I feel that Looking might be dangerous for roughly the same reason psychedelic drugs are dangerous. I know that my sanity is not very robust, and I also know that my mind is quite well functioning in the moment (so that “if ain’t broke” applies). Experimenting with highly unusual states of consciousness seems like something that pushes your mind away from its normal operating conditions and can destabilize the system in difficult to predict ways.
Learning to Look can definitely be hazardous: some teachers advise people with any kind of mental health issues to be very cautious about trying meditation at all. In particular, learning the required kind of sensitivity for noticing subtle movements of mind means that you also become aware of any unpleasant stuff that you might so far have been suppressing in order to cope.
Ideally, that dark stuff bubbling up to surface will be rough but beneficial, as the person meditating will process it and get over it, but that’s under the assumption that they are relatively mentally healthy (on some relevant axis); for people who aren’t, it may be too much to handle at once.
And, as you say, deeper Looking inherently involves moving the mind outside its standard parameters. If the techniques aren’t used right, there is a very definite risk of breaking things.
I feel that Looking might be dangerous for roughly the same reason psychedelic drugs are dangerous. I know that my sanity is not very robust, and I also know that my mind is quite well functioning in the moment (so that “if ain’t broke” applies). Experimenting with highly unusual states of consciousness seems like something that pushes your mind away from its normal operating conditions and can destabilize the system in difficult to predict ways.
Learning to Look can definitely be hazardous: some teachers advise people with any kind of mental health issues to be very cautious about trying meditation at all. In particular, learning the required kind of sensitivity for noticing subtle movements of mind means that you also become aware of any unpleasant stuff that you might so far have been suppressing in order to cope.
Ideally, that dark stuff bubbling up to surface will be rough but beneficial, as the person meditating will process it and get over it, but that’s under the assumption that they are relatively mentally healthy (on some relevant axis); for people who aren’t, it may be too much to handle at once.
And, as you say, deeper Looking inherently involves moving the mind outside its standard parameters. If the techniques aren’t used right, there is a very definite risk of breaking things.
Basically agree with this.