Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A NOTE TO THOSE LEAVING A REVIEW: Peace has minions! So if your review is for less than 4-stars, be prepared to receive comments from those who feel it necessary to defend the book's integrity. A review is simply a reader's take on the material. It is the collective of reviews that should allow someone considering the work to be able to determine if they should buy the material. Some people find it necessary to devalue another's impression of the work when it doesn't conform to their assessment. This book makes big claims, but so does my review, so keep reading. This is a hard book to review because while it may be a great read, its merits are really based upon its gnosis. It s ability to give what its claims to. This being said, then what is hard is to review a book that claims to elucidate the path of Shravakayana Buddhism more deeply than all other books in terms of what to look for in actual practice. My review is based upon not only having read all the suttas of the Tripitaka and also the study of the Visshudhimagga but also upon my own practice and gnosis. I am also a practitioner of the 6 yogas of Naropa and have read studied what Tsong Khapa has written about samatha vipassana in his treatise on Lam Rim, yet make no claims to arhantship. I do not have a problem with someone claiming to be an arhant because, well, that is what we are striving towards. I believe also that some of my teachers were at this level or at least what appeared to me as very close. While this book may appear to be a fascinating read and covers a lot of new ground that westerners are unfamiliar with; it has some really strong flaws that reveal to a serious practitioner of samatha vipassana and specifically jhana that there is something really wrong or missing in Daniels work. This review is not a brutal orthodox review saying, "How dare you claim enlightenment"; there is no envy or fear here. Rather, it is hard indeed to measure someone's level of gnosis if we ourselves have not gone to the same places. For this reason I also seriously question all the other reviews who rave over a book that may sound fascinating, but how can they actually test out the teachers theories? Since one of the 1st clues to the book being a false teaching is that it contains no real prescriptions of practice. Here lies my first problem with Daniel Ingram's book. Consider the following before accepting this man's teaching and believing in his self proclaimed arhantship: 1. In the last 2 years with various books coming out on how to enter and utilize the jhanas, such as, Ayya Khema, Ajahn Brahm, Shaila Catherine, Pa Auk Sayadaw and a few others, why oh why does this man give no clear explanation as to how to generate access concentration and how to move from jhana to jhana in a clear and easy to understand way such as the aforementioned authors? This section of his book is absolutely unusable. So right from the start, the jhanas, which is thee beginning of the path, he writes an absolutely awful and in my experience unusable explanation of these states. I say this as a jhana teacher. The other authors bring clarity and help to all meditators who seek to understand jhana practice even when there are minor discrepancies. There is no way anyone can read the section on jhana and make use of this to enter all 8 jhanas. Big problem number 1. There is so much I could say on this alone but instead ill say; Anyone who is currently practicing with a skilled jhana teacher and can enter the jhanas should be able to recognize this problem in the writing immediately. Or read Ajahm Brahms, "Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond", and try and practice, then come back to this book. Also read the interviews with most of the major English speaking jhana teachers in, "The experience of samadhi" by Richard Skankman. On ewould expect at the very least, a jhana master claiming to be an arhant to write a decent and clear explanation of entering them. 2. The section on psychic powers is absolutely ridiculous and filled with all the usual warnings in a new package. Cryptic and mysterious, yet he gives no specific prescriptions on how to generate them from his experience. In the 6 yogas of Naropa for example, one would learn a few ways to generate Siddhi's through certain vocalization practices of mantras in conjunction with the heart. In Dharamsala India, if you visit the Dalai lamas personal tantric temple the prescriptions for several siddhi experiences are shown on the walls. But again all is vague and mysterious and Daniel seems like he is saying something when really he is saying nothing at all. For a Tantric for example, the understanding of how to enter into contact with a deity, a Buddha, can be a very useful tool as they are the real psychologists and when you can access that level of consciousness you can indeed receive real teaching from them. But this is commonly known in Vajrayana teaching. These Buddhas can instruct you as to where you are getting stuck in practice. Or even as Milarepa worked with a dakini in another plane of consciousness (explained in his biography). Another clue on how he is not examining enlightenment from a global or systemic view but rather from his own subjective Hamilton Shravakayana (Hinayana) view. In fact I found the references in his book regarding deities to be ridiculous, naïve and extremely inconsistant with other practitioners,Lamas I have know at this stage;perhaps even a reflection of how deluded he is but his suggestions - i.e. Dieties are stupid and deluded and want to mess with your mind? Moreover, egoically ethnocentric and of course dominantly self referencing. The prevailing message appears to be, "For no one can really teach me enlightenment other than my physical teachers and me". Its like hes saying, "The Buddhas and deities who also did this work before me just want to make me more deluded?!" Interesting view. 3. Finally his explanation of vipassana and /or what he calls the dark night of the soul also from a psychological point of view very strange. Here is my view in contrast: Once samadhi has been stabilized (jhana) in all 8 levels, you begin using jhana as a platform or catalyst from which to meditate upon specific egoic events. Each specific event that you meditate upon reveals a specific chain of cause and events in your life which in turn reveals the origin of that particular behavior pattern or karma or sankhara. The capacity to realize, comprehend and metabolize theses events and the pain related to them is not difficult because they are surrounded by the serenity and equanimity generated by jhana. Thus I have had rape victims, as students, who knew jhana be able to meditate upon the trauma and comprehend in peace why the event had to transpire karmically. 4. The final and strongest reason to doubt the validity of this book, Daniel Ingram's teacher, and his understanding of how to use samatha vipassana and Siddhi's lies in the lack of information provided on how to invoke the various experiences described in the Visshudhimagga. Jack Kornfield himself has said that while the Visshudhimagga is fascinating what is strange is that the version available by Bhuddhaghosa gives no prescriptions on how to enter into the various Siddhi's that it describes. So for example how to experience previous lives and how it relates to your work on your egoic patterns in your present life. Or how to investigate the consciousness of others. Someone who claims such as Daniel to want to write a book that will reveal all in open fisted clarity for the benefit of all beings and yet just writes another dharma book that task about a subject but doesn't share how to enter into it in a clear and direct manner, is just another bunch of rubbish. And that's just what I did with this book; I threw it in the bin. I find his explanations or directions in this book to sound more like philosophical metaphors rather than methods. Or various inner revelations that he is attributing to be experiences related to enlightenment. Also I don't expect his message to sound American style compassionate but truley there is very little love and understanding of what God is in a sense that is reverent and humbling. Daniel says, "Why senior dharma teachers do not ever seem to put the important details about sorting out what is what into their books is completely beyond me. That it should be left to a young and cocky upstart like myself to fill in this gap is less than ideal". Here is a question I would ask Daniel: "Can the I dissolve the I?" Something in the way he expresses himself in this book for me in my gnosis says, Why does this man not discuss the relationship between God and emptiness in a way that is more consistent with the gnosis of others? This man is an walking down the street with no clothes on and doesn't realize that his vanity shows along with his nakedness. Apparently some cannot see that he is naked and think that he has clothes on. My teachers showed me how to access the experiences outlined in the vishudhimagga and did so as soon as I had stabilized jhana and it was a lot easier to understand than this book. Remember all you who feel this book is your guide: Buddha taught you need 3 things to awake, the Teacher, the teaching and the community.