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80 of 82 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars "The" book for serious meditators
Of the countless reasons that you should read this book, I offer the following three:

1.) Many books about meditation leave out important information about the sequential stages one will likely (dare I say "inevitably") encounter in their practice. The ups and downs in one's practice can be severe, which causes many people to get stuck, and maybe leave the...
Published on February 10, 2009 by Jackson Wilshire

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101 of 110 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Historian enjoy, practitioner beware
There is so much right with this book, yet so much wrong. What is right is the unashamed attitude that the path is practiced to attain something, and that it is possible to do so. The discussions of the different models of awakening and of the "mushroom factor" in much of current Buddhism are also great. In Part I there are also extended and very good discussions of some...
Published on October 11, 2012 by TC


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80 of 82 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars "The" book for serious meditators, February 10, 2009
This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
Of the countless reasons that you should read this book, I offer the following three:

1.) Many books about meditation leave out important information about the sequential stages one will likely (dare I say "inevitably") encounter in their practice. The ups and downs in one's practice can be severe, which causes many people to get stuck, and maybe leave the practice all together. Daniel breaks down what one may experience on their journey, and gives very practical advice on how to navigate the territory.

2.) This book clears up a lot of confusion around the goals of meditation practice, particularly what it means to be enlightened (or "awakened", etc.). By supplying an extensive list of the various models of enlightenment that are used by various contemplative traditions, one may comparatively examine them and get a good idea of what is true and what is false in regards to the process and goal of awakening.

3.) Daniel is brutally honest. He is fully aware that calling himself an Arahat is likely ruffle many feathers. But, it is my impression that he wouldn't make the claim if he didn't believe with his entire being that it is beneficial to others to do so. By explicitly detailing his particular attainments and how he was able to gain mastery of very specific techniques, he provides hope to those who also believe that it can be done.

I can say with complete honesty that after reading and applying the basic practices in this book, my meditation practice deepend beyond what I knew was even possible (and still is). I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to have read it, and how hopeful I am that it will continue to benefit others.

If you want to learn meditation with the goal of attaining earth shattering insight in to the nature of your identity and the universal characteristics of the whole of reality, than this book is for you.
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101 of 110 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Historian enjoy, practitioner beware, October 11, 2012
This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
There is so much right with this book, yet so much wrong. What is right is the unashamed attitude that the path is practiced to attain something, and that it is possible to do so. The discussions of the different models of awakening and of the "mushroom factor" in much of current Buddhism are also great. In Part I there are also extended and very good discussions of some of the important basic teachings of the Buddha: the three trainings, five spiritual faculties, seven factors of enlightenment, four noble truths and eightfold path.

What is wrong then?

Well, Parts II and II are largely not teachings of the Buddha, core or otherwise. The meditation practice that Ingram teaches ("noting") was developed in the twentieth century in Burma. It wasn't taught by the Buddha. The "Progress of Insight" that Ingram teaches comes from a document called the Visuddhimagga written in Sri Lanka in the fifth century AD, more than eight hundred years after the Buddha's death in Northern India. The Buddha didn't teach that either. So the title is misleading, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the practices are not helpful. Or does it?

The outcome of the practice recommended in the book is not the outcome of practicing the Buddha's teaching, which is nibbana ("unbinding"), the end of dukkha (usually translated as "suffering" or "stress"). The product of Ingram's practice as recommended in this book is a state of endless cycling through something which Ingram, borrowing from St John of the Cross, calls the Dark Night, some of whose stages are Fear, Misery, Disgust and Desire for Deliverance (as well as nicer sounding states like Equanimity). There is no end to be reached, just a state of endless repetition of these stages at four succeedingly higher levels which are called by the same names as the Buddha's four stages of awakening, although they are clearly not the same thing at all. Rather than being the end of dukkha which the Buddha taught, this is more "being OK with dukkha made worse by the practice". It seems difficult to understand why anybody would want to do this, unless it's to get the same kind of satisfaction that you get from ascending the levels in a computer game. Ingram even has the term "technical meditator" for someone who can call up these stages of the Dark Night at will, almost as a show of skill. It seems to have little to do with the end of suffering, which is supposed to be the whole point of meditative practice.

The fact that the expected practice outcome is cycling though dukkha is not made clear in the book. The reader is allowed to assume that the objective is the same as the Buddha's, nibbana. It only becomes apparent from Ingram's website. This website has attracted people who appreciated the open and pragmatic ethos of the book and is one of the most hospitable places on the internet for discussion of dhamma practice. The differences between the teaching in this book (usually called "MCTB") and those of the Buddha are openly acknowledged on the site, including the fact that "MCTB arahat" (Ingram's claim to attainment) is not the same as "sutta arahat" (as described in the Pali suttas, the record of the Buddha's teaching conversations during his life) and the fact that the MCTB map is not the same as the Buddha's "ten fetter model".

Ingram himself has recognised that he has further to go (which "sutta arahats" don't) and a couple of years ago started practices inspired by a teaching called Actual Freedom, coached by some of his former pupils. Part of this practice is attaining states called "Pure Consciousness Experiences" ("PCEs") and Ingram has written freely about his attainment of these states and the fact that the experience of "PCE Daniel" is far preferable to that of "cycling Daniel". More recently he has written about a "veil" being torn away that had existed unknown between him and the world.

It seems to be emerging that the "Space Invaders / shooting aliens" noting practice (you'll have to read the book!) that Ingram teaches is what produces the "attention wave", "phase problems" and the perceptual instabilities and vibrations that he calls the Three Characteristics (the Buddha actually never used this term, and meant something different by the term Three Perceptions which he used) and it's what pushes people into the Dark Night. The Buddha taught a very different whole-body awareness practice that did not separate samatha (calm and concentration) and vipassana (insight) and he described nothing remotely resembling the Dark Night. There are many discussions on the website involving people trying to locate themselves on the Progress of Insight map and more often than not it seems difficult or impossible to do. There have been discussions placing the same person right at the beginning and right at the end of the Progress based on the same practice report, so vague and confusing are the signs of each stage. People seem to end up scripting their experience to follow the maps as far as they can, or dropping the maps altogether and taking up other practices that they find more helpful.

Ingram is in the process of starting to prepare a second edition of the book and it will be interesting to see whether he still teaches the practice leading to the dark night (in contrast to the Buddha's practice leading to the end of suffering) or puts it aside in favour of his more recent and apparently more productive practice. If he retains the current content hopefully he will at least correct the title to something less misleading.

For a serious practitioner this is a "must read", not just for its historical interest as a stage of the development of the teaching of the dhamma in the West, but also for its analysis of many of the problems of modern Buddhism. We must be grateful to Ingram for opening up a discussion of dhamma practice based on the idea that you're doing it for a purpose and you can get results. However, the practices described in this book are not those of the Buddha and they do not lead where he went.
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68 of 74 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Most Practical Dharma Book Ever..., January 8, 2009
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This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
I can say with extreme confidence that if you read this book, put its principles and techniques into practice and have a clear aim at making progress in your meditation practice, you will be amazed at how quickly you can make real and lasting progress. This book excels at the specifics regarding insight meditation practice (with enlightenment as its goal) and the states and stages related to concentration practice (with unusual and profound states of consciousness as its goal). It also excels at deconstructing the various confused models and misperceptions that spiritual practitioners often have regarding enlightenment.

So, if you're interested in down-to-earth, practical dharma, and want a clear guide on how to master the core teachings of the Buddha this is the book for you. If you're looking for coffee table dharma or feel good, new-age fluff, then I would suggest something a little less hardcore.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Unique, in ways unparalleled..., February 8, 2012
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This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
This is not your daddy's Dharma book! (Your mommy's neither.)

The differences start with the cover, and no, I'm not talking about the flaming dude with a chakra wheel for his heart. I'm talking about the author's title: Arahat. Now, Ingram does have a regular title-he's a medical doctor (M.D.) specializing in emergency medicine-"Everything from hangnails to heart attacks" he told me in a phone conversation. As you may know, an arhat (there are variant spellings) is one who has completed the Buddhist path as laid out in the Pali Suttas. "Done is what had to be done and there is no more of this to come!" goes the standard refrain by those who have attained such. Clearly Ingram is, as the suttas say, ready to "roar his lion's roar" in the spiritual marketplace. He spells the differences out further in the "Forward and Warning," wherein he puts you on notice he does not intend to write a "nice and friendly dharma book"; you know you're in for it when an author tells you he hails from a lineage of "dharma cowboys, mavericks, rogues and outsiders" (16).

That said, the books proceeds normally enough through part one. Ingram begins his discussion of dharma in terms of the traditional "three trainings": morality (sila), concentration (samadhi) and wisdom (paññ'). I especially found his discussion of morality illuminating. Going considerably beyond the standard list of things we shouldn't do (the five precepts etc), he says

"Training in morality has as its domain all of the ordinary ways that we live in the world. When we are trying to live the good life in a conventional sense, we are working on training in morality. When we are trying to work on our emotional, psychological and physical health, we are working at the level of training morality... Whatever we do in the ordinary world that we think will be of some benefit to others or ourselves is an aspect of working on this first training" (24-5).

He goes on to point out that while absolute mastery of concentration and wisdom (insight) is possible, total mastery in the worldly sphere of ethics is not. And so he calls it, rightly, the "first and last training."

Chapter 4 (oddly, the chapters are not numbered, only the parts) lays significant emphasis on seeing the three characteristics (tilakkhana) of phenomena-impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha) and not-self (anatta); indeed, this is a fundamental tenet of Ingram's approach to meditation, derivable in part from his experiences in the Mahasi tradition which has a similar emphasis. His discussion of anatta is clarifying: it means, simply, that when phenomena are investigated closely (as in vipassana), no agent, controller, or subject can be discovered; the things of the world are, in effect, ownerless. This, too, is a significant part of Ingram's dharma discussion, and comes up repeatedly later in the book. Ingram also discusses the spiritual faculties, the factors of enlightenment, and the four truths.

Most of the above can be found in other dharma books. Where things really start to get interesting is in the section entitled "Practical Meditation Considerations." Here Ingram's wealth of experience in formal retreat centers comes to the fore and makes for extremely informative, even entertaining, reading. For example, he lists the things retreatants tend to get neurotic about, such as wake-up bells ("too quiet, too loud, someone forgets to ring it at all"), roommates ("those that snore, smell, are noisy or messy, etc."), as well as "issues of corruption, romances, cults of personality, affairs, crushes, miscommunications, vendettas, scandals, drug use, money issues, and all the other things that can sometimes show up anywhere there are people" (94)-meaning everything and anything!

This is a section that demands multiple readings. Not because it's in any way difficult, just because the nuts and bolts of doing a retreat, of daily practice, are often the very things that defeat us. I repeatedly found Ingram's advice to be forthright, informed, and practical. Many people, for example, get obsessed over posture, but Ingram says simply "we can meditate in just about any position we find ourselves" (96). He notes, for example, how "Many traditions make a big deal about exactly how you should sit, with some getting paricularly macho or picky about such things" (97)-making me recall my experience in a Zen monastery in Japan. He writes how the four postures of sitting, standing, walking, reclining each have plusses and minuses, the principle differences being in the energy level and effects on concentration. He further discusses issues such as meditation objects, the critical role of resolve, and offers some very illuminating remarks on teachers. One clearly gets the sense Ingram knows what he says from firsthand experience.

The fireworks start in Part II, "Light and Shadows." Little lightning bolts-the sign of something controversial ahead-adorn several chapters. This is where Ingram gets up on his soapbox. Usually, I would say that in a bad way, meaning someone was just spouting. But here, I think, what Ingram does, even if you want to call it spouting, is all to a very good point, and that is to draw attention to some of the unconstructive shadow sides of Buddhist spirituality in America. For example, in the section entitled "Buddhism vs. the Buddha," he criticizes the religious trappings the Buddha's teaching-in its original form an applied psychology-has been buried under, and how Americans have contributed to rendering the master's technology of awakening into dogma or comfort food.

However, Ingram's purpose here is not controversy. He speaks also about having a clear goal, and encourages asking oneself questions like "Why would I want to sit cross-legged for hours with my eyes closed, anyway?" It's important you know what you're seeking, after all, and Ingram hammers this point throughout the book. (It was also one of the first questions he asked me in our phone conversation!) This section also describes the critical difference between dealing with one's "stuff"-i.e. the content of your life-and seeing the true nature of the phenomena that constitute that stuff. For example, if you're depressed because your significant other dumped you, trying to figure out why he/she did that to you is reflection on your "stuff," but patiently observing the emotions of anger or depression as they arise and pass away-i.e. trying to see the fundamental characteristics of those experiences-is insight. The difference here, as Ingram makes clear, is night and day.

Part III, "Mastery," forms the heart of the book, and this is where Ingram's starkly non-dogmatic, critical, and pragmatic intellect shows its best. This is also the part most likely to offend and where it becomes clear that if you're after spiritual pabulum, you've come to the wrong man. Ingram is all about "states and stages," about achieving exactly what the old dead masters achieved. We each have our purposes in our spiritual lives-and he acknowledges this-but he is not looking to comfort or console anyone, or make things seem easier than they are. Ingram's vision of the Dhamma is, rather, very goal oriented and effort driven. It is a path of achievement, of distinct and discernible attainments. If your mentality does not incline toward this way of thinking and acting, now is the time to bail out!

This section reviews in great, perhaps unprecedented detail, three distinct subjects: the concentration jhanas (1-8), the progress of insight, and the multiplicity of models and definitions of enlightenment. There is plenty here to make for argument, but also to educate, warn, coax and cajole. In short, this is some of the most stimulating, revealing and educational dharma reading I've ever done. You could read a hundred dharma books and still not come up with this stuff. And while Ingram is not a particularly great (or even good) writer (more on this below), he is at times eminently quotable. I can't resist offering a few snippets here. These give you a good idea of what you're getting into with this book.

You may have heard, for example, about those teachers who say "there is nothing to attain, nowhere to go, no one to get enlightened, your seeking is the problem." Or, even more intriguingly, that "you are already enlightened." You find these teachings in some Buddhist schools, J. Krishnamurti, Adi Da, and others. Here's Ingram's take on this take on enlightenment:

"[It's] like saying: you are already a concert pianist, you just have to realize it, or you already are a nuclear physicist, you just have to realize it... [It's] like saying to a severe paranoid schizophrenic: you already are as sane as anyone and do not need to take your medicines and should just follow the voices that tell you to kill people, or to a person with heart disease: just keep smoking and eating fried pork skins and you will be healthy...or saying to a greedy, corrupt, corporate-raiding, white-collar criminal, Fascist, alcoholic wife-beater: hey, Dude, you are a like, beautiful perfect flower of the Now Moment, already enlightened (insert toke here), you are doing and not-doing just fine, like wow, so keep up the good work, Man" (360).

I read this while on the train to work and enjoyed an unrestrained guffaw-several times!

However...to double back to my criticism of Ingram's writing: he's badly in need of an editor, and the people at Aeon Books let him down. Ingram grossly overuses the word "that"-it's one of the most overused words in the language, so he is not alone in the bad habit of thatting this and thatting that-and after a while it started grating on my sensitive literary nerves. He also does not seem to know the difference between "phenomena" and "phenomenon," and, on a different note, sometimes comes off sounding rather immature. There were occasions, too, where he went on unnecessarily about whatever, and a little more self-control would have helped the text out a lot. Again...where were his editors?

But this is minor stuff, mere bitching on my part. Ingram is actually a pretty fun read, and the book is outstanding and unique in so many ways, I/we can and should forgive him. He has much wisdom to offer and we should be grateful for all the hard work he's done on and off the cushion. I leave you with one nugget of insight that stood out for me:

"When I think about what it would take to achieve freedom from all psychological stuff, the response that comes is this: life is about stuff. Stuff is part of being alive. There is no way out of this while you are still living. There will be confusion, pain, miscommunication, misinterpretation, maladaptive patterns of behavior, unhelpful emotional reactions, weird personality traits, neurosis and possibly much worse. There will be power plays, twisted psychological games, people with major personality disorders (which may include you), and craziness. The injuries continue right along with the healing and eventually the injuries win and we die. This is a fundamental teaching of the Buddha. I wish the whole Western Buddhist World would just get over this notion that these practices are all about getting to our Happy Place where nothing can ever hurt us or make us neurotic and move on to actually mastering real Buddhist practice rather than chasing some ideal that will never appear" (330).

You have your marching orders.
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70 of 82 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of the maps, January 12, 2009
This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
What I found most helpful in this book was the clear overview & synthesis of the different maps of meditation into a fairly coherent view. The picture that emerges seems to be similar to maps outlined in Buddhaghosa's the Path of Purification, or at least other interpretations of them I have read.

A few comments/criticisms based on my reading an earlier version of this text online:

1. Daniel Ingram explicitly claims (on the first line on his website bio) that he is an Arahat. While I'm in no position to judge the merits of this claim, it does seem to be something unique among other teachers whom I've encountered, including those who have been around a lot longer. I wonder if the author may be attached to this idea of being an Arahat (especially given how definitions vary) but readers will need to judge for themselves how much this does/does not color Daniel's teachings. The book is helpful, but readers should be aware of this claim.

2. I don't feel a lot of compassion jumping off the pages. Maybe Daniel has explicitly chosen not to focus on this aspect of the path or perhaps in choosing to be "hardcore" compassion has been downplayed. However, Daniel's style can, at times, come off as critical to the point of aggression towards alternative viewpoints.

In summary, a good overview from an intelligent teacher who knows his stuff on the traditional Theravada paths. However, like any overview/teaching, this perspective on the path has clearly been colored by the author's own experience & personality.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent with modest criticism, March 4, 2010
By 
Daseinen (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
This is a wonderful book, as most of the other reviewers have already mentioned. Dr. Ingram gives a direct and invigorating guide to Buddhist practice in the Theravada tradition. And his very directness and frankness make this book well worth reading for practitioners of other schools of Buddhism.

Since there have been many excellent reviews already, I will focus on a couple of criticisms of the book. These are not things that the author should change, but things that a potential reader might want to be aware of while they read.

It is wonderful to hear that a modern Westerner can attain enlightenment, even if his claims must be taken with a grain of salt. And the level of detail that Dr. Ingram offers when presenting the stages of the path can be greatly beneficial. I personally find the description of the stages of practice to be immensely helpful for my motivation, and hence for my practice. Alan Wallace's "Attention Revolution," is an excellent book, of the same sort, covering Shamatha or concentration meditation, as is Rasmussen and Snyder's "Practicing the Jhanas."

That said, the very level of detail Dr. Ingram provides can be a hindrance, since the maps make it much easier for a person to spend less time practicing and more time obsessing over what stage they are in, etc. The author is well aware of this pitfall, and he warns that the only path to development is practice. He also gives a strong argument for the inclusion of this sort of information, which I will not recount here. Suffice to say, there is much to be said for a diversity in the kinds of guides to practice.

Dr. Ingram claims that he was particularly motivated to write the book on account of his experiences of the "Dark Night." His hope seems to be that, once you've read through his maps, you will see the Dark Night as another phase in your practice, and do what you need to get through it. Without understanding that the Dark Night can be part of the path, it is far to easy to become immobilized and frozen in depression--leading you to discontinue your practice, and thereby extending the depression. This is an admirable goal, and I very much hope he achieves it. However, the strength and depth of his description of the Dark Night may cause some readers to romanticize states of suffering or depression as signs of spiritual progress (not a new idea, after all). I am not an Arhat, but I might suggest that the take-home message from Dr. Ingram's treatment of this subject is that if you encounter mind-bending discomfort and depression on the path, keep practicing, 'cause you're not there yet.

Lastly, Dr. Ingram may possess perfect compassion, but it is easy to see how he can come off as a bit arrogant and nit-picky, particularly in his chapter on the social aspects of practice. The Dharma has become a bit of a one-size-fits-all garment in the West, to its detriment, and you may find it refreshing to find someone calling a spade a spade. Not everyone who smiles and talks about universal love can be trusted to feed the dog every day. Right view, after all, requires a process of reasoning and fine discrimination, not mindless acceptance and adherence. Nevertheless, you are not likely to find this book on the bedside table of your boomer mother. Jack Kornfield has written profound and compassionate books, but there's plenty of room for something a little more intense and immediately demanding. And this is it. Be forewarned.

All in all, a wonderful book, well worth reading. We are, today, experiencing an explosion of serious dharma practice in the U.S., and this book is an excellent contribution that can be a great help to serious practitioners, or to weekend Buddhists who are ready to get serious.

May you be happy and well1!
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Totally Awesome, January 24, 2009
This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
Ingram's work is pretty awesome. If it weren't for this book I'd probably be hiding in a darkened room right now, wondering when the hell it was going to end.

I think just about any meditator should read his section on the Progress of Insight. While it can be detailed almost to a fault, it is a tremendous relief to know that the crap you're facing is just part of a process other people have gone through and that it is in some ways predictable, and, most importantly, that You Can Do It (which in many cases means "Things Get Better"!). Likewise, the section on jhana makes it very clear that people can and do attain states that are totally amazing, and that you can be one of those people--considering that in some circles "jhana" is a dirty word, this is, again, a relief.

It's worth noting that much of the approach to the basics is more in the scholarly, list-based style rather than the "heart"-based approach. If you're looking for some emotional reassurance--not that there's anything wrong with that, save that you can get that out of the four out of five dharma books already--this isn't the book for you.

And while I sympathize with the sentiment of Ingram's polemics, I would agree with the above review, sometimes they can be a bit much. The only other complaint I have about MCTB would be its heavy Burmese noting flavor--if you aren't in a meditation community influenced by the Mahasi Sadayaw style, you'll have to do a lot of translating.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books out there, November 9, 2009
By 
Roger (Bethesda, MD, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
As a person with a degree in Eastern Religion and Philosophy, I have read more than my share of books on Buddhism. Many of them are full of western psychology and tend to over-emphasize the importance of dealing with your stuff. As Ram Dass would say, they are focused on re-arranging the furniture of the mind. I found this book refreshing because it focuses on enlightenment and how to get there.

I loved the book because it was written like a how-to-book on Insight Meditation. It spends very little time on soft subjects. Many of the books on Buddhism are written as though they should be placed in the "Self-help" section of the bookstore. If you have read one you have read them all. This book stands out and grabs your attention. I found myself writing in the margins and underlining important sections. It is that kind of book.

If you are a serious meditator, then you owe it to yourself to buy this book. It is a worthy investment and will be referenced more than any other book in your library.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars with a caution..., September 15, 2011
By 
Greg (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
"Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha" is an incredibly illuminating and long overdue book, and should be read by everyone looking to diligently undertake the path of enlightenment. Mr. Ingram's comprehensive explanations of the stages of concentration and the stages of insight are worth many times the price of the book; with the sections on practical considerations, the need for a clear goal, and the different models of enlightenment being a tremendous bonus. The "mushroom factor," as he calls it (where students are kept in the dark and fed "manure" regarding the path or stages), is ubiquitous and it's about time it see some light. This highly articulate, yet accessible, pragmatic & straightforward work deserves heaps of praise.

That said iconoclastic works are usually a reaction to what the authors see going on around them. And while often necessary (as this work certainly is), there is a danger of them becoming the new dogma. Mr. Ingram has a "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" approach to meditation practice that may cause harm to anyone not psychologically stable enough (which may be most of us) to undertake his preferred style & intensity of practice, which he rightly points out in his insightful & sometimes hilarious Foreword and Warning. Further, it is likely that the 2500 year evolution of how Buddhist teachings are transmitted (including a degree of mushroom factor) contains at least some wisdom and should not be completely tossed out with the bathwater.

Whether or not this approach to spiritual practice is the correct approach is not the issue. The question is which approach is right (or best) for each individual. [It would have been helpful to have included a chapter on which approach may be best suitable for different types of people, but that is likely a book in itself (Ken Wilber has written some on this); and as the author perceptively points out, teachers only know what they know.] Finally, to the extent his book is used, not as the practical guide he no doubt intended, but instead as a weapon to further a "dogma war," Mr. Ingram may find that he is attracting exactly the wrong type of individuals to his approach.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars is a must-read for those who want to take a pragmatic spiritual path, January 22, 2009
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This review is from: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book (Paperback)
First of, unlike other mainstream politically-correct spiritual authors, Ingram breaks away from political correctness and egalitarianism by claiming he had already achieved Arahatship, meaning, that he is already "enlightened." Depending on your notion of "enlightenment" Ingram could either put you off and make you stop reading the book, or it could pique your curiosity and keep you reading. I read the book from cover to cover, and I'm glad I did.

Aside from the practical techniques and detailed description of the progress along the path, Ingram discusses the different "stages of the models of enlightenment." Most likely, readers would recognize their own idealistic model of enlightenment while reading this section of the book. I'm guilty as charged when it comes to some of my own projections on "enlightened" beings. At one fell swoop Ingram demolished my deluded notions about enlightenment, and I feel fine.

This book reflects my own temperament when it comes to the dharma and spiritual practice. It has less fluff, no dogma, and more substance compared to other mainstream feel-good spiritual books I've read.

Read it . Do the practices. And open yourself up to the Grace of Awakening.
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Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book
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