Interview with Dr. Ingram: The Arahant (enlightened being)

Hey everyone,

Last minute, but in 10 hours I'll be interviewing a really interesting guy, Daniel Ingram, the ER Doctor and "Arahant."

Arahant or "Arhat" is the last stage of the four stages of enlightenment in Buddhism.  That is, he's a fully enlightened or "awakened" person. (The difference between an Arhat and a "Buddha" is a Buddha figured out how to get enlightened all by themselves, where an Arhat was taught the path to enlightenment.)

I grew up exposed to a lot of Zen Buddhism from an early age but I never got into it because (1) I was a kid less interested in sitting still and far more interested in playing video game and (2) I didn't "get" it. I thought enlightenment was real ...but only achievable if you were a monk for 50+ years and it would happen to you pretty much by chance.

There's a lot of stories in Zen like: A kid raises his index finger, his master chops it off, the kid runs off crying, the master calls back at him, the kid looks back at his master, the master holds up his index finger and then the kid becomes enlightened. Or so and so was sweeping around the temple and then he suddenly became enlightened. ...it didn't make any sense to me, but maybe I didn't pay enough attention.

However, in his 600 page book, Daniel Ingram claims that enlightenment is indeed a real, achievable thing and that various non-Zen Buddhist traditions say that there is a clear path to enlightenment with specific milestones and specific skills and techniques you must develop along the way. (It of course takes years with periods of intense practice to reach the 1st of the  4 stages of enlightenment) Not only that, there are specific things you should be experiencing as you progress towards the first stage of enlightenment. It's clear enough that you can explain your progress on the path very specifically like:

"I'm at the 7th Insight stage and my concentration is good enough to do the 3rd 'jhana' so I think if I can rough it through the 'Dark Knight' and really double down on my 'noting' technique, I'll hit stream entry (or "sotapanna," the1st of the 4 stages of enlightenment) before too long."

Anyhow, is there anything y'all would like to me ask someone who has apparently achieved enlightenment (awakening/nirvana/Arhatship) ?

-Joseph