Plain and Simple? Anything but. I really don't understand what I'm supposed to see, or the nature of the types of reality I might realize. Also, he claims that if I pay attention to my feelings, my feelings will become less "urgent" (but not less "vivid"), and that then my feelings won't influence my emotions so much.
Also, all those thoughts you've been having? You know, your whole life? Well, there's your problem right there.
I think my point is, if this is what life is like in the buddha dharma, I don't quite understand why a person would choose that. No pain or discomfort, because you've realized that everything there is is irrelevant. Might as well just give up the ghost.
I've been looking at Eastern philosophies lately, a bit. I read the Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tsu, which I didn't get either. The Art of War was much more interesting and straightforward--even when it was being dreamy and philosophical, you could tell it had a solid grounding in psychology and observation of reality (as distinct from Reality, which this Steve Hagen guy keeps telling me I should be able to see as Truth).
Anyway, I think a practitioner would tell me that dabbling is not the way to approach these philosophies; ironically, it seems to me that they're oddly like Western religion in that it doesn't really work without you've got the faith.
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