Stuck in 3Cs?

From what I hear being stuck in dark night for years isn't that uncommon.
Is it common to get stuck right before the A&P and hang there for years?

Hi Meekan,

These are two different questions. The "dark night" refers to nanas 6-10. The 3rd nana, Knowledge of the 3 Characteristics, on the other hand, is NOT the dark night. The vast majority of people on Earth are below and will always be below the 4th nana, which means they will never get anywhere near the dark night, aka the "dukkha nanas."

People who do practice, however, often find themselves "stuck" at the 3 Cs. This is the "chronic yogi" who is unwilling or unable to sit through the unpleasantness of the 3rd nana and therefore does not get to the all-important 4th nana, the Arising and Passing Away of Phenomena.

Hi, Kenneth!
I was probably expressing myself a little unclearly.
I'm aware of the destinction and meant that more people discuss stuckedness in dark night than in the 3Cs.
Thank you very much for describing the "chronic yogi"! Maybe I am one of those.

"
Thank you very much for describing the "chronic yogi"! Maybe I am one of those.

"


Join the club! But, as you may have discovered, it's kind of like the "non-makeout club" in middle school. (Everyone in it wants to leave ASAP!) ; )

Credit for the "non-makeout club" joke goes to a comic whose name I can't recall who I heard the other day on a podcast of This American Life.

Meekan and Ryan,

You guys doing any shamatha?

"
Join the club! But, as you may have discovered, it's kind of like the "non-makeout club" in middle school. (Everyone in it wants to leave ASAP!) ; )


"



To. be honest, what's "new" for me is that I've lost about 95% of the drive to get out.
Which is kind of funny... I'm unsure if this is what's happened before over the years.

But I recognize the things I've been experiencing during meditation last months from earlier years, and even though one isn't supposed to be able to go backwards, I don't think (unsure) that I've nailed that little bugger.

"Meekan and Ryan,

You guys doing any shamatha?"

Nope, not really.

Perhaps that might help.

I always find that doing some shamatha prior to sitting tends to help things move along / get me out of my own way. I did a lot of shamatha before getting into vipassana.

"Meekan and Ryan,

You guys doing any shamatha?"


I'm not doing much samatha these days. I did breath-based samatha a few years ago, and some candle-flame kasina practice for a little while a few months ago, but was a bit too gung-ho about it starting out, and got burnt out quickly, no pun intended.

Fortunately, this place I'll be staying for a while, Bhavana Society, ought to be a really good environment for getting a lot better at samatha, especially if Bhante Gunaratana is available to help me out with that.

Thanks for the suggestion, Mumuwu.

Oh yeah, I forgot you got accepted. That's going to be awesome! Good luck...