Meditation, Suffering, and The Dark Night of the Soul—Awakening Explained

Dispelling misunderstandings about meditation, vipassana retreats, the jhānas, stream-entry, proper Buddhist path practice, insights into dukkha, and the Dhamma.

Understand Meditation Dukkha Ñāṇa & The Dark Night of the Soul

This article is about stream-entry, also known as awakening. However, to effectively explore this topic, I will first introduce a concept referred to as the "dark night of the soul," an idea that the meditation industry has adopted to describe the emotional or psychological distress practitioners experience after intensive meditation or following a profound spiritual awakening attainment (stream-entry) and the potential pitfalls and dangers of attending extended vipassana meditation retreats.  We will explore the Buddha's approach to teaching enlightenment found in the suttas to understand the roles of meditation and the jhānas, along with their connection to stream-entry, the "dark night of the soul," and the "dukkha ñāṇa" phenomena.  If you are sincerely interested in attaining stream-entry, this article will be of value to you on your journey.​

The "Dark Night of the Soul" is often romanticised as a profound and necessary spiritual ordeal. Yet, this notion — rooted in Christian mysticism and later misapplied to Buddhist practice — has caused confusion and misdirection for many modern seekers and meditators.

In this article, I cover quite a bit of ground, going beyond just the "Dark Night of the Soul," to strip away the layers of misunderstanding surrounding the experience of increased suffering (dukkha) or psychological distress as a mystical ordeal, and the role that meditation actually plays on path to awakening and complete liberation from suffering.  Through the examination of common contemporary distortions vis-à-vis the Buddha's actual teachings, I aim to realign several incorrect mainstream views on meditation, Buddhist practice, and the understanding of stream-entry, with the joyful, gradual training that the Buddha expounded upon — free from the corruption of imported mysticism and debunking a few widely-accepted modern myths along the way that may be derailing your practice, and therefore, your progress.

​Dark Night of the Soul:
Turning the Lights On Its Origin and Place in Buddhism
​

As already mentioned, the "Dark Night of the Soul" is not a Buddhist concept; rather, it originates in Christian mysticism, and primarily attributed to John of the Cross, a 16th-century Spanish monk and poet.  His poem, likely written during a difficult period of imprisonment by his own religious order, describes the journey of the soul toward a mystical union with God.  In his writings, John implies that the realisation that your body and all the sensual pleasures that you value are ultimately worthless and impermanent will lead you to a long, dark period of spiritual struggle and suffering — a "long dark night" — until you transcend your attachments to worldly pleasures and achieve salvation, the union with God.

This philosophical and deeply Christian notion is anchored in the view that salvation can only be achieved through painful internal purging.

The idea of a "Dark Night of the Soul" strongly mirrors the Christian worldview from which this concept arose. The core understanding is that before achieving salvation and entering the kingdom of God, individuals must endure a distressing purgatorial void devoid of God's presence.  Only after this intense purification can one experience the light of redemption through the grace that only the divine entity, God, can provide. It also suggests that one must emulate the intense suffering of Jesus Christ by undergoing a "passion" and be crucified to worldly attachments before being able to experience resurrection, a freedom from these worldly concerns.

This idea of a "Dark Night" has recently found its way into various forms of spiritualism in the United States and the Western world through the teachings of some very negligent (but popular) modern meditation personalities; but its influence has been felt no more so than within the Western Buddhist "meditation industry."  It has done so by harmfully equating the suffering caused by over-meditation, depression, or a severe psychotic break such as psychosis — or even the distorted thinking that there is such a thing as the "suffering of insight into dukkha" — to the idea of a transformative experience, not all that dissimilar to disturbing experiences found within detox centers or drug rehabilitation facilities around the world.

However, this Christian concept has been divorced from its original context and inappropriately inserted into other traditions, including secular philosophies and Eastern practices.  In the modern Western context, the "Dark Night of the Soul" has been co-opted to describe any period of extreme personal difficulty or emotional distress, such as loss, depression, or even an overwhelming string of "bad luck."

To quote one psychiatrist: The phrase, 'Dark Night of the Soul' is often used informally to describe an extremely difficult and painful period in one's life, for example, after the death of a loved one; the break-up of a marriage; or the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness.  For many, the loneliness, isolation and fear associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic was, indeed, a Dark Night of the Soul.  There is nothing wrong with these informal usages, and they have obvious links to the concepts of demoralisation and despair.  But they differ significantly from the original meaning and context of the phrase, as first conceived by the Spanish mystic, John of the Cross (1541-1597 AD).

Many discussions about personal experiences of a "Dark Night" seem to stem from people who had attempted long periods of  deep meditation without adequate preparation, training, or a true understanding and commitment to the Buddhist values and goals that contextualise and support intense meditation practices in ways that can conduce actual progress toward meditative liberation rather than the opposite.  And many of those who commit themselves to intensive meditation are instead chasing the proverbial white rabbit, the white rabbit of deeply blissful states and spiritual attainments that are often clung to in ways that cultivate a lusting, craving, and ego-identity around their attainments; all things that make these states all the more elusive and difficult to experience.

Meditation Retreats Gone Wrong:
​The Dangers of Skipping Sīla and Right View
​

Moving away from the "Dark Night" for a moment, let's address some other important issues.  The dangers of meditation retreats.

A quick Google search will reveal the many perils of intensive meditation retreats, such as those offered by S. N. Goenka style vipassana meditation retreat centers.  Ten or more days of pure meditation can be very dangerous, especially for the average lay person who is ill-prepared or underdeveloped; this danger increases significantly if the retreat organisers lack the proper knowledge and skills to properly facilitate these kinds of meditation retreats, and many organisers are simply not qualified to teach or facilitate these kinds of retreats despite  having, perhaps, many years of deep meditation experience themselves.  This is evidenced by innumerable reports of troubling practices such as reframing psychological distress as gateways to progress or dismissing participants' concerns advising them to simply persist and endure the discomfort.

After all, it's not uncommon for repressed or unprocessed childhood trauma or neglect to surface during extended periods of unbroken silence and deep inner work; long-dormant memories, emotions, and stuck content held within the unconscious or subconscious mind may be touched or triggered, leading to some unexpected and unwanted consequences.  As mentioned, retreat centres are not equipped to handle these kinds of repressed issues and are often all too quick to casually dismiss them as normal meditation hindrances to be overcome, which could result in long-term harm.

There is an overwhelming consensus reached between respected mental healthcare professionals and  senior Buddhist monastics that meditation intensives, particularly those led by Goenka facilities, are often prone to provoking psychotic episodes and various mental health challenges in their attendees and that it's just not possible to know in advance whether a specific person might be vulnerable to a psychotic break or not.  If you've been thinking about attending one of these 10-day or longer vipassana retreats, it's important to recognise the serious concerns raised by the many studies, as well as the countless anecdotal and news reports, about the potential dangers.  A sufficiently vast number of Goenka vipassana retreat participants have experienced psychiatric troubles such as those listed above to warrant genuine concern, including some alarming instances of suicides during or shortly after these retreats, which understandably should raise some genuine concern.

So, what's going on here?

Many people who venture off to silent or intensive meditation retreats often expect to achieve levels of meditative or spiritual advancement in just a weekend or a few weeks that monks might need years or even decades to reach.

(parenthetical truth nugget: statistically, it is much more likely that the vast majority of these idealised monks will never personally attain any heights of meditative or spiritual attainment themselves despite their full-time commitment to the monastic holy life — yes, most monastics will die as monastic sutavā puthujjanā: spiritually unawakened people.)

​This issue is made all the worse because so many meditation and stream-entry enthusiasts frequently underestimate the profound importance of building a strong foundation in Dhamma training, as well as the necessity of having long-term, experienced one-on-one mentorship with a skilled teacher who teaches not from repetition but rather from direct knowledge, both of which are essential for attaining genuine and stable progress along the path established by the Buddha.

In the suttas, there were instances when bhikkhus in the Buddha's sangha would sometimes go on solitary retreats for extended periods.  However, they would always approach the Buddha or another senior, awakened monastic to request instruction and advice before doing so.  Nonetheless, even these monastics, under the direct tutelage of the Buddha, were sometimes told that they were not ready to undertake such a practice, as it was considered, even then, too dangerous to dive prematurely into deep or extended meditation retreats.  Keep in mind that these were not lay people, living lay lives, receiving piecemeal teachings from this book here and that Reddit post there; these were full-time monastics, dedicated to living the holy life under the Buddha — even some of them were cautioned or refused permission for such retreats.

I read somewhere that in his first years as a Buddhist monk, even the famously dedicated meditator Ajahn Brahm was allowed only one hour of sitting meditation per day — a restriction imposed on him and others by his teacher Ajahn Chah to ensure that their days were devoted primarily to refining their sīla and establishing the right conditions for genuine mindfulness (sati) to develop and, eventually, if the causes and conditions appropriately lend themselves: to concentration (samādhi).  By contrast, many lay meditators intentionally dive headlong into meditative immersion retreats — eight to twelve hours of silent sitting per day — only to discover that stubbornly and relentlessly striving for deep states of consciousness without a solid ethical and mental foundation can trigger psychological stress and even suicidal ideation.  Suppose a full-time Buddhist monk dedicated to the Buddha's path, one even such as the venerable Ajahn Brahmavaṃso, must pace his meditation practice carefully, and be forced to brace it with the slow, yet proper development of his sīla and moral character.  In that case, it's clear that marathon meditation schedules are, at best, ill-suited to most lay practitioners, and at worst, potentially deadly.  A balanced approach that centers on cultivating ethical discipline, gentle (not exhaustive!) mindfulness, and a hefty dose of moderation is far more likely to nurture the conditions for genuine mindfulness, without which lasting, stable samādhi simply isn't psychologically or emotionally healthy, and likely not even possible.

It is deeply unfortunate that the Western approach to Buddhism has been significantly shaped by influences from the Zen and Tantric traditions.  Traditions that include the notion that there is actually a "fast path" to enlightenment and that there exist spiritual guides or maps that can actually direct those who are willing and committed to achieving it through a meditatively challenging, and potentially destructive, transformative journey of meditation and "self-discovery."  This is not true.

(parenthetical truth nugget: if you are not awakened and you are spending more than 45 to 60 minutes a day in formal meditation, then you are meditating too much at the expense of actual practice!  If you believe that meditation will somehow lead you to stream-entry, then you are only furthering the strength of your wrong views.  If you believe that the bulk of your time and effort should be focused on the cushion, or if you believe that meditation alone makes you a practitioner, then you have misunderstood the Buddhist path — or have been misled by those who are clearly not qualified to be guiding others.)

The Real Purpose of Buddhist Meditation:
Not A Vehicle for Awakening, But a Tool for the Awakened​
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Let's shed some light on meditation's the role in Buddhism.

To paraphrase something I heard from a teacher: if the workings of the mind were simple and straightforward, its challenges would be easy to address and correct; and, in the spirit of offering efficient guidance on how to alleviate these myriad challenges, the Buddha could have kept his teachings simple and brief, offering a universal approach to handling whatever challenges arise in the present moment, a noble one-fold path: just meditation.  However, that’s not how the mind operates, nor was it how he chose to teach the Path to cessation and liberation.  Even if we can stir up some positive feelings — perhaps even some blissful feelings — during meditation if we don't guard ourselves against unskillful actions of body, speech, and mind, those positive and peaceful feelings will quickly fade away and be replaced by dukkha and disharmony.

Spending just a few minutes observing the mind is all one needs to reveal just how twisted and tangled the mind truly is.  This is why Buddhism is more than just a meditation practice; it encompasses moral discipline, self-restraint, compassion, and the attenuation of your ego and your desires.  These are challenging yet potent principles that lay the groundwork for what can develop over time into a stable and strong foundation for spiritual growth and measurable progress.

Anyone who has read the suttas or had proper teachers of the Buddha's actual teachings would know, without a shadow of doubt, that the Buddha solely advocated a gradual training method ­— gradual — which always slowly starts with the development of sīla (positive, virtuous qualities) and ends with liberation through wisdom.  Meditation is to be cultivated only after a sufficient level of sīla has already been developed — and a clear sign of a "sufficient level" of sīla would be nothing short of stream-entry.  If you have not attained stream-entry, then your sīla needs further development, it's that simple.  That's the path as the Buddha taught it and this point is clear from the suttas.  However, most people these days tend to approach Buddhism via the practice of meditation, over-emphasising its importance, misguided into believing that meditation is a vehicle to enlightenment, and frequently relegating the study of his Dhamma, the very thing that sets his teaching apart from the countless other philosophies that also include meditation, as less important (or even optional!) in lieu of hitting their meditation cushion.  This is deeply flawed and not at all what the Buddha was instructing lay householders to do.  Such an approach can only fuel avijjā (ignorance) and micchādiṭṭi (wrong view) in the unawakened — two things that can never, ever lead to the development of sammādiṭṭi (right view) and therefore can never, ever lead to awakening/stream-entry.  And if they find that they are naturally inclined to experience the meditative absorptions (jhānas) despite being pre-stream-entry, they will only be developing micchāsamādhi (wrong concentration), which has disastrous karmic implications.

None of this is intended to dismiss the value of meditation as a whole.  Basic meditation is essential for becoming aware of the monkey-like nature of the mind and for creating a thoughtful gap between stimulus and reaction, allowing the opportunity to act with greater thoughtfulness and genuine agency, make possible a more deliberate and mindful response, instead of a reflexive or habitual reaction.  This benefit applies to everyone, whether they are Buddhists or not.  Beyond that, practitioners would be better served by practicing the Dhamma as it was instructed.

​Getting Beyond the Despair of the Dark Night:
It's Not Progress, It's Just Dukkha

The Buddha's Dhamma is cornerstoned on emphasising the relinquishing of cravings, attachments, and wrong views over time, which are the by-products and results of deep learning,  critical thinking, wise contemplation, sense restraint, and skilful practice; and, not cornerstoned on the undertaking of intensive meditation programs, even if they are coupled with detours through the hell realms.  And, the notion of an life-changing journey through inner hell is entirely foreign to the Buddha's training and discipline.  To paraphrase one of my monastic influences, the idea of a "Dark Night of the Soul" is purely a modern and corrupted idea about meditation.  If the "Dark Night" were a fundamental or necessary part of the Buddhist path, the Buddha would have discussed it in detail.  If it was even a thing, he would have, at a minimum, mentioned it.  He didn't.  He never even came close.

This modern tendency to equate depression, bad luck, or emotional distress with spiritual insight or attainment is fundamentally misguided.  It represents the inappropriate injection of a co-opted and misunderstood Christian notion, which has been stripped away from its original context, and is wholly incompatible with Buddhism.  It's not skilful to assign depression, psychosis, or even bad luck to a "Dark Night of the Soul" and we must resist trying to find spiritual meaning in dukkha.  To put it plainly: dukkha is just dukkha.  It isn't progress, it isn't awakening, it isn't a phase along the path, and it isn't a spiritual attainment.  Thinking that dukkha can possibly reflect spiritual progress of any kind is looking for spiritual meaning in the dukkha of bad luck, of too much meditation, or of tapping too deeply into the psyche/ego resulting in a psychotic break, before a sufficient foundation of sīla and the Right View had been established.  It's rationalisation and meaning-seeking where there is no meaning to be found.  The only meaning of it can be learned from understanding what the Buddha was encouraging us to understand in his sermon on the First Noble Truth.

So it is not a "Dark Night of the Soul;" What it is, is life being experienced as a result of actions and the ripening of kamma; it's not a mystical rite of passage.  Rather than seeking spiritual or mystical reasons for suffering, practitioners should acknowledge the unintended consequences of having invested in dangerous spiritual shortcuts, and instead, benefit from the unintentional experience of dukkha to realign their studies and practices with the true teachings of the Buddha, enabling them to reconnect with the gradual path of joy and contentment that the Buddha and his sangha left for us.  The quest for quick results often leads to harm, this coupled with contemporary distortions learned from unwise mainstream teachers is leading people to confuse psychological distress with profound insight.

Dukkha Ñāṇa a.k.a. the Suffering of Insight into Dukkha:
This is Not a Real Thing

The concept of dukkha ñāṇa is as distorted and twisted a use of the Pāli language as the idea of a "Dark Night of the Soul" is  a skillful way to contextualise an extended experience of dukkha.  It is a product of the modern misappropriation and  widespread abuse of the commentarial system and is not representative of the suttas or the teachings of the Buddha.  Understanding this is absolutely crucial for our correct understanding of the suttas and for real-world practice.

Let's explore what the insight into dukkha following stream-entry (awakening) actually is and how it's experienced, as it was taught by the Buddha.

With the fruit of awakening (sotāpattiphala) comes the unshakeable understanding of dukkha: that everything, without exception, can be understood as dukkha (unsatisfactory).  That is to say, nothing conditioned can be a source of lasting happiness — with an emphasis on the words "conditioned" and "lasting" — hence, they are unsatisfactory.

Gaining authentic direct knowledge (abhiñña) into the pervasiveness of dukkha of all conditioned phenomena does not mean that everything — be they pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral — should now be perceived as suffering or negative; or, that the more depressed we become, the deeper our insights into dukkha clearly must be.  The Buddha never suggested such a thing.  Rather the insight into, or the realisation of, the truth of dukkha (dukkhaṃ ariyasaccaṃ) facilitates a shift in perspective toward finding true contentment from within, by cultivating the qualities that lead to the happiness experienced by an increasingly less clingy, more liberated mind; a mind that understands that happiness, contentment, and ease are cultivated by how skilfully we respond mentally to the sensory inputs we experience in the sphere of our consciousness — doing so with less and less craving, clinging, or grasping at things that we want and less and less resistance to the things that we don't want.  Understanding that experiencing pain in our body, for example, doesn't necessarily mean we have to endure the extra sting of mental suffering — and all of the harm to our states of mind that come with it — can be incredibly transformative in our day to day lives.  Contentment, after all, is the peace that comes with not craving for things you don't have or resisting the things that you do have, and found in the understanding that all things are ultimately impermanent.  (There is so much that I could unpack in this one paragraph alone; however, it's not my intention to write a book here ☺ Nevertheless, it provides a wonderful opportunity for in-depth exploration and understanding if you are so inclined, and if you are, then I encourage you to seek out the supplemental study and investigation of: the Two Darts/Arrows, the Three Characteristics, the Four Right Efforts, and the Five Aggregates).

The direct knowledge of dukkha instinctively inclines one toward wise qualities that are experienced as a naturally increasing disinterest in seeking identity, happiness, or escape from external conditions or things.   This insight also naturally inclines one to seek the contentment and ease experienced through the continued development of a more liberated mind, a mind that is understood to expand through the study, contemplation, and practice of the Dhamma.

In spirit of practicing in according with the Dhamma, we apply increased effort to reinforce and strengthen our mindfulness (sati).  Through continued training in mindfulness, we become better equipped to confront pain with a peaceful mind, a mind that doesn't react to dukkha with mental dukkha; and, better equipped to confront pleasure with a peaceful mind, a mind that doesn't react to pleasure with attachment.

Just because "dukkha" refers to what is "unpleasant," it doesn't mean that dukkha must always be experienced as "suffering."

Meditation, The Jhānas, and Stream-entry:
Some Enlightening Truths and Some Myth Busting
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As I wrote in my dismissal letter to a long-time stream-entry student, there are no shortcuts to liberation, and, this path is especially not appropriate for those who are presently  experiencing mental troubled or psychological unwellness.  That being said, if a relatively healthy person experiences dukkha as a result of meditation or "insight," it's probably because they are meditating too much and have not sufficiently cultivated a joyful and compassionate mind via sīla and the development of the brahmavihārās.  And if someone experiences dukkha as a result of stream-entry (awakening), it's definitely a clear sign that they have not experienced stream-entry (awakening).

If we read the suttas, we will quickly observe that the Buddha taught a path of joyousness, not a path of suffering. If you do nothing else, please consider staying clear of (i.e., avoiding) unhelpful social media forums or meditation/awakening communities (and other materials such as meditation maps) that can mislead you — much of which is steeped in psychological rubbish and mumbo-jumbo that only serves as an addictive playground for those with misinformed understandings, underdeveloped expertise in the Buddhist path and too much time on their hands — all of which comes at the expense of the time that could have otherwise been invested in studying, learning, contemplating, or practicing true Dhamma in accordance with said Dhamma.  If you are wondering how to identify said unhelpful content, here is a clear indicator: if the people there talk more about meditation or stream-entry than they do about virtue, compassion, kindness, and generosity, then you found the wrong place to invest in and the wrong people to learn from.

Let's go on a brief tangent to bust a common myth with some truth:

The Buddha was not a meditation teacher.

Indeed that statement could benefit from quite a bit of unpacking, but doing so in detail here is beyond the scope of this article.  However, it should suffice to point out that success in meditation does not make someone a "Buddhist" or a "practitioner," as meditation alone does not equate to practising the fullness of the Buddha’s teachings.

(parenthetical truth nugget: it is not written anywhere in the Pāli canon that meditation alone will lead to awakening or stream-entry; what underscores this point all the more is that there is not even a single instance in the entire  Pāli canon, more than 17,000 suttas, of anyone attaining awakening or enlightenment while meditating — no, not even the Buddha — anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or poorly instructed.)

The Buddha discovered and taught the Dhamma — it’s specifically the Buddhadhamma that uniquely set him apart from all other spiritual guides that existed up until he began his ministry.  Otherwise, he would have just been a meditation teacher.  If he were a meditation teacher, there would be more than just the vague and cursory meditation instructions found throughout the vast depths of the suttas.  There aren't.  Many people don't know how to accurately read or interpret the suttas, and as a result, many unskilfully infer — or are incorrectly led to believe — that the suttas contain much more instruction on meditation than they actually do, mistakenly believing that sutta phrases such as "apply the mind" (yonisomanasikāra, and its many declensions) refer to meditation (e.g. "apply the mind to impermanence"); they are not referring to meditation, instead, they are instructions to deeply investigate and contemplate a specified aspect of the Dhamma.  They are instructions to think, not to meditate.  Why think rather than meditate?  Because thinking rewires the brain.  According the Buddha, there is no single quality, no  single practice more conducive to the ending of suffering, the development of Right View, and the attainment of liberation (nibbāna) than that of yonisomanasikāra (skilful reflection).  Many people get this wrong, which creates so many problems, misunderstandings, and conflict along the path.  This is exactly why having skilled, awakened teachers is so important.  The Buddha never intended this path to be self-directed or learned from those who are not appropriate to learn from (i.e., puthujjanā).  With that clarification made, upon even a cursory examination of the early Buddhist texts, one can see that there is very little in the way of meditation instruction in the Dhamma, yet there is much on the development of virtue, the practice of wise contemplation, the conducing of social and mental harmony, and the benefits of skilful seclusion from the unwholesome (be it in the form of mental sense restraint from the five cords of sensuality or physical separation, neither one of which is exclusively defined as meditation).

Of course meditation was part of his prescription; basic meditation was a given and it had been practised long before the Buddha came along, but Buddhism isn't a school of meditation, it is a comprehensive and multifaceted practice that encompasses a range of views, techniques, skills, and teachings that go far beyond sitting.  Meditation preceded the Buddha and existed in many traditions both before, during, and after his ministry, and it was very far from the core of what made Buddhist understandings and practice the Path that he taught.

(parenthetical truth nugget: any level of meditation beyond basic meditation only becomes a required part of the comprehensive practice after the attainment of once-returner, and is not required for stream-entry; this fact is clearly supported by the suttas, yet so many people get this wrong — so much so in fact, that even many well-educated, erudite Buddhists are often completely unaware of this, or outright refuse to accept this, therefore, this bears repeating: meditation is not required for stream-entry/awakening, and it is not a vehicle to awakening.)

The Buddha and The Jhānas:
Who Did The Buddha Teach These To and How Often?
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To underscore this point, let's debunk a popular assertion that the Buddha discussed the jhānas in nearly every other sutta/discourse, because it's not only not true, but it and its permutations show up often enough in casual conversation that they continue to fuel modern misunderstandings of the Dhamma.

In the, approximately, 5,126 total suttas that comprise the Dīgha, Majjhima, Saṃuyutta, Aṅgutarra Nikāyas, along with the Dhammapāda, Suttanipāta, and Udāna, the word "jhāna" in all of its various declensions or grammatical forms only appear 340 times (Walser 2018).  That means that the jhānas aren't even so much as mentioned in nearly 94% of the suttas found in what is considered to be the core Pāli canon.  The same is just as true for the word "samādhi."

While there are certainly instances in the suttas where bhikkhus have instructed lay householders in meditation, I am not aware of any suttas in which the Buddha taught advanced meditation to a lay person.  Furthermore, whenever the Buddha did provide meditation guidance involving any level of deeper meditation (e.g., the jhānas), he spoke to monastics, most often addressing those who had already attained awakening (e.g., after stream entry).  Even in the oft-cited satipaṭṭhāna sutta, the Buddha explicitly addressed only the monastics of his sangha.

In the few suttas where the Buddha discussed advanced meditation with laypeople, he directed his teachings toward highly dedicated and celibate lay followers, and usually only to those who were non-returners (anāgāmi) — after all, the establishment of Right View (i.e., being awakened as at least a stream-enterer) is required for the correct development of Right Concentration; always and without exception:

Right View must be established — as a result of stream-entry — before Right Concentration can even be possible; attempting jhāna (absorption) meditation prior to stream-entry will only further develop one's Wrong View and one's Wrong Concentration making stream-entry even less attainable.  Moreover, without sufficiently developing virtuous conduct (sīla) of thought, speech, and action, achieving stream-entry will forever to be out of reach.

Full stop.

There are two approaches that are commonly pursued by those interested in Buddhism these days: one approach involves attempting to achieve a lofty level of attainment directly through meditation (this one is the most prevalent in the Western world), while the other approach recognises this path as a gradual journey, opting for the longer yet effective process of genuinely practicing Buddhism by learning, understanding, contemplating, and practicing the Dhamma in accordance to how the Buddha instructed; and those instructions, by the way, are found in the suttas, specifically.

​Meditation alone is just meditation.  Thus, the paths, journeys, and destinations of these two different approaches are not the same.  If you want the results that the Buddha promised, you have to follow the instructions the Buddha taught.

Conclusion:
​And a Final Bit of Advice
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The Buddha's Dhamma is path is one of joy, clarity, and peace.  By adhering to his gradual training — beginning with ethical conduct and culminating in liberation — practitioners can avoid the pitfalls of modern misconceptions and align themselves with the authentic teachings of the Dhammavinaya.  Ultimately, it is the steady, intentional cultivation of critical thinking, virtue, focus, and wisdom that leads to true freedom, in that order, and not the pursuit of stream-entry, the jhānas, or emotionally intense and misguided detours through imagined "Dark Nights."  In doing the latter, they stray from the Buddha's actual teachings and straying from the true teachings means straying from the intended results.

In summation, I offer a final reminder: dukkha is just dukkha.  Always.  Remember this.  Return to the suttas to align with the genuine Dhamma, cultivate the brahmavihārās, and let go of the distorted, unnecessary burdens brought on by modern spiritual concepts that have no place in the Buddha's "Buddhism."  True freedom does not come from pursuing jhānas, goal-setting stream-entry, enduring dark nights, or seeking meditative bliss, but from following the gradual path that the Buddha clearly outlined — a path of wise contemplation, thorough study of the Dhamma, developing virtue, and experiencing joyful, compassionate, and beneficial mental states when not on the cushion.  Do these things gradually and consistently, and you will most certainly experience increasing freedom from dukkha; you will definitely become more resilient, more patient, and more contented.  And it that isn't at least good enough for today, tomorrow, and next year, than my goodness, your bar is set too high!  :-)

​[Note: if you found this post helpful, you may be interested in reading this directly related post on Meditation, Renunciation, and Stream-entry]