Johnny Froth:
I'm confused. After a gentle introduction to Buddhism, I ran across the Dan Ingram stuff and I'm thrown.
If you take crystal meth, or heroin, or cocaine, you'll have a wonderful time. For a time. But there is a good chance[1] you will suffer greatly at some point in the process. So getting involved with those kinds of behaviors is not generally advised. The benefits are not justified with respect to the costs.
Now look at meditation. How does it compare? On the downside, it is pretty bitter. According to Willoughby Britton, on one of the BuddhistGeeks podcasts, the majority of people she surveyed went through a "dark night" where the average duration of some form of life debilitation was 3.4 years[2]. And according to Ingram himself, the dark night comprises over 90% of his practice even *after* stream entry (although, granted, it doesn't sound like it is of the debilitating kind).
You're right about the costs. If you think this kind of meditation practice will be a self-improvement program, you're in for a big surprise. The cost of this is much greater than you probably can imagine right now. Consider the three characteristics: Understanding suffering clearly means you don't get to choose seeing only what you like to see. Not-Self really means what it says. Impermanence is universal, there's no firm ground anywhere, ever. Ultimately, the cost of enlightenment is everything. It's like dying: you can't take anything with you, and you won't be there.
So regarding the dark night: it's a good thing Willoughby Britton and Daniel Ingram are giving straight talk on this, because in general, this is totally hushed over on the spiritual marketplace. Right? You can't sell that, so it's not mentioned. It's a good thing that you know beforehand, instead of having some teacher spoon-feed you with quaint excuses such as "these are the defilements coming loose, just keep going" or whatever. If it ever comes to that, that is, as much of the teaching out there is so ineffective you're unlikely to even hit the process of insight, let alone the dark night.
On the other hand you don't even need to do Mahasi Noting like your hair is on fire, in order to hit the dark night, as I got there in my late childhood by doing some mind games at night for some time (decomposing words into letters and sounds) when I couldn't sleep. Many people report similar experiences; Daniel visualized giant floating spheres, I think. And once you're there, the only way out is through, as they say.
So while I can understand your disappointment, please direct it at the Woo Meisters and peddlers of quaint metaphysical fluff who either don't know better (i.e. they are charlatans) or deliberately keep their students in the dark (i.e. they are creepy), and who sold you something that doesn't exist.
So what's the upside? Well, according to Ingram in one of the three videos attached to Willoughby's podcasts, his wife wouldn't note him as anything special as a result of his practice. And he admits that he is not objectively better in his medical career as a result of it either. He still gets frustrated (cf. his account of how he labored over whether or not to respond to certain questions on this website). Furthermore, I think part of the appeal of his message is that this enlightenment game is *not* the kind of metaphysical game changer, where all suffering and craving goes forever, that it's often touted to be.
So 3.4 years of debilitation, of pain caused to you and your family, followed by 90% or more of your practice time also being some form of suckiness and for what?
"For nothing" would be the appropriate in-joke here. But that glosses over your following question:
Am I the only person who wonders if that is less a path and more a pathology? If it was anything else -- drugs, alcohol, stabbing yourself in the eye with a spike -- we'd at least advise the practitioner to stop, and may take action to force them to.
So what am I missing? Why on earth would anyone do this stuff?
Because they absolutely can't stand not doing it.
Once you are beyond the point of no return, once you realized that everything you think of as true is just opinion founded on more opinions or wishful thinking, that the things and roles you identify with are not yours in any meaningful sense, that you yourself, body and mind, are very elusive and impossible to pin down once and for all in any meaningful sense - i.e. you have hit the dark night - then there's no way back, right? You can't really go back and pretend all those insights never happened to you. You can try, and many people do, and maybe some succeed (if there are any, they are unlikely to speak up, because that would defeat their success), but as far as I know, that's not a long-term option.
So the only way out is to go on, and depending on your personal make-up, it will be difficult to varying degrees. Not every single detail mentioned in Daniels book happens to every practitioner, I can assure you of that. But it's good to know what can happen.
Cheers,
Florian