user302: Are dark night problems a common thing? It worries me that if I practice they might happen:
http://m.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/the-dark-knight-of-the-souls/372766

user199: This "Dark Night" stuff is my biggest problem with dharmaoverground.org (which is in general interesting and useful). I mentioned it here. My complaint is that it acts as a lens  -- on dharmaoverground.com you'll often hear people refer to themselves as "dark night yogis" -- through which these negative aspect get focused with the result that it feeds our built-in cognitive bias to overestimate the probability of certain things occurring. 
Look at Yuttadhammo's response. He's a monk and an experienced teacher, and he doesn't appear to even have heard of the thing. (Sorry Y. if I'm reading into your question). If the thing was that common, you'd think he'd have heard about it. And when the Dalai Lama met with Willoughby Britton to hear about her work (again, video link in my another thread), he seemed not to have encountered it much either.
Here's Shinzen Young again (link also in that other post): 
"In my entire career of teaching, ... I have encountered this in students only a few times."
When I first read about it (in Dan Ingram's book, "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha", which I do recommend), I was scared too. But since broadening my reading I've decided that I'm glad to know about DN stuff, in the same way that I know about the oxygen masks in a plane. But I don't really expect to have to use either of those pieces of information.

user43: Yes, passing through what you called "dark night" is a prerequisite for Enlightenment.
The term refers to existential crisis experienced around the time of fully realizing Emptiness and the Three Marks of Existence. In Vajrayana tradition this is also referred to as the death of the ego. As Chogyam Trungpa said, 

Enlightenment is ego's ultimate disappointment.

(On a separate note, I would not blindly believe anything I read on dharmaoverground.org -- that community does not seem to be grounded in genuine teaching.)

302: <p>Are dark night problems a common thing? It worries me that if I practice they might happen:</p>

<p><a href="http://m.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/the-dark-knight-of-the-souls/372766" rel="nofollow">http://m.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/the-dark-knight-of-the-souls/372766</a></p>
 199: <p>This "Dark Night" stuff is my biggest problem with dharmaoverground.org (which is in general interesting and useful). I mentioned it <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/217/health-risks-of-meditation/1363#1363">here</a>. My complaint is that it acts as a lens  -- on dharmaoverground.com you'll often hear people refer to themselves as "dark night yogis" -- through which these negative aspect get focused with the result that it feeds our built-in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic" rel="nofollow noreferrer">cognitive bias</a> to overestimate the probability of certain things occurring. </p>

<p>Look at Yuttadhammo's response. He's a monk and an experienced teacher, and he doesn't appear to even have heard of the thing. (Sorry Y. if I'm reading into your question). If the thing was that common, you'd think he'd have heard about it. And when the Dalai Lama met with Willoughby Britton to hear about her work (again, video link <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/217/health-risks-of-meditation/1363#1363">in my another thread</a>), he seemed not to have encountered it much either.</p>

<p>Here's Shinzen Young again (link also in that other post): 
<em>"In my entire career of teaching, ... I have encountered this in students only a few times."</em></p>

<p>When I first read about it (in Dan Ingram's book, "Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha", which I do recommend), I was scared too. But since broadening my reading I've decided that I'm glad to know about DN stuff, in the same way that I know about the oxygen masks in a plane. But I don't really expect to have to use either of those pieces of information.</p>
 43: <p>Yes, passing through what you called "dark night" is a prerequisite for Enlightenment.
The term refers to existential crisis experienced around the time of fully realizing Emptiness and the Three Marks of Existence. In Vajrayana tradition this is also referred to as the death of the ego. As Chogyam Trungpa said, </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Enlightenment is ego's ultimate disappointment.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>(On a separate note, I would not blindly believe anything I read on dharmaoverground.org -- that community does not seem to be grounded in genuine teaching.)</p>
