New Horizons: Innovative Teachers of Awakening - Daniel Ingram
The most uniquely controversial figure in contemporary Buddhism?
This is the second instalment in an ongoing series profiling innovative Buddhist and non-duality teachers who are focused on making awakening more accessible. You can read the intro to the series here, where I also profile Shinzen Young, who has been the most influential meditation teacher to me personally.
Daniel Ingram is a uniquely controversial figure in the Buddhist world. While most controversies surrounding Buddhist teachers have to do with abuse or other forms of inappropriate conduct, Daniel has garnered a very different type of criticism.
Let me first make clear that, as far as I can tell, Daniel is a good guy and very committed to helping people. He’s extremely generous with his time and energy, always making himself available to give support and direction to anyone who asks, and refusing to accept any sort of financial compensation.
While many teachers revel in the praise of their students, Daniel shuns the old guru model and empowers people to find their own inner guidance on the path. No one has accused him of abusing power or people in any form.
It seems like Daniel has courted a lot of controversy mostly for upsetting the old guard. He has in many ways broken from tradition, and been the driving force behind what has come to be known as the Pragmatic Dharma movement.
Pragmatic Dharma is all about doing what works with the explicit goal of awakening. It approaches Buddhism and meditation practice with discernment, asking what parts are cultural adornments and what parts are most effective in catalyzing genuine realization.
Most Buddhist traditions have long had elements of secrecy. You’d need to do a certain amount of preliminary practices before the teacher would reveal the more coveted ones. It was also not custom to speak about one’s personal experiences openly, especially anything that could be interpreted as boasting.
Daniel turned this all on its head.
Daniel loves to discuss all things Buddhist, especially when it comes to interesting meditative experiences, dramatic shifts in awareness, and the crown jewel of Buddhism: Enlightenment.
He became obsessive about study and practice, sought out and studied with some of the best Buddhist teachers of his time, and ultimately transformed his experience, attaining many of the states discussed in traditional texts.
When he tried to discuss this stuff in online Buddhist communities, he was consistently shunned. In the Buddhist world there’s this sense that enlightenment is not really achievable by regular folk, and anyone claiming it must be either deluded or an aspiring cult leader - unless of course you have the blessing of a high ranking Buddhist teacher in a traditional lineage.
Traditional western Buddhist groups are also typically critical of any sort of achievement oriented mindset when it comes to practice. People often argue that trying to achieve anything at all is antithetical to what Buddhism is about, but Daniel argues this is mostly a western Buddhist perspective and many Buddhist traditions have historically been very focused on attainments.
So Daniel, along with some like minded friends, started a private forum to discuss a pragmatic approach to attaining enlightenment, originally calling it Dharma Underground. Members soon decided to open it up to the public, changing the name to Dharma Overground.
Right around this same time (2008) Daniel released a free ebook, titled Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book. It was essentially a guide to practicing Pragmatic Dharma, with the explicit goal of attaining enlightenment.
Daniel very boldly printed on the cover “The Arhant Daniel M. Ingram”. An Arhant is a Buddhist term for a fully enlightened person. In my view he was trying to stir the pot here and start a larger conversation about speaking openly about personal experience and Buddhist attainments.
The tone of the book is unique. Daniel is saying “I got enlightened, and you can too”. You just need to take this super seriously and really go for it. It is in fact one of the most encouraging and inspiring books I’ve encountered on the topic, as Daniel really believes that you can attain great things, and he makes you believe it too.
And yet there has been an enormous amount of criticism thrown at him for his claim of Arhantship.
Now many people in our time have claimed enlightenment without the same level of controversy. Eckhart Tolle, for example, openly discusses his awakening experience and seems to be widely respected in Buddhist communities. Adyashanti is another example, who’s discussed his awakening experiences on many occasions and seems to be widely embraced.
What made Daniel’s claim so controversial is that he is very precise about his attainments, using the 4 path model in Theravada Buddhism, where an Arhant has achieved the 4th and final stage of awakening.
This seemed to trigger a lot of criticism among Theravada traditionalists. Daniel’s attitude was that Buddhism has a clear goal, and he achieved that goal, and we should talk openly about all this and swap notes to help more people achieve the goal.
My sense is that many traditionalists are skeptical that this is something people can achieve (likely because they have spent a lifetime of practice and study and not achieved it themselves) and therefore dismissed Daniel as a nutjob or a conman. They felt his message that enlightenment is something attainable by ordinary folk to be dangerous or misleading, only setting people up for disappointment.
Despite the criticism by traditionalists, or maybe partly because of it, Daniel became somewhat of a folk hero. He inspired many people to take their meditation practice more seriously, and offered support and resources to do so.
Daniel has stated that it’s actually not all that hard for most people to attain “stream entry” if they take it seriously, which is the first stage of awakening on the 4 path model. He claims a few months of serious and intensive practice, and usually some retreats, is enough to get many people there.
This attitude, along with his book and the community he founded, supported many people to go for it, with predictably mixed results. But it’s undeniable that many people have achieved stream entry as a result of Daniel’s resources and encouragement. This approach certainly isn’t for everyone, but for many it works.
I personally have a lot of respect and admiration for Daniel’s bravado. I appreciate the conversation that he’s started, and he’s managed to elegantly walk a narrow line, remaining outspoken while rationally and ruthlessly defending the stance he’s taken.
He realizes the significance of his position and what he’s come to represent in the world of Buddhism and meditation, and doesn’t take it lightly. He is clearly very careful about his conduct.
The very first teaching in his book is about morality, which he says is the first and last training. Meaning it’s never finished, one never arrives a perfectly moral individual, but has to always remain cognizant and self-reflective. As far as I can tell, he takes his own advice here.
Daniel is an ER doctor, and for many years didn’t sell his book or even accept donations. He didn’t need the money and wanted to avoid any criticisms that he was making claims for personal gain. He only began selling hard copies of his book a few years ago due to demand (and receives a very small royalty, which goes to supporting his community and initiatives he’s undertaken), but still gives the ebook away for free.
He also makes himself available to help people via 1-on-1 sessions. Again, he doesn’t charge anything nor does he accept donations. He has really given so much to helping others.
Most Buddhist teachers and organizations offer teachings for “free”, but there’s always an expectation of a donation. This is of course necessary, Buddhist teachers need to eat, Buddhist organizations need to pay rent and support those organizing.
But given Daniel’s pushback against convention, he knew he’d be scrutinized, and has therefore found a way to do his thing while avoiding any accusations that he’s doing it for the money.
Daniel worked most of his adult life as an ER doctor to support himself and was able to write and teach in his spare time. A few years ago he retired from medicine and has since started an ambitious project, called The Emergent Phenomena Research Consortium (EPRC), dedicated to better understanding states of consciousness that result from meditation, spiritual practice, psychedelics, and sometimes seemingly unprovoked.
Daniel explains that he experienced a lot of very intense phenomena as a result of his meditation practice, that likely would have been diagnosed as psychosis had he turned to the western medical system for help. Instead though, he found a lot of insight and support in Buddhist texts, specifically The Manual of Insight, a book by pioneering Burmese Buddhist teacher Mahasi Sayadaw.
The Manual of Insight contains detailed maps of stages of development along the path of insight meditation. Daniel found these maps to be extremely helpful in his own experience, and much of his book is committed to their exploration. Many people interpret his starting the EPRC as an attempt to ultimately integrate these maps and their wisdom into a western medical model, so we can better diagnose and treat people stuck in some of the more challenging terrain.
But Daniel’s reliance and emphasis on these maps isn’t without its own controversy. While his claim of enlightenment caused criticism from traditional Buddhists, his belief in the universality of these maps has garnered criticism from a number of people within the Pragmatic Dharma community, including friend and fellow teacher Michael Taft, who argues that many people’s awakening process does not map onto the stages of insight.
Whether these maps are universally applicable or not is a hot topic, but regardless of that, these maps have been undeniably helpful to some, while likely misleading to others. I think the important thing is learning how we can use these maps skillfully, and I trust that the EPRC and its clinical, scientific, and research based approach will make meaningful strides in this area.
It should be noted that while Daniel seems a bit like an evangelist for this particular map, also known as the Progress of Insight, he has also deeply studied countless other models of the stages of awakening. In fact his book explores a few dozen models of awakening, mostly just to point out their inferiority to the Progress of Insight. While his bias is clear, it’s a well argued one.
And this points to something else that has set Daniel apart in the Buddhist world; his love for debate. Dharma debates used to be a real thing, and appear in many places and traditions throughout Buddhism’s history. In Zen it’s called Dharma combat. Disagreement in Buddhism has been historically common, hence the countless lineages, most of which began by some form of criticism to a preceding tradition.
But dharma debates have been largely lost, or at least they haven’t yet made their way into Western Buddhism. And to me that’s unfortunate for a few reasons.
If dharma debates were more common, I think a lot of charlatans would be exposed. Well, probably not, as they would likely avoid debate altogether, or perform badly but pretend they won (similar to how political debates roll out), but at least it would be clear that certain teachers were not willing to try to back up their teaching.
But I also think debates make things more exciting. While many traditions and teachers can feel a little stale, debates could enliven things. Buddhism is meant to be a lively, living tradition. The Buddha spoke explicitly about the dangers of dogma and blind faith, and yet it seems inevitable that most traditions fall into these traps to various degrees.
While many Buddhist teachers inhabit a somewhat stoic personality type, Daniel falls on the other end of the spectrum. He’s a witty, energetic, fast-talking character. He displays neurodivergent traits, often associated with ADHD and autism. In fact many have theorized his highly rational approach and disregard for cultural norms to be indicative of autism. While this wouldn’t surprise me, I think it’s a little odd that people tend to pathologize highly rational behavior. I think the world would be a better place with more ruthless rationality and less blind following of cultural norms, but hey that’s just me.
Practice Emphasis
Daniel’s approach to practice is very much in line with Burmese meditation master Mahasi Sayadaw (1904-1982), who is one of the most influential meditation teachers in the modern era. Even if you aren’t familiar with him, it’s likely you’ve encountered his impact. He was a primary teacher to western Buddhist pioneers Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzburg, and Joseph Goldstein. His impact has also been deeply felt in Burma, with many notable teachers carrying on his tradition and teaching style.
Mahasi Sayadaw is himself a pioneer as he brought back rigorous practice and long, intensive retreats. There is a tendency, even in Buddhism, for tradition to overtake practice; meaning traditions and teachers are more focused on upholding tradition than on genuine transformation. This was largely the case in Burma until Mahasi came along and re-emphasized practice and realization.
He famously held one month to three month long intensive retreats, alternating between one hour of sitting meditation and one hour of walking meditation. When he held this style of retreat at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in California, a significant number of attendants (something like a third) reportedly achieved stream entry (the first stage of awakening).
This led to IMS adopting Mahasi style meditation (also known as the Mahasi Technique or Mahasi Method) as the primary style of meditation they teach.
Daniel follows in Mahasi’s footsteps, emphasizing both Mahasi style noting technique and also long and rigorous retreats.
Although this noting technique is foundational to Daniel’s teaching style, he lays out many interesting vipassana or awareness focused practices. They mostly aim to increase the clarity of sensory experience, and also increase your capacity for it. A lot of them are really neat, but one is a little controversial. Sometimes called “machine gun noting” the practice is tracking as much of your sensory experience as you can, letting in as much as you can, noting as many sensations as you can per second. Daniel says it’s possible to note 20 sensation per second… and not just for one second, but ongoing.
While this is in contrast to how others teach noting, Daniel does emphasize a balance.
“Pay attention to how your practice is going and adjust the levels of energy and concentration accordingly. Finding the balance takes time, and may require regular readjustment as we learn to use the power of our minds. Sometimes it is helpful to be very gentle with our attention, as if we were trying to feel the wind on our skin from the flapping of a nearby butterfly's wings. Sometimes it is helpful to use our attention like a machine gun. Often, we do just fine somewhere in between.
A willingness to tinker with various combinations of energy and concentration produces the necessary personal experience to figure out what helps and what is too much or too little. Many of the problems that meditators ask meditation teachers about relate directly to balancing energy and concentration, so engage with what that might mean and see if you can apply this powerful teaching to help you see clearly.”
While Daniel continually emphasizes balance in his book, he also encourages people to practice consistently and instensely.
“I often think of the momentum that retreats generate in terms of rolling a boulder up and over a hill. If you get a long running start, pushing hard the whole way, you are more likely to be able to get the boulder rolling fast enough so that it rolls over the hill in one straight shot. If you push intermittently or half-heartedly, the boulder is likely to roll back when you get to the steep part of the hill, but you have worn the hill down a bit, and you may also be a bit stronger for the exercise. Thus, it is possible to wear down the hill given enough time, but it is much faster to simply power over it the first time and move on to the next hill. I know of no obvious benefits from slow practice that fails to gain some footholds in the territory of concentration or insight.”
This approach to hardcore committed practice, paired with machine gun noting, has led to some criticism. While I feel Daniel is well balanced in his statements, I can see how people can easily fall into the trap of pushing too hard and either burning out or ending up in some weird territory. I don’t think this is necessarily Daniel’s fault so much as it’s an easy mistake to make if not giving his book a full and careful read.
Daniel also emphasizes The Three Characteristics or Three Marks of Existence, a core teaching by the Buddha that states three essential qualities of reality that need to be perceived or internalized to awaken. They are impermanence, dukkha (suffering or pervasive dissatisfaction), and no-self. Or as Ingram aptly puts it “things come and go, they don’t satisfy, and they ain’t you.”
Daniel is brilliant at making these and other Buddhist doctrines clear and engaging. Even if you don’t vibe with his practice emphasis or his maps, his book is still very much worth reading for his philosophical and metaphysical exposition. This guy really gets Buddhism, and he’s really fantastic at articulating it.
Daniel co-authored a second book, which is also given away for free, called Fire Kasina. It’s an old practice where you stare into a candle flame, then close your eyes and focus on the afterburn dot that appears, until it disappears. This is in stark contrast to the more embodiment focus we’ve seen by various Vipassana teachers in recent times.
I personally favor embodiment oriented practices, essentially just paying attention to body sensations, as I feel we are at large a very disembodied culture. We spend so much time paying attention to external stimuli, often content on screens, that we end up estranged from our body and the significant information it is constantly communicating in the form of feelings.
The more attuned we are to our body, the more we can hear its wisdom, and this listening also helps to regulate our emotions. I often say that the body is always speaking to us, and if we don’t listen, it tends to start yelling. The more we hear its message, the less loudly it needs to yell.
Paying attention to body sensations also helps to balance our sense awareness. If we’re too focused on external stimuli and thinking in general, bringing your attention back to the body can be grounding and serves as a reliable way to come back to presence.
All that being said, fire kasina is super cool. It’s definitely the most psychedelic meditation practice I’ve encountered, and can lead to cool visual phenomena relatively quickly, though Daniel says the real fruits of this practice, like all meditation techniques, comes when applied rigorously on retreats.
I’ve heard him say that he’s noticed from leading fire kasina retreats that this practice yields just as much insight and concentration as many more traditional insight meditation techniques, but people find it more fun and engaging. I’ve tried it out and yes, it can be pretty fun and engaging (as far as meditations go). Definitely give it a shot if you’re curious.
Strengths
Ingram is energetic and inspiring; listening to his interviews and reading his book(s) will make you believe you can awaken. And that belief, combined with sincere practice, will greatly improve your chances of it happening.
He’s also refreshingly clear with his teachings and emphasizes what I also feel needs to be emphasized. His book is long and awesomely comprehensive… and it’s free! If you’re striving to understand Buddhism and Vipassana practice in general, getting into murky waters in your meditation practice, having weird or difficult experiences, or just need some inspiration, his book is a fantastic resource.
Potential Weaknesses
As mentioned before, the main valid criticisms I see thrown Ingrams way are the emphasis on the maps being more or less universal stages on the path to awakening, and also his style of fast or machine gun noting. I’m sure these things work for some people, they clearly worked for him, but you really have to intuit whether these things are right for you or not.
For a Quick Intro - his appearance on the 10% Happier Podcast was fantastic and inspiring. Apple Podcast Link and Stitcher Link and available on all podcast platforms (it’s episode 187 on the 10% Happier Podcast).
In his appearance on What I’ve Learned YouTube channel he discusses what it’s like to actually be awakened (as best as you can describe something that’s famously indescribable).
On the Adventures in Awareness podcast he does a 3 part discussion on No-Self (part one on YouTube here, and also available on podcast platforms if you search). He also has a fascinating discussion on psychedelics, if you’re into that sort of thing.
He’s been appearing on a lot of podcasts in the last few years, you can find listings by searching or he also posts these and a lot of other stuff on his website.
Getting Into It
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book is available to download for free or you can also purchase a hard copy here. This is an epic book, running close to 1500 pages (now in it’s second edition, roughly twice the length of the first). It’s well structured and I’d highly advise to read the first few chapters as he front loads much of the really important and foundational stuff.
Fire Kasina - This is the meditation practice of staring into a candle flame. It can actually be quite cool. A lot of info is available on the Fire Kasina website and here’s a direct link to the pdf book. There’s also a podcast on the topic here.
Conclusion
I think it’s clear by my tone that I deeply appreciate Daniel Ingram and have gotten immense value from his work. I love listening to him talk and find him one of the most fun and upbeat figures in this arena.
I also think it’s unfortunate how often I see him and his work dismissed without actually engaging with his ideas. There are a number of Buddhist magazine, and so far as I can tell they have all ignored his existence. To me this speaks to how out of touch these publications are (if he has been discussed in some of the Buddhist legacy media and I missed it, please let me know, but I looked and couldn’t find anything).
Although you don’t have to look hard to find criticism of Daniel online, everyone I know who’s engaged with his work has an immense amount of respect for him. He is widely respected in much of the meditation world at large, and has even done MRI brain scans with well respected Dr Judson Brewer which have indeed confirmed his brain is unique.
Whether he’s actually attained full 4th path Arhantship or not is besides the point to me. It’s clear he’s attained a lot and supported countless people in progressing their practice and attaining real insight, as well as meaningfully contributed to the discussion of these things.
I think that the Pragmatic Dharma movement, of which Daniel is one of the central pioneers, is one of the most interesting stories in modern Buddhism, whether you agree with its premise or not. I’ll be profiling more teachers in this field, some with very different approaches than Daniel, so if this sort of things interests you make sure you’re subscribed.
If you enjoyed this, be sure to subscribe as I have a lot more amazing teachers I’ll be profiling. You can also support my work on Patreon, where I also do a bi-weekly live stream meditation and discussion group. I also have a YouTube channel where I make meditation and growth practices as straightforward and accessible as I can.
I have really enjoyed both Innovative Teacher articles.
Even if I don't have the time and space in my life to explore them all, it's very interesting and encouraging to know they're out there. These articles represent many years of you filtering through massive amounts of information. So thanks for sharing with us.
Some random thoughts from your Daniel Ingram piece:
Warning, I don't know any more about him than what you've written here (but will do some further reading for sure).
The mention of autism is very interesting to me. He seems like an almost shamanic figure. If you look at some of the features presented by autism, they sort of line up with what you'd expect from a shaman. Living outside the culture, next level knowledge about something very particular, unique sensory processing, and probably a few more :)
Maybe you could expand on this, because I don't know: have there been as many reformers in Buddhism as say Christianity? Has there ever been a Buddhist reformation or Vatican 2.0? If not, any theories as to why?
This is connected with your point about debate. When someone is fully set into a belief system (or you could even call it an architype) they are not interested in healthy debate. As you suggest, they show hostility toward other views which serves to strengthen their belief. Their anger hides their vulnerability. Like a cognitive bias.
Would it be somewhat the case that claiming to be an arhant is like claiming divinity? I can see people in the west having a difficult time understanding that concept, but wouldn't people in the east understand the claim quite differently? Do we as humans ultimately need devine or transcendent role models? We almost need to strive towards the impossible. I can see arguments from both sides. Point taken that it might be traditionalists who struggle with it the most. A lot of complex emotions involved for them. Moving past the guru model seems connected here too. Maybe the issue is that we only divinize people who have been long dead :) We can then idealize them.
You mention the value of body awareness for us westerners. Is that basically the same thing as the Mahasi method? I guess this is connected with your interest in a Goenka retreat?
I like the comment from Daniel about focusing more on practice and less on psychology (or other potential distractions). I could use that advice :)
The innovate teachers hit a sweet spot for me because:
-I survived an evangelical Christian upbringing, with years of subsequent deprogramming, so I'm leery of belief systems, dogma, etc. So I love how Shinzen is mystical or Daniel is pragmatic.
-I struggle with languages such as Pali/Sanskrit, so Shinzen and Daniel are both refreshing that way.
-I can't escape that fact that I'm a westerner (the way I escaped my upbringing), despite my concerns with the west, so bridging the best of the east and the west seems necessary for me to grow.
Jude you're so niche! Thanks for creating this space :) I hope it continues to grow :)