There are all sorts of pitfalls that can occur, but perhaps the most significant of them all is calling experiences “emptiness,” “Fruition”,
“Stream Entry” or “Nirvana” that simply weren’t. It is a mistake that we are all likely to make more than once if we practice fairly well, know these models and care about them in the least, and even very enlightened beings with years of practice will sometimes wonder, “Was that emptiness?”, meaning “Was that my hit?”, or “Was that the next stage of awakening?”. Some of us will be particularly prone to blowing this on a regular basis even if we are actually somewhat enlightened.
Take heart, failure can be a great teacher.
The first and perhaps most important point is that from a certain point of view it is not an important question. If you have actually gotten enlightened to some degree or attained a Fruition, the permanent benefits of that have occurred regardless of whether or not you are certain about it. On the other hand, if you haven’t gotten enlightened but think that you have, it is worth being able to come back to reality.
The range of clarity with which the Three Doors to Fruition present themselves can be quite wide. Sometimes, even if it was actually the
“Was That Emptiness?”
attainment of Fruition, there may not have been enough clarity at the time for one’s memory of the way that particular door presented and of the depth of the discontinuity to be clear enough to satisfactorily answer the question.
There are also a large number of possible momentary unknowing experiences that can present in ways that seem convincingly like the attainment of Fruition, even for meditators with years of experience with these issues. I will mention some of the most common events that can be mistaken for Fruition here, though this is far from being a complete list.
Momentary experiences of the formless realms that arise in the insight stage of 11. Equanimity, particularly nothingness and neither perception nor yet non-perception, are common culprits. However, if one is this close, the real thing is very likely to occur sooner or later.
Formless experiences arising from pure concentration practices have fooled people for millennia into thinking they were Fruitions. As mentioned earlier, insight stage 4. The Arising and Passing Away, particularly the Arising and Passing Away Event itself, is a pernicious trickster and has fooled countless practitioners throughout the ages into thinking it was Fruition or the attainment of a path. This may even fool somewhat enlightened beings who are working on the next path. Note, the A&P Event typically shows up only once per path unless a long period of time goes by without practice after it, whereas Fruition is likely to be repeated naturally.
Unusually heavy experiences of insight stage 5. Dissolution can be formless and murky enough to fool some meditators on occasion, as can any really dramatic shift between any of the vipassana or samatha jhanas (as these involve three or four “impulsions” or “mind moments”
followed by a momentary unknowing experience; see The
Abhidhamma in the Pali Canon). Even the first shift into insight stage 1.
Mind and Body can fool some novices if is happens dramatically enough and they get fascinated with how unitive, pleasant and clear the stage can be after the first shift into it.
Often it is not possible to make a clear call about what was what, even if it was actually Fruition. While what follows is routinely considered to be dangerous information, I am happy to go to the far 246
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extreme of telling largely taboo secrets if it helps to balance the pervasive “mushroom” culture. These are some basic guidelines that may be used when trying to answer the question, “Was that
emptiness?”:
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If there was any sense of an experience, even of nothingness or something that seemed incomprehensible, particularly anything involving the vaguest hint of the passage of time during it, write it off as something other than emptiness. This is an absolute rule.
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Similarly, if there was any sense of a this observing a that, or a self of any sort that was actually present for whatever happened, write it off as something other than emptiness. If you were there, that wasn’t it.
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If there was not a complete sense of discontinuity and if it makes any sense to think of time, space, perspective or memory continuing across the gap, write it off immediately as something other than emptiness. On the other hand, if the only way to remember what happed involves remembering just forward to the end of the
particular door that presented and then remembering back to when reality reappeared, well, keep reading.
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If on continued repetition of the unknowing event over days or weeks it fails the above tests, write it off as something other than emptiness.
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If continued repetition of that particular kind of unknowing event over days or weeks fails to give any clear experiences of the Three
Doors and to reveal something very paradoxical and profound about the nature of subject and object, be skeptical.
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If there was a double-dip into unknowing events with a few
profound moments of clarity and altered experience between them, as is characteristic of the A&P Event, with one shift happening halfway down the out-breath and a second shift at the end of that out-breath, write it off immediately as more likely having been that or maybe the early stages of Equanimity.
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If the event cannot be repeated, write it off. Those who have attained a path will attain more Fruitions naturally, maybe one to many per day, as they basically can't help but cycle.
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If there is not a rather predictable pattern of stages and perspective shifts that begins to become clear (specifically following the course 247
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of the progress of insight listed above in some way, particularly as regards shifts in perceptual thresholds), write it off as something other than emptiness.
This brings me to the Cardinal Rule when trying to sort out what all experiences or attainments actually were: try to repeat it again and again and be honest with yourself. It literally took me many of thousands of times through these cycles and experiences at many levels and over many years to get to the point where I could even begin to think about writing a book like this one. I am still quite cautious about hanging my hat on interpretations of my experiences or what seem to be non-experiences until I have attained them 50, 100 or even more times. If you don’t have the necessary level of clarity and mastery to repeat the experience of interest again and again, either do enough clear and diligent practice to attain the required mastery or don’t ask the question.
Studying theory can only be so useful for this. In the end and always, it is practice and continued direct experience that reveals and clarifies.
While it is somewhat true that with clarity comes mystery, this maxim can easily be used as a cop out.
A related question is, “Am I enlightened?” I have met a number of people recently who have exhibited a common but unhealthy
fascination with this question, toying with the possibility that they were enlightened in “past lives” (whatever), were enlightened earlier in their life and “repressed it” (not!), were enlightened by interesting experiences that were bound up in time and space (whoops!), such as A&P Events, formless realm experiences, visions of beings, unusual raptures, etc. For these sorts of people, as well as those working on higher paths who are stuck in the in-between stages, I offer the following:
The first thing one must know about enlightened beings is that Fruitions occur for them, and they do so naturally and fairly often.