3: The Stages of Realisation & Attainment

In simple to understand English

I was in two minds about doing this one. All of my Zen teachers have tended to shy away from presenting ‘levels’ of meditational achievement. These days I totally understand why. It became a debilitating undercurrent for me for years, before I got why it was holding me back. In the final analysis, the practice itself is enough, and levels theory is irrelevant.

I see a lot of autistic discourse however on this topic. I think it largely results from the great crime of video games. The tendency to reach ‘levels’ and ‘pick up new skills for the next level’ while dropping the less advantageous features of our character as we ascend. From the outside it seems innocuous. In my experience, it is anything but.

Having said that, the labels do indeed classify concrete states of mind. They’re not abstract religious terms, but I can see why, reading many of these texts, you’d think they were.

It’s probably a valid resource for a curious then for a Western mind, wondering rightly if anything is ‘happening’. At the same time it can easily become a sub-conscious crutch. It’s best we just stick to sitting with no expectations. And as I have discussed multiple times, there are good neurophysiological reasons for this.