach by Eckhart Tolle and Adyashanti! Is this the way of the Dharma?
It's tricky. Daniel's tricky. But I know Mahasi people and I know Christopher Titmuss. Most of Daniel's readers do not. I can’t speak for them, but I have my own opinions and I don’t think I’m wrong here. I do not believe being tricky and weaselly with words is a characteristic of an Arahant or mindfulness or someone with basic integrity.
Bhikkhu Analayo brings up that Bill Hamilton: the meditation teacher referred to by Daniel Ingram repeatedly in his book, apparently considered by him to be the central authority for his approach to insight meditation, refused to accept his claim to have reached the first level of awakening, as he “believed that I was completely delusional” (p 478).
Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it.
-- Don Juan
Perhaps Kindness & Compassion might be a decent start.
Yet, Daniel Ingram doesn't seem to have much tolerance about people's problems. He laments that on Retreats, people will talk about their stuff. He does not wanna hear it. Ingram favors concise reports concentrating on the breath and noting vibrations. He doesn't wanna hear other people's issues. It's too touchy-feely. Where is the compassion? Daniel appears to have less compassion here than an average guy or gal-on-the-street.
Ingram has extensive treatment of jhanas, but is it legit? It’s strange he warns about the dangers of jhana, of becoming a jhana junkie. The Buddha himself said jhanas were nothing to fear. It’s rare to meet a practitioner who legitimately does jhanas. I’ve never met a jhana junkie. I’ve never heard of any. It seems to me to be a myth. It’s like warning people, hey when you get your levitation and flying siddhis -- be careful going too close to the sun, because it’ll melt the nylon in your clothes that help your drafting on the wind. Okayy. Right. Sure.
Ingram goes into a lot of detail into breathing, concentration, nimittas, and jhana. But what if he’s all wrong and barking up the wrong tree? If you read the original suttas dealing with meditation, it seems a long way from Ingram’s hard core Buddhism. I don’t think the Buddha ever mentioned vibrations or even implied it might be a good idea to note vibrations and megahertz, like Ingram gives in his model retreat report! It seems a bit laughable. Megahertz? I wonder what megahertz the Dalai Lama sees reality.
It’s Buyer Beware in the spiritual marketplace. People should do their due diligence before getting taken in by so-called arahants, vanguards, bhagavans, tulkus, gurus, or swamis.
If one was to do a thorough search for Daniel Ingram one might find an excellent thorough critical review by Bhikkhu Analayo published on Springer. There’s a letter by Jack Kornfield supporting Analayo. Another letter by Venerable Viviekananda of Panditarama Lumbinini taking issue with the claims made by Daniel Ingram.
There's interesting questions here: What does Enlightenment mean? Are there stages? Is it sudden or gradual? How does one know for sure that you're Enlightened? Does this Enlightenment come and go, does the Guru or Arahant ever have a bad day? What happens to an awakened person when they’re sick, have a high fever, or get Alzheimer’s?
But then again, maybe someone isn’t all that, isn’t what they claim, but one could still learn from them. Perhaps. But if someone gives you a wrong map and you rely upon it, if it’s not dangerous, it can waste a lot of time. I remember when Apple maps had an issue and there were reports of people driving into lakes. My view is that awakening is largely based on our concepts. That’s why yoga people have kundalini awakenings and zen people have kensho. If one becomes an Ingram fanboy and buys into Ingram’s teachings and his concept of awakening -- it’s like the Bible saying, if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.
First off, just critiquing the book cover, the book cover (first edition), By Daniel Ingram, Arahant, M.D., I don't see how having an M.D. degree contributes to a dharma book anymore than anything else. Someone who did time in the State Penitentiary could have a better background for Dharma then a medical doctor. See the author and inmate Jarvis Jay Masters as an example. It takes some reflection to find Dharma in a Hell realm and some determination to practice there. Someone who works a cubicle job could have insight on how to live a good life where you're working a soul sucking job and are underpaid with only two weeks of vacation a year -- and one of those weeks is usually spent with family at Christmas time, so it doesn't really count as a vacation. Someone who works any customer service job could have more insights into people. A waitress in a bar has probably seen human nature at its drunken worst. If an escort became enlightened, I sure would be keen to read her book. I reckon she'd have great people observations and stories. Plus a prostitute runs her own business, website, and does her own marketing. I have the feeling she'd be real in her writing. After you've been a whore, the whole impressing others bushwa and setting yourself on the guru pedestal, should be abated.
Maybe if Daniel was a psychiatrist, it would be relevant -- but he's an emergency room doctor (with a rather poor 2.5 online rating out of 5). Say, don't doctors have a well-known over-inflated ego problem, talk pontifically, and are often accused of putting themselves on a pedestal? Check.
Authors who put their degrees on their books try to puff themselves up but end up looking weak. Here it's a bit sad and pathetic, yet hilarious at the same time. One of the characteristics an arahant should have, is a loss of the ego, but with Daniel, his overblown ego is on full display even before page one.
Unlike most other dharma books, there’s a dichotomy of opinions concerning Daniel Ingram, his book, his maps, and his claims. Those with relatively little spiritual experience may be blown over by his confidence and level of detail in his 800+ page book. There’s a Dunning-Kruger effect with Ingram fanboys. Ingram's book seems to be extremely popular with western, white, young males with little spiritual experience, who treat it like a Bible.
Ingram’s book reminds me of T Lobsang Rampa's, The Third Eye. The bestselling book, first published in 1956, which had tales of yogic flying and yetis, turned out not to be written by a Tibetan Lama at all -- but by an unemployed plumber in Devon, England. A white guy, without a passport.
I was going to say a useful part of Ingram's book is that he devotes space to covering the Dark Night. A topic I consider important. But then Ingram emphasizes practicing your way through it. His limited range of solutions and his advice urging practitioners to just power through it is akin to meditational malpractice. As a medical doctor, he should know better. As an Arhat, dealing with a common meditation problem arising from practice, he should also know better. Although Ingram covers the Dark Night, he omits Spiritual Bypassing. But of course he doesn't recognize Spiritual bypassing as Spiritual bypassing includes delusion and claims of high spiritual attainment. Mayhaps it hits too close to home and his ego prevents him from reflecting on it.
Ingram writes extensively on St. John’s Dark Night of the Soul. But as Analayo points out, in the source material of St. John, St. John never actually uses these words. Instead, they were composed after his death by others as headings and subheadings.
As Analayo writes in his review:
This in itself rather minor point shows that Daniel Ingram’s assertions about St. John are not based on an actual acquaintance with the latter’s writings. In other words, Daniel Ingram here seems to be quite ready to make confident assertions that on inspection turn out to be spurious.
Good researchers and authors know if you’re referring to some work -- it’s useful to read the original sources. The more important a reference to your work is, the more important it is to read the original source.
Daniel does not get this. In a response, Daniel gets prickly about Analayo’s criticism and brings up the defense What Aboutism. Daniel asks, “What about Jack Kornfield using the same Dark Night of the Soul term?” First, WhatAboutism is a fallacy, it’s not an actual defense, second, I’d say Jack Kornfield is a storyteller, he’s not claiming to be an expert on the Dark Night.
I have another bone to pick with Ingram as he claims his attainments have been confirmed during his stay at a Mahasi center. Ingram for being an MD is weak with details of his confirmations. There's none of the journalist's five W's: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. It's funny because a single blood test would have this information on the form. As an emergency room physician, I assume he's somewhat skilled in asking questions and interviewing patients and realizes the importance of providing important details himself. But no. Although he claims his attainment has been verified by others, he’s scarce with the actual names.
By his email records he Ingram provided with his discussions with Bhikkhu Analayo, Ingram seems to have logical and comprehension problems with basic human communication. For example, Ingram makes the conspiratorial claim that Ven Analayo "revealed" that his article was requested by a meditation teacher to damage Ingram's credibility and make sure no-one believed Ingram again. Analayo did no such thing. What did happen was a meditation teacher sent Analayo a copy of Ingram’s book, apparently in the hope that he would write a critique. But there was no mention of “damaging credibility” or “making sure nobody ever believes you again”. Analayo tells Daniel this, yet Daniel believes what he believes, and holds to his belief, and provides the document as evidence. If you read it, you find Daniel is either lying or delusional.
In an interview on Guru Viking, Ingram tells a story of a meditation teacher after hearing Ingram’s meditation report saying to Ingram: “Some people are only arahants on retreat.” Believe it or not, this is used as verification for Ingram’s arahant claim. Anytime a meditation teacher says the word Arahant around Daniel Ingram -- it’s evidence to Ingram that it means Daniel Ingram is an arahant. It may be subtle but that’s the way Burmese Mahasi monks do it! (According to Ingram).
I don’t think I have to explain how ridiculous this is and there’s liable to be alternative explanations. For example, “Some people are only arahants on retreat.” is a great teaching saying applicable to a wide range of yogis. The real key is integrating one’s insights and dharma practice into one’s life. If you read the feuds Ingram has gotten into -- Bhikkhu Analayo, Jhana Jenny, Kenneth Folk, Culadasa -- I dunno man -- my vision of an arahant is someone with wisdom, clarity, kindness -- and equanimity.
Ingram also claims authorization to teach from Christopher Titmuss. Ingram isn't technically lying here, but man, he's kinda overrepresenting it. Ingram isn't connected to Christopher Titmuss's group these days at all. He attended some ten day retreats with Christopher in India, with fifty plus other people -- over twenty years ago. He didn't attend Dharma teacher training with Christopher. He didn't co-teach. He was one of many in a short ten-day retreat.
It seems like just a one-off. Ingram didn't have a long student-teacher relationship with Christopher. Daniel’s time with Christopher can be measured in days. And Christopher's encouragement was before Ingram established his Arahantship claim. To my knowledge, they do not have an ongoing relationship.
It's like if I attended an Eckhart Tolle and Adyashanti camp and asked them if I should consider teaching a Dharma book club circle in my hometown and if they said okay, sure, why not, go for it … -- now I can print Authorized to Teach by Eckhart Tolle and Adyashanti! Is this the way of the Dharma?
It's tricky. Daniel's tricky. But I know Mahasi people and I know Christopher Titmuss. Most of Daniel's readers do not. I can’t speak for them, but I have my own opinions and I don’t think I’m wrong here. I do not believe being tricky and weaselly with words is a characteristic of an Arahant or mindfulness or someone with basic integrity.
Bhikkhu Analayo brings up that Bill Hamilton: the meditation teacher referred to by Daniel Ingram repeatedly in his book, apparently considered by him to be the central authority for his approach to insight meditation, refused to accept his claim to have reached the first level of awakening, as he “believed that I was completely delusional” (p 478).
Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it.
-- Don Juan
Perhaps Kindness & Compassion might be a decent start.
Yet, Daniel Ingram doesn't seem to have much tolerance about people's problems. He laments that on Retreats, people will talk about their stuff. He does not wanna hear it. Ingram favors concise reports concentrating on the breath and noting vibrations. He doesn't wanna hear other people's issues. It's too touchy-feely. Where is the compassion? Daniel appears to have less compassion here than an average guy or gal-on-the-street.
Ingram has extensive treatment of jhanas, but is it legit? It’s strange he warns about the dangers of jhana, of becoming a jhana junkie. The Buddha himself said jhanas were nothing to fear. It’s rare to meet a practitioner who legitimately does jhanas. I’ve never met a jhana junkie. I’ve never heard of any. It seems to me to be a myth. It’s like warning people, hey when you get your levitation and flying siddhis -- be careful going too close to the sun, because it’ll melt the nylon in your clothes that help your drafting on the wind. Okayy. Right. Sure.
Ingram goes into a lot of detail into breathing, concentration, nimittas, and jhana. But what if he’s all wrong and barking up the wrong tree? If you read the original suttas dealing with meditation, it seems a long way from Ingram’s hard core Buddhism. I don’t think the Buddha ever mentioned vibrations or even implied it might be a good idea to note vibrations and megahertz, like Ingram gives in his model retreat report! It seems a bit laughable. Megahertz? I wonder what megahertz the Dalai Lama sees reality.
It’s Buyer Beware in the spiritual marketplace. People should do their due diligence before getting taken in by so-called arahants, vanguards, bhagavans, tulkus, gurus, or swamis.
If one was to do a thorough search for Daniel Ingram one might find an excellent thorough critical review by Bhikkhu Analayo published on Springer. There’s a letter by Jack Kornfield supporting Analayo. Another letter by Venerable Viviekananda of Panditarama Lumbinini taking issue with the claims made by Daniel Ingram.
Read
April 27, 2018Many of the major retreat centers that purport to foster insight practice in the US and Europe are actually bastions of the worst pop psychological bullshit retrofitted with a bastardized Buddhist front.
As you can see from the quote above, Daniel Ingram is not pulling any punches in this book!
At over 600 pages this is a long, dense, and wordy book. It's mostly very readable, because Ingram's two aims are simple: first, to debunk some of the nonsense that has grown up around western Buddhism which is frankly a hindrance to acheiving anything; second, to explain the procedure for getting to enlightenment in clear and simple terms.
In his first aim, he is forthright, biting, and funny, although he doesn't intend to be mean. I think he makes a good point that we need support, friends who are into what we are into, good teachers and places to practice. We wish to be in the company of fellow adventurers rather than lone wanderers in strange lands. Unfortunately, much of what we find is not particularly conducive to adventure and deep exploration.
So Ingram has some scathing things to say about people who waste their time in petty sectarian disputes: I am again astounded at how fixated people can be on the minute differences between their tradition and traditions that are so similar to theirs they can only be differentiated by the clothes people wear and the names they call things. Or the Westerners who practise Buddhism by 'becoming neurotic about being Buddhist, accumulating lots of pretty books and expensive props, learning just enough of some new language to be pretentious, and by siting on a cushion engaged in free-form psychological whatnot while doing nothing resembling meditative practices.'
He has entire chapters devoted to what meditation isn't and what you won't get from it including: perfectly clear chakras, immortality, perfect health, any specific knowledge about anything not related to sitting on a cushion and watching your own breath; perfect psychological health and an end to all neurosis and negative emotions; an end to thoughts; a hot bod; some kind of personal radiance that will make everyone in awe of you; a total absence of annoying people and events in your life; perpetual bliss; or transcendence of this earthly realm without actually having to go to the inconvenience of dying.
Alright, so we know what meditation isn't. So what is it? Ingram hammers one point: determined effort to realize the full truth of the Three Characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and no-self i.e. to realize ultimate reality.
As far as Ingram's concerned, anyone can achieve this if they follow the steps:
What the Buddha taught was really extremely simple and , as a practice, particularly unglamorous and generally quite difficult though manageable. If one has a chance to read the original texts, one sees again and again that what the Buddha taught was generally practical and as non-dogmatic as could be expected. He basically said, 'Do these very specific things, and these specific results will happen.' He had little use for ritual, ceremony or philosophy that was not for some practical purpose.
Ingram does an exhaustive job of drawing a map of the stages one passes through on the way to enlightenment. He's adamant that knowing the stages can really ease your progress. There are certain points where most people get discouraged, so it's good to be forewarned that you shouldn't give up now! Like marathon runners pushing through 'The Wall'. Likewise, there are certain stages that feel pretty good, like when your concentration has advanced to a point that you can fairly easily slip into moods of great joy or equanimity. Who wouldn't want to stay at that stage forever? But with Ingram's maps, you can keep your eyes on the prize and stay moving.
Perhaps the only thing that Ingram can't explain is what really is the value of realizing ultimate reality, and why he can't just tell us what that is so we don't have to spend a decade sitting on a cushion. Everyone seems to agree that at some point trying to describe enlightenment to the unenlightened is nearly impossible, like trying to describe colour to people who are not only blind, but sceptical that there is any such thing as sight at all. Ingram worries that any attempt to explain will be misunderstood and lead to misleading preconceptions. He ends up quoting the late great Bill Hamilton: 'Highly recommended, couldn't say why.'
And frankly, as a novice meditator who has not yet even achieved access concentration, some of the higher level stuff looks completely baffling to me. What are we to make of this:
When the emptiness door predominates with suffering as it's second aspect, then a very strange thing happens. There is an image on one side staring back, and then the universe becomes a toroid (doughnut), and the image and this side of the toroid change places as the toroid universe spins. The spinning includes the whole background of space in all directions. Fruition occurs when the two have changed places and the whole thing vanishes.
For now, I'll just have to take his word for it.
June 16, 2020
If a book tells you it has a secret that no one else has, or that it will teach you how to "master" a spiritual practice, run far away. I ignored those warning signs and picked this up anyway. This is the first (and hopefully only) book that I am reviewing without actually finishing (because I only have so many brain cells left and this book was eating about half of those up), but I feel like I really need to warn people who are seriously looking for good Buddhist books to steer clear.
So, one thing you will get from this book is how AWESOME the author is. He is just so enlightened and powerful, and totally knows a bunch of stuff no one else would dare teach you. Well, he tells you enough times, so it must be true, right? As an aside, I tried to research this guy some more and all I could find was a very long bio that he himself wrote that tells you even more about how awesome and enlightened he is. I'm pretty sure enlightened isn't synonymous for "asshole with massive superiority complex".
I was willing to forgive all of this and continue on with the book. It wasn't long, however, before the whole thing devolved into batshit insane discussions about psychic powers, angels, and "Buddhist magick" (and yes, he spells it with a k). I had to check and make sure this tripe wasn't published by Llewellyn, because it's just the kind of dreck they push out to confused teens and bored housewives.
If you are seriously wanting to read a book about Buddhism, pick up almost anything else on the subject. If you want to cosplay as Wizrobe the Wizard at your next D&D game or you want a toilet paper alternative, then go ahead and check this dumpster fire out.
So, one thing you will get from this book is how AWESOME the author is. He is just so enlightened and powerful, and totally knows a bunch of stuff no one else would dare teach you. Well, he tells you enough times, so it must be true, right? As an aside, I tried to research this guy some more and all I could find was a very long bio that he himself wrote that tells you even more about how awesome and enlightened he is. I'm pretty sure enlightened isn't synonymous for "asshole with massive superiority complex".
I was willing to forgive all of this and continue on with the book. It wasn't long, however, before the whole thing devolved into batshit insane discussions about psychic powers, angels, and "Buddhist magick" (and yes, he spells it with a k). I had to check and make sure this tripe wasn't published by Llewellyn, because it's just the kind of dreck they push out to confused teens and bored housewives.
If you are seriously wanting to read a book about Buddhism, pick up almost anything else on the subject. If you want to cosplay as Wizrobe the Wizard at your next D&D game or you want a toilet paper alternative, then go ahead and check this dumpster fire out.
August 19, 2010
Excellent book.
Although i myself followed a somewhat different path, i recognize a lot of the issues Ingram addresses. He is very open and honest about the whole thing, which can only be applauded and encouraged.
I particularly like the many warnings to not get trapped in the more sophisticated illusions that are out there.
It is a very elaborate, enlightening and accessible work, but i have a few remarks.
It is a lot of text and guidance, from my perspective a little too much, giving people certain expectations of certain stages and how these feel like.
Everyone of us is different, with his/her specific issues and hangups, and while it is true that every path has its pitfalls, the one and only thing you really need to remember is to stay attentive, and confide in the fact that change is continuing, whatever feelings or thoughts arise, to dive further into the emptiness and fullness of living.
After all, it is all about getting to a natural, unconfused state of being (i don't really care about the different models, realms and concentration states, frankly). This is a natural process that needs a lot of artificial intervention in the beginning, but as you move on, it becomes more natural and evident. And if you are not ready for something, don't push it. Otherwise you've got to sit through the whole ride and deal with what comes up.
As the author suggests, the practice of "choiceless awareness" is a more natural approach to become aware of the subtleties of our thought structures and processes, and i personally stick to that, for the sake of simplicity. However, this may not be the best approach for other people.
As i have noted, it is a very explicit book - a whole bunch of things and processes are named and explained - which can be of good use, but it can also be a hindrance. I for myself would get lost in all the descriptions of the states and stages. There is no ideal guide of course. I suppose with all the info supplied, you're almost forced to consult a teacher to guide you through it all.
If you went observing along Krishnamurti's pointers like i did, without any formal retreats or meditation practice, it can be difficult and frustrating to have no concrete help whatsoever, and you need to come up with little techniques and useful reminders to somewhat know what you are actually doing or trying to do. But on the other hand, there are less concepts and confusing explanations to get rid of.
Ultimately, the authority and the questioning of that authority lies within you, and in the end there is nothing to hold onto, really. This is also mentioned in the book.
Also, i think it is much safer to stay grounded in the relative world, remaining mindful and open, to explore the meaning of things and nothingness through our relationship with the world, questioning the images we have built up over the years. That approach integrates both the content and the processes of thought, with less problems of getting lost in the absolute, as Ingram and others seem to have experienced much more extremely than myself (it is in fact big part of the Buddhist practice - delving into the absolute, usually while retreating, and then returning to "the real world"). Any path to truth has difficult phases, and these are affected immensely by how life is interpreted.
Perhaps "meaning" is the word i have been missing the most while reading.
In any case, this book is of great help to bring the ancient teachings of Buddha down to their essence, and to put a lot of things in perspective, free from all the glorious expectations and delusions.
It greatly contributes to the development of clearer and more efficient ways of insight practice, without all the nonsense.
Highly recommended!
Although i myself followed a somewhat different path, i recognize a lot of the issues Ingram addresses. He is very open and honest about the whole thing, which can only be applauded and encouraged.
I particularly like the many warnings to not get trapped in the more sophisticated illusions that are out there.
It is a very elaborate, enlightening and accessible work, but i have a few remarks.
It is a lot of text and guidance, from my perspective a little too much, giving people certain expectations of certain stages and how these feel like.
Everyone of us is different, with his/her specific issues and hangups, and while it is true that every path has its pitfalls, the one and only thing you really need to remember is to stay attentive, and confide in the fact that change is continuing, whatever feelings or thoughts arise, to dive further into the emptiness and fullness of living.
After all, it is all about getting to a natural, unconfused state of being (i don't really care about the different models, realms and concentration states, frankly). This is a natural process that needs a lot of artificial intervention in the beginning, but as you move on, it becomes more natural and evident. And if you are not ready for something, don't push it. Otherwise you've got to sit through the whole ride and deal with what comes up.
As the author suggests, the practice of "choiceless awareness" is a more natural approach to become aware of the subtleties of our thought structures and processes, and i personally stick to that, for the sake of simplicity. However, this may not be the best approach for other people.
As i have noted, it is a very explicit book - a whole bunch of things and processes are named and explained - which can be of good use, but it can also be a hindrance. I for myself would get lost in all the descriptions of the states and stages. There is no ideal guide of course. I suppose with all the info supplied, you're almost forced to consult a teacher to guide you through it all.
If you went observing along Krishnamurti's pointers like i did, without any formal retreats or meditation practice, it can be difficult and frustrating to have no concrete help whatsoever, and you need to come up with little techniques and useful reminders to somewhat know what you are actually doing or trying to do. But on the other hand, there are less concepts and confusing explanations to get rid of.
Ultimately, the authority and the questioning of that authority lies within you, and in the end there is nothing to hold onto, really. This is also mentioned in the book.
Also, i think it is much safer to stay grounded in the relative world, remaining mindful and open, to explore the meaning of things and nothingness through our relationship with the world, questioning the images we have built up over the years. That approach integrates both the content and the processes of thought, with less problems of getting lost in the absolute, as Ingram and others seem to have experienced much more extremely than myself (it is in fact big part of the Buddhist practice - delving into the absolute, usually while retreating, and then returning to "the real world"). Any path to truth has difficult phases, and these are affected immensely by how life is interpreted.
Perhaps "meaning" is the word i have been missing the most while reading.
In any case, this book is of great help to bring the ancient teachings of Buddha down to their essence, and to put a lot of things in perspective, free from all the glorious expectations and delusions.
It greatly contributes to the development of clearer and more efficient ways of insight practice, without all the nonsense.
Highly recommended!
March 30, 2018
I read this book after it was recommended to me as a down-to-earth book about Dharma, and I think for what it is, it does quite well.
I think it's pretty important to understand this review to know that I have very few points put into spirituality, and do not consider myself a dharma practitioner. As such, this review is distinctly from the outside looking in, and I recognize that a great deal of my gripes are from a place of ignorance / outside the intended audience.
As someone decidedly unspiritual, the primary motivations I had for reading a book on Dharma in the first place were two-fold - I wanted better concentration, and I wanted to hear the perspective of someone practicing it that actually thought they were getting something out of it worth the effort. At these two things, I think Ingram does a reasonably satisfactory job. A hefty portion of this book reads like Ingram's own personal notes from deeply examining his own consciousness, drills he uses to do this, and some actual decent reasons why somebody might want to go on spiritual retreats.
The book's notes on the impermanence of sensations reminds me quite a bit about this great talk by Sam Harris, where he explores the idea of free will down to the idea of "where did your thoughts come from?" This is a talk that has really stuck with me, as I remember Harris' thesis of "thoughts just emerge in consciousness; we are not authoring them" vividly making me examine my own consciousness deeply. Ingram discusses this at length, and indeed this is one of the most important concepts of the book (and the first of the three characteristics), which is one that I've incorporated into my (admittedly secular) mediation practice.
Likewise, I found Ingram's "Analogy of Shooting Aliens" to be a fantastic one, and one that I wouldn't have dreamt I would read in a book about Dharma. From the text:
"[In] this analogy the aliens are all of the little sensations that make up our experience. Shooting them is paying attention to them and seeing their true nature, perhaps with the aid of noting practice (like a gun with laser sight on it). The aliens shooting us is what happens when we do not see their true nature, as they become a hindrance, binding us on the wheel of suffering for the duration of our inability to shoot them. Some may even take us out of the game (cause us stop practicing entirely). The aliens that take multiple hits to kill are our big issues, those things that are difficult for us to break into their composite sensations. Being penalized for shooting wastefully is what can happen if we note sensations that we didn’t actually experience because we fell into repetitive, imprecise, mantra-like noting habits."
This is one that I found to be really clear, and enjoyed a great deal. To make a pretty corny comparison, it reminded me a lot of Day[9]'s "Kittens and Ninja Stars" talk (which is also incredibly vivid and gaming-adjacent, funnily enough). There's a number of these sorts of little passages in this book that I found pretty exciting to read ("Find a way to be special that allows others to be special also"), and I got some good stuff out of this book.
That said, this book is not an introductory Dharma text - it says so right on the subtitle - and as a byproduct of this it contains some heavy ranting. Maybe half of this book is dedicated to things Ingram found unsatisfactory about western traditions, "the mushroom effect", his frustration with people hiding their attainments, etc. The comparison I'd like to draw here is like reading a book about baseball written by a historian of baseball, versus reading one written by an actual baseball player who has dumped thousands of hours into the sport. The baseball player's book might have some very interesting, high-level details in it compared to the historian, but might also contain a bunch of rants about how certain teams play the game all wrong. Ingram falls into this category, as he doesn't seem to have any "expertise" in Dharma in the academic sense of the word, but definitely seems to have spent an enormous amount of time actually practicing (and will certainly tell you so). This part of the book might have been more interesting if I were a similarly hardcore practitioner, and were able to say "Yes! I agree! That is a ridiculous thing that I have encountered as well!" but I am not this hardcore (nor, really, a practitioner at all). The book is pretty controversial in Buddhist circles, mostly for the assertion that he is an Arahat (or "perfected person") and the assertion that enlightenment is actually attainable, but as an outsider to these circles I have no real opinion on this other than that "perfected person" is a bit of a highfalutin title.
Likewise a lot of the things in this book are downright weird and I felt to be extremely distracting. There's a great deal of discussion about literal psychic powers, and whether or not people who have attained specific states can actually achieve them, which felt so absurd to me that I almost just closed the book outright out of sheer disbelief. There's a lot of text on "extrasensory experiences" like visions, out of body experiences, and other assorted things that simply didn't feel like something I cared to read about, as well as a very peripheral sense of unease that my own doctor might believe he could read my mind. The book isn't spectacularly written (it was, as far as I know, written in Ingram's spare time), but it is pretty clear most of the time.
Overall a pretty average book, probably worth reading if you are interested in Dharma.
((PS: after reading this I found out that Scott Alexander wrote a review on this book, which takes a more summary-ish tone than mine and is quite good.))
I think it's pretty important to understand this review to know that I have very few points put into spirituality, and do not consider myself a dharma practitioner. As such, this review is distinctly from the outside looking in, and I recognize that a great deal of my gripes are from a place of ignorance / outside the intended audience.
As someone decidedly unspiritual, the primary motivations I had for reading a book on Dharma in the first place were two-fold - I wanted better concentration, and I wanted to hear the perspective of someone practicing it that actually thought they were getting something out of it worth the effort. At these two things, I think Ingram does a reasonably satisfactory job. A hefty portion of this book reads like Ingram's own personal notes from deeply examining his own consciousness, drills he uses to do this, and some actual decent reasons why somebody might want to go on spiritual retreats.
The book's notes on the impermanence of sensations reminds me quite a bit about this great talk by Sam Harris, where he explores the idea of free will down to the idea of "where did your thoughts come from?" This is a talk that has really stuck with me, as I remember Harris' thesis of "thoughts just emerge in consciousness; we are not authoring them" vividly making me examine my own consciousness deeply. Ingram discusses this at length, and indeed this is one of the most important concepts of the book (and the first of the three characteristics), which is one that I've incorporated into my (admittedly secular) mediation practice.
Likewise, I found Ingram's "Analogy of Shooting Aliens" to be a fantastic one, and one that I wouldn't have dreamt I would read in a book about Dharma. From the text:
"[In] this analogy the aliens are all of the little sensations that make up our experience. Shooting them is paying attention to them and seeing their true nature, perhaps with the aid of noting practice (like a gun with laser sight on it). The aliens shooting us is what happens when we do not see their true nature, as they become a hindrance, binding us on the wheel of suffering for the duration of our inability to shoot them. Some may even take us out of the game (cause us stop practicing entirely). The aliens that take multiple hits to kill are our big issues, those things that are difficult for us to break into their composite sensations. Being penalized for shooting wastefully is what can happen if we note sensations that we didn’t actually experience because we fell into repetitive, imprecise, mantra-like noting habits."
This is one that I found to be really clear, and enjoyed a great deal. To make a pretty corny comparison, it reminded me a lot of Day[9]'s "Kittens and Ninja Stars" talk (which is also incredibly vivid and gaming-adjacent, funnily enough). There's a number of these sorts of little passages in this book that I found pretty exciting to read ("Find a way to be special that allows others to be special also"), and I got some good stuff out of this book.
That said, this book is not an introductory Dharma text - it says so right on the subtitle - and as a byproduct of this it contains some heavy ranting. Maybe half of this book is dedicated to things Ingram found unsatisfactory about western traditions, "the mushroom effect", his frustration with people hiding their attainments, etc. The comparison I'd like to draw here is like reading a book about baseball written by a historian of baseball, versus reading one written by an actual baseball player who has dumped thousands of hours into the sport. The baseball player's book might have some very interesting, high-level details in it compared to the historian, but might also contain a bunch of rants about how certain teams play the game all wrong. Ingram falls into this category, as he doesn't seem to have any "expertise" in Dharma in the academic sense of the word, but definitely seems to have spent an enormous amount of time actually practicing (and will certainly tell you so). This part of the book might have been more interesting if I were a similarly hardcore practitioner, and were able to say "Yes! I agree! That is a ridiculous thing that I have encountered as well!" but I am not this hardcore (nor, really, a practitioner at all). The book is pretty controversial in Buddhist circles, mostly for the assertion that he is an Arahat (or "perfected person") and the assertion that enlightenment is actually attainable, but as an outsider to these circles I have no real opinion on this other than that "perfected person" is a bit of a highfalutin title.
Likewise a lot of the things in this book are downright weird and I felt to be extremely distracting. There's a great deal of discussion about literal psychic powers, and whether or not people who have attained specific states can actually achieve them, which felt so absurd to me that I almost just closed the book outright out of sheer disbelief. There's a lot of text on "extrasensory experiences" like visions, out of body experiences, and other assorted things that simply didn't feel like something I cared to read about, as well as a very peripheral sense of unease that my own doctor might believe he could read my mind. The book isn't spectacularly written (it was, as far as I know, written in Ingram's spare time), but it is pretty clear most of the time.
Overall a pretty average book, probably worth reading if you are interested in Dharma.
((PS: after reading this I found out that Scott Alexander wrote a review on this book, which takes a more summary-ish tone than mine and is quite good.))
February 17, 2019
Many years ago, ravaged by the effects of an abused childhood and ptsd as a result of service in two wars I turned in a moment of desperation to meditation for relief from the insanity, violence and self hatred that were ripping through my mind and had driven me to the edge of suicide. I had been introduced to meditation decades ago and even though my experience had been restricted to some basic concentration practices, the one thing I did remember was that for whatever time I spent in meditation the maniac in my head would shut up. All else had failed including the predictable addictions that traditionally provide shelter for those in my position at least for a time, now short of blowing my brains out, an option that was acquiring drive by the day a retreat to meditation seemed the only option....and so the journey began.
A long and tumultuous journey, one that I blundered through with little or no understanding, except that which I gained from reading books on practice and psychology. Of the former most were the standard explorations of Buddhist thinking and of the latter most were outliers, like Stanislav Grof, Eugene Gendlin and Carl Rogers. They all provided some context and at least of modicum of guidance and comfort that, despite the intensity of my experience, the depths of despair and and the emotional agony, this was the only way forward. I continued to practice without having a clue of the direction or the procession of that journey.
I truly needed this book then! This is the only discussion of the stages of either concentration or insight I have read that makes all clear, it would have been so helpful to have had the direction it provides and the descriptions of the spiritual terrain before me rather than spending weeks and months at various times drowning in a sense of slipping slowly into insanity. The upshot was that I made it to a point where I could go no further it was all just too much for me. I slid back into the submersion in conditioned reality, referenced still by much of what deludes us all, despite the many realizations and insights I had gained that have remained with me. I have sat now for two years in the the nether regions, not here nor there. Stuck, seemingly with no where further to go.
Reading this book I can now see in context what has happened. where I have been and where I now stand, what is behind and what is before me. I have to admit that i feel such clarity, relief and satisfaction that I made it as far as I did. Time to take up the challenge again and move on, the path now seems clear and at least I have been through it all once before I know what is before me and that I am capable of navigating the dark places as well as soaring through the light.
It is just so frustrating to know that this guidance could have been delivered by any one of the many books I have read already if the people who wrote them had had the courage to break the stupid seal of mystery so prevalent among those who practice, if they had not been so irresponsible as to keep it all from me. They robbed me of understanding, direction and time. Just to know that the gaining of insight is a bitch as well as a blessing would have been so helpful. To know that what was happening to me happens to all who tread the same road would have been a great deal more reassuring than the thought that I was basically skirting the edges of certifiable insanity. I had reached by blind determination something so worthwhile when it just felt to me like I had failed in some way. A pity; it robbed me of the courage to persist.
This book should be prescribed reading for anyone embarking upon the meditation journey. At least then they would know what might follow and could then make decisions about whether concentration practice might be all they want and whether the pursuit of insight is something they have the stomach for before they start.
A long and tumultuous journey, one that I blundered through with little or no understanding, except that which I gained from reading books on practice and psychology. Of the former most were the standard explorations of Buddhist thinking and of the latter most were outliers, like Stanislav Grof, Eugene Gendlin and Carl Rogers. They all provided some context and at least of modicum of guidance and comfort that, despite the intensity of my experience, the depths of despair and and the emotional agony, this was the only way forward. I continued to practice without having a clue of the direction or the procession of that journey.
I truly needed this book then! This is the only discussion of the stages of either concentration or insight I have read that makes all clear, it would have been so helpful to have had the direction it provides and the descriptions of the spiritual terrain before me rather than spending weeks and months at various times drowning in a sense of slipping slowly into insanity. The upshot was that I made it to a point where I could go no further it was all just too much for me. I slid back into the submersion in conditioned reality, referenced still by much of what deludes us all, despite the many realizations and insights I had gained that have remained with me. I have sat now for two years in the the nether regions, not here nor there. Stuck, seemingly with no where further to go.
Reading this book I can now see in context what has happened. where I have been and where I now stand, what is behind and what is before me. I have to admit that i feel such clarity, relief and satisfaction that I made it as far as I did. Time to take up the challenge again and move on, the path now seems clear and at least I have been through it all once before I know what is before me and that I am capable of navigating the dark places as well as soaring through the light.
It is just so frustrating to know that this guidance could have been delivered by any one of the many books I have read already if the people who wrote them had had the courage to break the stupid seal of mystery so prevalent among those who practice, if they had not been so irresponsible as to keep it all from me. They robbed me of understanding, direction and time. Just to know that the gaining of insight is a bitch as well as a blessing would have been so helpful. To know that what was happening to me happens to all who tread the same road would have been a great deal more reassuring than the thought that I was basically skirting the edges of certifiable insanity. I had reached by blind determination something so worthwhile when it just felt to me like I had failed in some way. A pity; it robbed me of the courage to persist.
This book should be prescribed reading for anyone embarking upon the meditation journey. At least then they would know what might follow and could then make decisions about whether concentration practice might be all they want and whether the pursuit of insight is something they have the stomach for before they start.
April 10, 2020
2018.03.26–2018.03.31
(IIRC, I first found this through the review on Slate Star Codex.)
I respect the straightforwardness with which Ingram lays out what he does and doesn’t believe in—or has experienced himself—after his apparently extensive history of meditation and theorizing. It was especially refreshing to consider the perspective of someone with such a strong preference for explicitly mapping out all that there is to (achieve through) meditation.
One thing that struck me as odd was how Ingram privileged the hypothesis of real, causal, paranormal psychic “Powers”—attainable through meditation?—to the extent of talking of their ethical use. Other than that, I’ll just admit that it’ll be a long way for 3rd person science to catch up with the deeper meditative states/stages to disconfirm any maps—or dependency structures in what can lead to what—in favor of others. So it was interesting to hear how someone so subjectively opinionated on so much was simultaneously able to articulate the myriad variables and alternative views involved.
I can’t claim to have experienced the states/stages discussed, but I respect the openness of Ingram and others who can, because if real, they’re incredibly interesting and should be studied. In sum, I found it a good exercise to consider my attitudes toward this book in all its arrogance and provocativeness but also clarity and explicitness. It should give anyone interested and/or experienced in meditation a lot to think about. If only science would as manically explore all this stuff soon, so we could agree on a map and better concentrate on what helps!
Contents
Ingram DM (2007) (14:51) Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha - An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book
Foreword and Warning
Part I: The Fundamentals
01. Introduction to Part I
02. Morality, The First and Last Training
03. Concentration, The Second Training
04. Wisdom, The Third Training
05. The Three Characteristics
• Impermanence
• Suffering
• No-self
• The Five Spiritual Faculties
• • Faith and Wisdom
• • Energy and Concentration
• • Mindfulness
06. The Seven Factors of Enlightenment
• Mindfulness
• Investigation of the Truth
• Energy
• Rapture
• Tranquility
• Concentration
• Equanimity
07. The Three Trainings Revisited
08. The Four Noble Truths
• Truth Number One: Suffering
• Truth Number Two: “Desire”
• Truth Number Three: The End of Suffering
• Truth Number Four: The Path
09. Practical Meditation Considerations
• When, where and for how long?
• Daily life and Retreats
• Postures
• Objects for Insight Practices
• Resolve
• Teachers
10. Summary
11. Conclusion to Part I
Part II: Light and Shadows
12. Introduction to Parts II & III
13. Buddhism vs. The Buddha *
14. Content and Ultimate Reality *
15. What Went Wrong? *
16. A Clear Goal
17. Harnessing the Energy of the “Defilements”
18. Right Thought and the Aegean Stables
19. From Content to Insight
Part III: Mastery
20. Concentration vs. Insight
21. The Concentration States (Samatha Jhanas)
• The First Jhana
• The Second Jhana
• The Third Jhana
• The Fourth Jhana
• The “Psychic Powers”
22. No-self vs. True Self
23. The Formless Realms
• Boundless Space, The Fifth Jhana
• Boundless Consciousness, The Sixth Jhana
• Nothingness, The Seventh Jhana
• Neither Perception Nor Yet Non-perception, The Eighth Jhana
24. The Progress of Insight
• 1. Mind and Body
• 2. Cause and Effect
• 3. The Three Characteristics
• 4. The Arising and Passing Away
• 5. Dissolution, Entrance to the Dark Night
• 6. Fear
• 7. Misery
• 8. Disgust
• 9. Desire for Deliverance
• 10. Re-observation
• 11. Equanimity
• 12. Conformity
• 13. Change of Lineage
• 14. Path
• 15. Fruition
• 16. Review
25. The Vipassana Jhanas
• Bill Hamilton’s Model
• Fractals
• U Pandita’s Model
• Inklings of One More Model
26. How the Maps Help
27. The Three Doors
28. “Was That Emptiness?”
29. Beyond First Path (“What Next?”)
30. Models of the Stages of Enlightenment *
• The Non-Duality Model
• The Sudden Schools of Awakening
• The Fundamental Perception Models
• The Specific Perception Models
• The Emotional Models
• The Theravada Four Path Model
• A Revised Four Path Model
• A Simple Model
• The Action Models
• The Power Models
• The Tibetan Ten Bhumi Model
• The Tibetan Five Path Model
• The Energetic Models
• The Specific Knowledge Models
• The Psychological Models
• The Thought Models
• The God Models
• The Physical Models
• The Radiance Models
• The Karma Models
• The Perpetual Bliss Models
• The Three Kayas
• The Immortality models
• The Transcendence Models
• The Extinction Models
• The Love Models
• The Unity Models
• The Social Models
• The Three Yanas
• Ditching our “Stuff” vs. Ditching the Split
• The “Nothing to Do” and “You are Already There” Schools
• Final Points
31. So What’s “Full Enlightenment”? *
32. Integration*
33. It is Possible!
34. More on the “Mushroom Factor”*
35. So Who The Heck Is Daniel M. Ingram?
36. Conclusion And Best Wishes
Appendix: The Cessation of Perception and Feeling (Nirodha Samapatti)
Index
(IIRC, I first found this through the review on Slate Star Codex.)
I respect the straightforwardness with which Ingram lays out what he does and doesn’t believe in—or has experienced himself—after his apparently extensive history of meditation and theorizing. It was especially refreshing to consider the perspective of someone with such a strong preference for explicitly mapping out all that there is to (achieve through) meditation.
One thing that struck me as odd was how Ingram privileged the hypothesis of real, causal, paranormal psychic “Powers”—attainable through meditation?—to the extent of talking of their ethical use. Other than that, I’ll just admit that it’ll be a long way for 3rd person science to catch up with the deeper meditative states/stages to disconfirm any maps—or dependency structures in what can lead to what—in favor of others. So it was interesting to hear how someone so subjectively opinionated on so much was simultaneously able to articulate the myriad variables and alternative views involved.
I can’t claim to have experienced the states/stages discussed, but I respect the openness of Ingram and others who can, because if real, they’re incredibly interesting and should be studied. In sum, I found it a good exercise to consider my attitudes toward this book in all its arrogance and provocativeness but also clarity and explicitness. It should give anyone interested and/or experienced in meditation a lot to think about. If only science would as manically explore all this stuff soon, so we could agree on a map and better concentrate on what helps!
Contents
Ingram DM (2007) (14:51) Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha - An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book
Foreword and Warning
Part I: The Fundamentals
01. Introduction to Part I
02. Morality, The First and Last Training
03. Concentration, The Second Training
04. Wisdom, The Third Training
05. The Three Characteristics
• Impermanence
• Suffering
• No-self
• The Five Spiritual Faculties
• • Faith and Wisdom
• • Energy and Concentration
• • Mindfulness
06. The Seven Factors of Enlightenment
• Mindfulness
• Investigation of the Truth
• Energy
• Rapture
• Tranquility
• Concentration
• Equanimity
07. The Three Trainings Revisited
08. The Four Noble Truths
• Truth Number One: Suffering
• Truth Number Two: “Desire”
• Truth Number Three: The End of Suffering
• Truth Number Four: The Path
09. Practical Meditation Considerations
• When, where and for how long?
• Daily life and Retreats
• Postures
• Objects for Insight Practices
• Resolve
• Teachers
10. Summary
11. Conclusion to Part I
Part II: Light and Shadows
12. Introduction to Parts II & III
13. Buddhism vs. The Buddha *
14. Content and Ultimate Reality *
15. What Went Wrong? *
16. A Clear Goal
17. Harnessing the Energy of the “Defilements”
18. Right Thought and the Aegean Stables
19. From Content to Insight
Part III: Mastery
20. Concentration vs. Insight
21. The Concentration States (Samatha Jhanas)
• The First Jhana
• The Second Jhana
• The Third Jhana
• The Fourth Jhana
• The “Psychic Powers”
22. No-self vs. True Self
23. The Formless Realms
• Boundless Space, The Fifth Jhana
• Boundless Consciousness, The Sixth Jhana
• Nothingness, The Seventh Jhana
• Neither Perception Nor Yet Non-perception, The Eighth Jhana
24. The Progress of Insight
• 1. Mind and Body
• 2. Cause and Effect
• 3. The Three Characteristics
• 4. The Arising and Passing Away
• 5. Dissolution, Entrance to the Dark Night
• 6. Fear
• 7. Misery
• 8. Disgust
• 9. Desire for Deliverance
• 10. Re-observation
• 11. Equanimity
• 12. Conformity
• 13. Change of Lineage
• 14. Path
• 15. Fruition
• 16. Review
25. The Vipassana Jhanas
• Bill Hamilton’s Model
• Fractals
• U Pandita’s Model
• Inklings of One More Model
26. How the Maps Help
27. The Three Doors
28. “Was That Emptiness?”
29. Beyond First Path (“What Next?”)
30. Models of the Stages of Enlightenment *
• The Non-Duality Model
• The Sudden Schools of Awakening
• The Fundamental Perception Models
• The Specific Perception Models
• The Emotional Models
• The Theravada Four Path Model
• A Revised Four Path Model
• A Simple Model
• The Action Models
• The Power Models
• The Tibetan Ten Bhumi Model
• The Tibetan Five Path Model
• The Energetic Models
• The Specific Knowledge Models
• The Psychological Models
• The Thought Models
• The God Models
• The Physical Models
• The Radiance Models
• The Karma Models
• The Perpetual Bliss Models
• The Three Kayas
• The Immortality models
• The Transcendence Models
• The Extinction Models
• The Love Models
• The Unity Models
• The Social Models
• The Three Yanas
• Ditching our “Stuff” vs. Ditching the Split
• The “Nothing to Do” and “You are Already There” Schools
• Final Points
31. So What’s “Full Enlightenment”? *
32. Integration*
33. It is Possible!
34. More on the “Mushroom Factor”*
35. So Who The Heck Is Daniel M. Ingram?
36. Conclusion And Best Wishes
Appendix: The Cessation of Perception and Feeling (Nirodha Samapatti)
Index
October 13, 2024
I only read Ingram’s Introduction To Buddhism and his Guide Through The Insight Stages, while dissecting them how I used to do with textbooks in college. I stopped short of reading his Models Of Awakening and his Personal Insight Journey since I just needed to take a break from the book after slogging through the more important half of it.
The greatest field manual to insight meditation I have encountered so far. Although I’m not very well read in this genre. With a mind for structured reasoning and a tongue for plain language, this manual articulates the maps you will be navigating on your own journey. Aside from giving me context/maps for my insight goals, this manual is also directly responsible for cutting through about 3 tangible barriers in my own skill development. EG coaching me through how to recognize and move from 3rd to 4th jhana, a place I was stuck for some time.
Only 4 stars because there are many instances where Ingram buries valuable information for understanding/using a certain idea in the middle of a section for a different idea. EG he might wait to articulate a key feature of 2nd ñana in the section for 7th ñana in service of a helpful comparison. You get the impression that the book is well organized at the level of its headings while at the level of the reading it feels like it rambles a bit.
The greatest field manual to insight meditation I have encountered so far. Although I’m not very well read in this genre. With a mind for structured reasoning and a tongue for plain language, this manual articulates the maps you will be navigating on your own journey. Aside from giving me context/maps for my insight goals, this manual is also directly responsible for cutting through about 3 tangible barriers in my own skill development. EG coaching me through how to recognize and move from 3rd to 4th jhana, a place I was stuck for some time.
Only 4 stars because there are many instances where Ingram buries valuable information for understanding/using a certain idea in the middle of a section for a different idea. EG he might wait to articulate a key feature of 2nd ñana in the section for 7th ñana in service of a helpful comparison. You get the impression that the book is well organized at the level of its headings while at the level of the reading it feels like it rambles a bit.
February 18, 2021
This book is a waste of time and could be written as a booklet instead, saving us a lot of time since the author's technique and approach is really simple and there was no need to put there a lot of stuff you could find on the Internet if you wanted. Apart from that, some chapters of the book may be quite discouraging to many people who are just starting to practice meditation.
The author's understanding of his favourite model of meditation (Non-dual) is erroneous and his approach to meditation even contradicts that model which comes from the author's misunderstanding of the Buddha's teaching about perceiving reality.
The funny thing is, he says all the accomplished practitioners he had met followed the progressive (“map”) path and those who he knows who followed Zen (Chan) after some sudden shift had some more work to do, therefore, he didn’t consider them as accomplished, where he said before (in the book) that it’s difficult to gauge your own progress let alone somebody’s and in that case, it’s not even about practitioners following “his school”.
I got an impression the book was written mainly because the author likes reading what he wrote. The book will be very enigmatic to freshmen. I don't recommend it wholeheartedly. Like one of us who also rated the book one star, I recommend The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa which is a very systematic and interesting approach and something which every freshman should start with. Of course, advanced practitioners could find some value in Culadasa's book too. I didn't mean to register an account on Goodreads but I just couldn't help it. Sorry :)
The author's understanding of his favourite model of meditation (Non-dual) is erroneous and his approach to meditation even contradicts that model which comes from the author's misunderstanding of the Buddha's teaching about perceiving reality.
The funny thing is, he says all the accomplished practitioners he had met followed the progressive (“map”) path and those who he knows who followed Zen (Chan) after some sudden shift had some more work to do, therefore, he didn’t consider them as accomplished, where he said before (in the book) that it’s difficult to gauge your own progress let alone somebody’s and in that case, it’s not even about practitioners following “his school”.
I got an impression the book was written mainly because the author likes reading what he wrote. The book will be very enigmatic to freshmen. I don't recommend it wholeheartedly. Like one of us who also rated the book one star, I recommend The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa which is a very systematic and interesting approach and something which every freshman should start with. Of course, advanced practitioners could find some value in Culadasa's book too. I didn't mean to register an account on Goodreads but I just couldn't help it. Sorry :)
May 2, 2021
the ramblings of a quirky and deluded spiritual ego, and although grating and irritating at times, not without value. the first part of the book dealing with practice all the way to stream entry is pure gold. the rest is just neurotic harsh rant and tour de force of a pseudo-enlightened spiritual egotrip on steroids. in the second part of the book author attempts to justify his idiosyncratic, misguided and somewhat arrogant views with seemingly watertight nondual arguments, but astute readers will notice that those are not an expression of true understanding, but merely egoic attempts to manipulate and appropriate the nondual/buddhist teachings to validate his own belief system, elevating himself on a spiritual pedestal ever so slightly, in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways. to his credit, author is aware of his many neuroses and delusions of grandeur, and at times, even seems to be proud of these defilements, with no attempts to sugarcoat his (at times unpalatable) persona. points for self honesty there. moderatly fun at times though, but still, take the gospel of ingram with a big truckload of salt.
December 1, 2010
I read this in electronic version, which is available FREE from the author's website http://www.interactivebuddha.com/ You can also get a physical copy from the usual places.
As interested as I am in spirituality, I've gone 45 years without knowing the technical (buddhist) meaning of the term enlightenment. Until I read this book. If you are interested in the topic, whether you know nothing about Buddhism or are a practicing Buddhist, then I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. I would give it 10 stars if I could.
This book was Written by an enlightened westerner, who has achieved the Arahat state (highest level of enlightenment in some traditions). The book spells out in clear detail with all ideological trappings removed in specific terms what enlightenment, insight
meditation and the other 2 pillars of the buddha's teachings are all about, with heaps of technical advice and description.
I could go on, but if you're interested, it's free, JUST READ IT!
As interested as I am in spirituality, I've gone 45 years without knowing the technical (buddhist) meaning of the term enlightenment. Until I read this book. If you are interested in the topic, whether you know nothing about Buddhism or are a practicing Buddhist, then I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. I would give it 10 stars if I could.
This book was Written by an enlightened westerner, who has achieved the Arahat state (highest level of enlightenment in some traditions). The book spells out in clear detail with all ideological trappings removed in specific terms what enlightenment, insight
meditation and the other 2 pillars of the buddha's teachings are all about, with heaps of technical advice and description.
I could go on, but if you're interested, it's free, JUST READ IT!
January 13, 2015
Well, as the subtitle says, this is a book for serious or even zealous practitioners. "Vast emptiness, nothing holy" seems to fit the bill even though that quote is from the zen lineage. Ingram is quite provocative in his writing and even puts a certain symbol (electric/flash) on many chapters which may be especially provocative to traditional buddhists. It is certainly a book that aims for enlightenment through intense practice of the theravada variety. I especially like Ingram's mapping of the progress of insight even though maps are not the territory, especially in the spiritual geography.
December 31, 2024
This book and a bunch of others with my psychological and physical makeup seriously f***** up my life
January 22, 2018
An objective mind wrote this book. To me, Ingram was the decoder of many scriptures and he summarized it all in this book. It is not a manual for meditation per se. It is more a study of the core teachings. It gives important information on the theory of meditation and self-realization based on the eastern culture.
I think it is a good reading for analytical/objective/practical minds. There is no self-help in the lines written. Quite the opposite. He takes the truth and smashes into your face. Ingram can be "harsh" in many parts of the book, but I found that quite amusing.
The part I found most valuable to me is the dangers of meditation. We talk about meditation nowadays as a synonym of good practice. However, there are many techniques of meditation. And many stages too. Ingram talks about them and prepares the practitioner for it.
Really worths a read if you are interested in the Buddhist philosophy and practices.
I think it is a good reading for analytical/objective/practical minds. There is no self-help in the lines written. Quite the opposite. He takes the truth and smashes into your face. Ingram can be "harsh" in many parts of the book, but I found that quite amusing.
The part I found most valuable to me is the dangers of meditation. We talk about meditation nowadays as a synonym of good practice. However, there are many techniques of meditation. And many stages too. Ingram talks about them and prepares the practitioner for it.
Really worths a read if you are interested in the Buddhist philosophy and practices.
February 26, 2024
Maybe this book is way over my head and am just not ready for it - but for such a lengthy book I felt left confused and not sure what was that good about the book that was useful to me.
For a book entitled “Mastering the core teachings of the Bhudda”, this book seemed to go back and forward from all sorts of “supposed teachings of Bhudda”, which are really other various schools of thought when it comes to meditation- far from Bhudda’s “core teachings” - of which no one really knows truly, hence the various sects and conflicting religious thoughts/views on the matter...
This was painful to complete, but I never abandon a book after a decision to read it - but am sorry - not for me - perhaps for others that are looking for different things from meditation that perhaps are not for me anyway, or even the core teachings of the Bhudda in the first place!...
...Because this seemed more a lot of commentary about the authors own views, rants and experiences of many different Meditation practices which are most definitely far from being labelled as “core teachings” of the Bhudda which I was hoping to learn more about from such a lengthy book that just left me no closer to that goal.
To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
Waseem.tv/Blog
👆🏼 P.S -
If you found this review helpful - I’d like to invite you to discover more on our blog. Where the community share some of our most important insights to level up each others knowledge 💡- from experience in studying books like this, training programs, podcasts and much more - visit the blog link above to find out more.
P.P.S 😅 - You probably noticed from my profile that I’ve reviewed a LOT of books over the years now - if you love seeking knowledge like me I’d love to connect with you further as a like minded person (send me a friend invite! 😀) - Also if you are curious - here is my preferred and recommended resource for seeking timeless wisdom - Check it out via the website invite link below 👇🏼 (You’ll be able to claim some awesome books for free 📚)
https://Waseem.tv/GoodReadsBookInvite
For a book entitled “Mastering the core teachings of the Bhudda”, this book seemed to go back and forward from all sorts of “supposed teachings of Bhudda”, which are really other various schools of thought when it comes to meditation- far from Bhudda’s “core teachings” - of which no one really knows truly, hence the various sects and conflicting religious thoughts/views on the matter...
This was painful to complete, but I never abandon a book after a decision to read it - but am sorry - not for me - perhaps for others that are looking for different things from meditation that perhaps are not for me anyway, or even the core teachings of the Bhudda in the first place!...
...Because this seemed more a lot of commentary about the authors own views, rants and experiences of many different Meditation practices which are most definitely far from being labelled as “core teachings” of the Bhudda which I was hoping to learn more about from such a lengthy book that just left me no closer to that goal.
To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
Waseem.tv/Blog
👆🏼 P.S -
If you found this review helpful - I’d like to invite you to discover more on our blog. Where the community share some of our most important insights to level up each others knowledge 💡- from experience in studying books like this, training programs, podcasts and much more - visit the blog link above to find out more.
P.P.S 😅 - You probably noticed from my profile that I’ve reviewed a LOT of books over the years now - if you love seeking knowledge like me I’d love to connect with you further as a like minded person (send me a friend invite! 😀) - Also if you are curious - here is my preferred and recommended resource for seeking timeless wisdom - Check it out via the website invite link below 👇🏼 (You’ll be able to claim some awesome books for free 📚)
https://Waseem.tv/GoodReadsBookInvite
July 7, 2015
One of the best contemporary dharma/meditation/spiritual practice books and commentary written in modern times. This book really gets at the core of what Buddhism _should_ be about and focus on with its practices- however, this book could easily apply to any of the major religions or practical spiritual paths aiming at self-transformation and 'enlightenment'. I like the direct advice given, and also the conceptual mappings throughout the book detailing possible stopping places along the spiritual developmental route. This book really strikes at some of the core problems inherent in a lot of spiritual paths, and explains exactly why these paths and people following them just aren't effective in attaining what they set out to achieve. If I had any criticism with this book, it would probably be that it needs some more time spent on detailing the actual practices involved in both concentration and insight meditation. Yes, the instructions are given, but even these I find are a little too vague (i.e just focus intensely on sensations being perceived right now and see the three characteristics inherent in them etc. etc.; or find an object and focus on it intensely, and then extent the time period).
I know the author is working on a Second Edition, so I look forward to that! Overall, great work, and in my Top 5 books.
I know the author is working on a Second Edition, so I look forward to that! Overall, great work, and in my Top 5 books.
January 10, 2022
This is one of the best companion books a vipassana yogi can own, it is Daniel M. Ingram's path and maps to Nibbana. Starting with the Mahasi Sayadaw method of noting, before becoming more or less sati patthana meditation. Mr. Ingram recounts in his own words all his experiences. Going into detail with what most yogi's find the most challenging. The dhammanupassana part of meditation. The observation of anicca in dhamma, the contents of Citta.
This is can be a very useful tool to all practitioners of the Dhamma if used properly. It's not perfect but no book written on the subject is.
This is can be a very useful tool to all practitioners of the Dhamma if used properly. It's not perfect but no book written on the subject is.
May 10, 2009
This is a key book for clear and precise meditation instruction. Ingram is no half-hearted new-agey Buddhist, he takes you quickly to the point and then it us up to you. Highly recommended.
Worth checking out his site:
http://interactivebuddha.com/
and getting involved in the conversation at:
www.dharmaoverground.wetpaint.com
Worth checking out his site:
http://interactivebuddha.com/
and getting involved in the conversation at:
www.dharmaoverground.wetpaint.com
October 1, 2017
Wish I'd read this a decade ago. An invaluable overview and map for meditation practice. Free copy available on the author's website: http://integrateddaniel.info/book/
August 25, 2019
I've only read the first edition, though it fascinated me completely. Brought Buddhism and Buddhist practice down to earth as a practical toolkit. For the first time I realised that one could live well by training one's mind.
However, as an idealistic and naive young male this book also inspired me to become far too gung-ho in my practice and have an over-focus on mahasi noting as the author's preferred technique though a technique which was too coarse and tension-inducing for myself.
The best part of the book is the author's willingness to speak openly and clearly about what he believes 'awakening' really is and why it is so achievable and (here's the real gold) *imperfect*.
He does a good job at separating the wheat from the chaff when writing about the big E (Enlightenment) and getting rid of completely unrealistic and damaging ideals of practice as a panacea for all of life's problems. Additionally just because one has good samadhi (unification of mind) doesn't mean one will necessarily develop good moral conduct nor insight (each are separate axes of development).
The second edition is far longer but seems to lay forth far more wisdom about the nuances and pitfalls of many, if not all, spiritual paths and he once again strongly argues against the idea that emotional perfection is possible and instead believes in focusing on hard and honest truths about practice, its benefits and its limits.
This author inspired a whole wave, amongst other teachers, to speak openly, *honestly*, and clearly about practice and everything around it.
Pragmatic dharma may not be perfect but it is in the right trajectory. Highly recommended, even if the author is vastly imperfect like the rest of us and does have a very unsaintly personality, his acceptance of human shadows and ability to speak clearly about the bad sides of the human mind make him as close to saintly as we should want to get to.
Additionally I've been told he focuses far more on calm-abiding/tranquility (samatha) based practices as well as morality in his most recent edition. Looking forward to the added focus it definitely deserves.
The focus in the path should always be testing a range of nondogmatic teachings, attitudes, and practices for oneself to see where one's abilities lie and where one finds enjoyment and improvement easiest. Never try to force yourself into a mould of practice that a teacher espouses 'should' be 'the way'. Practice is and will always be highly personal. Ingram can at times provide the foundation for this healthy perspective, but at times can inspire some to focus too much on a specific attitude that may only fit young gung-ho men.
Other teachers I highly appreciate include Rob Burbea and Shinzen Young.
However, as an idealistic and naive young male this book also inspired me to become far too gung-ho in my practice and have an over-focus on mahasi noting as the author's preferred technique though a technique which was too coarse and tension-inducing for myself.
The best part of the book is the author's willingness to speak openly and clearly about what he believes 'awakening' really is and why it is so achievable and (here's the real gold) *imperfect*.
He does a good job at separating the wheat from the chaff when writing about the big E (Enlightenment) and getting rid of completely unrealistic and damaging ideals of practice as a panacea for all of life's problems. Additionally just because one has good samadhi (unification of mind) doesn't mean one will necessarily develop good moral conduct nor insight (each are separate axes of development).
The second edition is far longer but seems to lay forth far more wisdom about the nuances and pitfalls of many, if not all, spiritual paths and he once again strongly argues against the idea that emotional perfection is possible and instead believes in focusing on hard and honest truths about practice, its benefits and its limits.
This author inspired a whole wave, amongst other teachers, to speak openly, *honestly*, and clearly about practice and everything around it.
Pragmatic dharma may not be perfect but it is in the right trajectory. Highly recommended, even if the author is vastly imperfect like the rest of us and does have a very unsaintly personality, his acceptance of human shadows and ability to speak clearly about the bad sides of the human mind make him as close to saintly as we should want to get to.
Additionally I've been told he focuses far more on calm-abiding/tranquility (samatha) based practices as well as morality in his most recent edition. Looking forward to the added focus it definitely deserves.
The focus in the path should always be testing a range of nondogmatic teachings, attitudes, and practices for oneself to see where one's abilities lie and where one finds enjoyment and improvement easiest. Never try to force yourself into a mould of practice that a teacher espouses 'should' be 'the way'. Practice is and will always be highly personal. Ingram can at times provide the foundation for this healthy perspective, but at times can inspire some to focus too much on a specific attitude that may only fit young gung-ho men.
Other teachers I highly appreciate include Rob Burbea and Shinzen Young.
August 7, 2020
A seminal book on meditation as a practical skill - and 'meditation' here refers to the specific skill of Insight meditation. This isn't about 'clear your head and relax for 10 minutes a day'. This is about clear and precise investigation into the nature of reality that you live in. If MCTB is to be believed, it turns out that many of the questions that philosophers have reasoned about ('is there a self? what is the self?') can be answered through first-hand experiential investigation, provided that you've cultivated the right set of skills.
This isn't a casual feel-good book to read on the beach while the words wash over you and you're left with a nondescript pleasant feeling. This is a practical guide on how to invest hundreds of hours in order to exercise a muscle most people don't know exists, and use it to access incredible experiences. Come prepared!
This isn't a casual feel-good book to read on the beach while the words wash over you and you're left with a nondescript pleasant feeling. This is a practical guide on how to invest hundreds of hours in order to exercise a muscle most people don't know exists, and use it to access incredible experiences. Come prepared!
December 5, 2022
I would give it 6/5 if I could. Maybe it is because I'm where I'm on the path, but this book came to me at precisely the best time, it was almost as if the universe dropped it on my head to answer all my current questions about meditation, spirituality, and, indeed, the reality I had.
What an absolute joy.
This is by far the best, down-to-earth, no-bullshit, pragmatic, scientific, truthful, honest, precise, and practical book on dharma and the spiritual path you can get. I can't really recommend it highly enough.
I will start my second reading with a huge notepad wight when I finish this small piece.
What an absolute joy.
This is by far the best, down-to-earth, no-bullshit, pragmatic, scientific, truthful, honest, precise, and practical book on dharma and the spiritual path you can get. I can't really recommend it highly enough.
I will start my second reading with a huge notepad wight when I finish this small piece.
November 15, 2018
After some time in the book, I was thinking the same thing author proposed at the end of the book: If I only had this book as a guide at certain times in my life, years ago, when I was experimenting with mental states, especially those induced by concentration practices. And experiencing some wild mental states, nobody ever confirmed in speech or in literature as real. Until now.
So, to potential lucky reader: this book isn't messing around. Experiences described within are real. So take it seriously.
So, to potential lucky reader: this book isn't messing around. Experiences described within are real. So take it seriously.
December 31, 2022
An unorthodox and highly informative and nerdy expose of the task of insight, with lots of great humor and actual humility (and lots of pride for good measure). Big thank you to Daniel for writing this book and being out there with a strong presence to this day. Much Metta.
February 22, 2019
True spirituality. Not fucking around. I used this book to become a master of altered states
September 7, 2019
A resource without equal. Fantastic work based on so many progressive insights and meticulous reporting; combined with deep reflections on what is out there in terms of guidance.
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