I am nowhere near the experienced meditator or Buddhist student that the author is but this part stuck out: " I described how on numerous occasions all my thoughts disintegrated and I bathed for extended periods of time in states of deep, non-conceptual bliss. I thought awakening was right around the corner "
Isn't this particularly warned against in meditation?
To me this is more akin to trance and in Buddhism, more akin to escapism and self-delusion.
From a magical perspective, it seems obvious this guy was playing with fire.
Just like the quote about how one can travel extensively and still leave all their preconceptions intact, people can meditate a lot and still leave their attachments intact.
My impression was not that meditation leads to bliss; that's some New Age pap. It leads to awareness, and that includes the good, the bad, and the ugly.
It sounds like the author may have delved into meditation enough to access the control panel, but that is a dangerous place to be. It's why there are so many safeguards built around it in the first place. I am just surprised that this was unexpected.
So, the trouble is that meditation as a practice, was always embedded into a larger sense of spirit/community/whatever.
The popularity of MBSR broke that largely, and now lots of people start meditating with the notion that it's just mental exercise (which it is, sortof) and are very unprepared for some of the negative side-effects (which are normally parts of the mind that your consciousness doesn't want to accept).
People like Aleister Crowley, Austin Spare, and modern psychonauts interested in chaos magic have worked/played in these spaces outside of established traditions and communities. And there have always been people like this. But they also fully expect some weirdness to occur.
Meditation within a community and tradition is certainly a safer, and often more fruitful way to go about it, just like traveling anywhere with a group, a guide, on established paths, and with a good map. It's a good way to learn the ropes but some folks like to take more adventurous approaches.
I'm kinda with his student, Israel Regardie on this stuff though, which was that if you want to engage in spiritual practices, you should get therapy.
Essentially the notion is that in order to deal with the divine/universe/whatever, you need to have dealt with the mundane.
I think that this is really accurate, and would support this. Unfortunately, the "mindfulness" movement didn't really keep any of the baby when they experimented on the bathwater.
Agreed. I think therapy and counseling is under-rated and under-utilized. There are many situations in life where a counselor's help can be beneficial. It's not just for the weak, ill, or for people who have failed. And even the strongest among us have been all three at times.
And New Age-type movements are not a good replacement.
I wouldn't even call them negative, per se, even though you might perceive them as such.
These are things you've held deep down that are, through your heightened self-awareness, being dragged kicking and screaming to the surface.
Once the duck is out of the bottle, you can't put it back in. You have to take care of the duck. Having a support network or community certainly helps, and the meditation just shone the light on what was already there.
"Bliss" is a side-effect of practice. It's a common error to mistake it for progress. Your teacher will draw your attention to the mistake - if you have a teacher.
Isn't this particularly warned against in meditation? To me this is more akin to trance and in Buddhism, more akin to escapism and self-delusion. From a magical perspective, it seems obvious this guy was playing with fire.
Just like the quote about how one can travel extensively and still leave all their preconceptions intact, people can meditate a lot and still leave their attachments intact. My impression was not that meditation leads to bliss; that's some New Age pap. It leads to awareness, and that includes the good, the bad, and the ugly.
It sounds like the author may have delved into meditation enough to access the control panel, but that is a dangerous place to be. It's why there are so many safeguards built around it in the first place. I am just surprised that this was unexpected.