In classical Buddhist meditation, awakening unfolds through a series of experiential stages known as the Insight Knowledges (vipassanā-ñāṇa). They describe how awareness deepens, how the mind encounters suffering and lets go, and how wisdom matures. While rooted in Theravāda Buddhism, similar patterns appear in Christian mysticism as the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways, and in Jungian psychology as the process of individuation.
1. Knowledge of Mind and Body
You begin clearly distinguishing mental events from physical ones, noticing how thoughts, sensations, and actions arise and pass.
Christian: Awakening to the inner life through contemplation.
Jung: First differentiation of ego from the unconscious.
2. Knowledge of Cause and Effect
You see how intentions lead to actions, and how mental states cause results.
Christian: Growing moral awareness.
Jung: Recognition of patterns and complexes shaping behavior.
3. Knowledge of the Three Characteristics
All phenomena reveal themselves as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. This can feel unsettling.
Christian: Early purgation—realising the limits of worldly attachments.
Jung: First confrontation with the shadow.
4. The Arising and Passing Away (A&P) – A Spiritual Peak
A surge of clarity and energy. Perception can feel vivid, unified, even ecstatic.
Christian: Mystical illumination or conversion experience.
Jung: Encounter with the Self as a numinous reality.
5. The Dukkha Ñāṇas – The “Dark Night”
After the peak, insight deepens into the layers of clinging and resistance. These stages are uncomfortable but crucial.
5a. Dissolution – Things lose solidity and coherence.
Christian: “Cloud of unknowing.”
Jung: Ego stability wanes before transformation.
5b. Fear – Impermanence is felt viscerally; anxiety may arise.
Christian: Fear of God’s mystery.
Jung: Encountering the vast unconscious.
5c. Misery – Deep dissatisfaction and sorrow surface.
Christian: The soul laments its distance from God.
Jung: Facing collective and personal suffering.
5d. Disgust – Repulsion toward worldly things and habitual patterns.
Christian: Turning from sin and vanity.
Jung: Rejection of false persona.
5e. Desire for Deliverance – A longing to be free from suffering.
Christian: Yearning for grace.
Jung: Pull toward wholeness.
6. Re-Observation – The most intense stage; cycles of suffering are seen clearly.
Christian: “Dark Night of the Soul.”
Jung: Final confrontation with shadow and ego limits.
7. Equanimity – The Great Balance
Calm, spacious awareness returns. Phenomena arise and pass without grasping or aversion.
Christian: Union of the will with God’s.
Jung: Integration of opposites, movement toward the Self.
Path and Fruition – Breakthrough
A deep moment of release (nibbāna). The mind experiences cessation and re-emerges with reduced clinging. The cycle begins anew at a subtler level.
Christian: Unitive stage, moments of divine union.
Jung: Transformation and reintegration of the psyche.
A Universal Process
Though expressed differently, this map mirrors processes described by John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, and Jung: a movement from initial awakening, through darkness and purification, into balance and freedom. It is not a ladder to climb but a natural unfolding of insight as the mind learns to see reality clearly.
The only way out is through, and if you try to suppress your dark night you will almost certainly end up trapped there, robbing yourself of the chance to awaken to a more unified self and a life with a vastly decreased baseline suffering. I suggest you let the process unfold naturally, and remember to regulate throughout.