tiltbillings wrote:
And if one "acquiesces" and experiences incessant dissolution of discrete momentary dhammas?
Nana: People claim to experience all sorts of things. Just because someone claims to experience something doesn't mean that their claim is valid. They could very well be basing their claim on incorrect inferences and all sorts of cognitive biases.
For example, there was a time when I uncritically acquiesced to the view of radical momentariness and indeed experienced what I took to be the direct perception of incessant dissolution. Later, I came to understand that this was an inaccurate interpretation of what I was experiencing and I had no alternative but to abandon that view
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Dear nana,
I appreciate your sincerity. I did many retreats with different techniques (most of which came of Myanmar in the 20th century) in the 1980s.
One teacher told me I had reached bhanga (dissolution ) or near to it becuase I described strange feelings assocaited with anxiety.
In a different technique I was told - after reporting some blissful feelings in the body- that this was probably bhanga.
In another retreat a 86 year old master of a different technique again, told me that I had experinced namarupa parichedda (the first vipassana nana). Note bhanga is the fifth vipassana nana, so this master was essentially saying i had attained a lower level than the others.
He actually encouraged me to stay on in Thailand and become the assitant teacher fro farang :becuase in this technique the first stage of vipassana is considered a huge milestone.
Later on I realised that it was all my own wishful thinking, a kind of autosuggestion, and readily took on anything positive from otehr sources as well!.
I hadnt attained anything at all.
Lobha , desire, is very ready to convince one of our progress, it is always waiting to catch one. Just recently someone in Thailand reported that he couldnt believe in Abhidhamma becuase he was enligthened and knew different/
I almost laughed in his face except he was so serious about his "achievement"..
You reach the conclusion that because these techniques are based on the Abhidhamma Commentaries of Theravada, that it is the Commentaries -with their emphasis on paramattha dhammas, momentary arising and ceasing, billions in a finger snap that are wrong.
I think it is rather that vipassana is not about technique, it is much much more subtle and deep than that.
Just a thought.
best
Robert