CESSATION EXPERIENCES & THE NOTION OF AWAKENING eBook (updated Jan2024)

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20 Jan

Yogis who meditate in order to eradicate defilements and thus put an end to saṁsāric suffering are prone to encounter cessation experiences during the course of their practice. This makes them wonder whether they have attained awakening or not, since meditation teachers refer to the experience of nibbāna as a cessation of mental and material phenomena.

With the view of helping honest, humble, eager yogis clear their doubts, or at least save themselves from the hazard of overestimating their own practice, I propose to discuss different types of cessation experiences and successive stages of awakening, including different types of negative mental states (defilements, etc.) eradicated at each respective stage.