I never said you NEED these things to meditate correctly.
And you also don't say that you do not need to experience those things to meditate correctly. You don't address the issue what it means when you don't experience those things after a month of practice. What does that mean? What should you do? Do you need to change something?
crickets
That's the answer your article gives, and that's my main point of contention with it.
This is the time when you should take a look at your practice and evaluate your results, maybe adjust things if needed be, find a new focus for the next month.
Which is good advice. As I see it the article is missing that part: When after a month the evaluation comes out negative, when I feel that I am bad at posture, bad at attention, bad at concentration, still constantly distracted, what should I do? Does that mean that I am meditating incorrectly? Yes or no? Or am I harboring unrealistic expectations regarding meditation? What is the problem?
crickets
As I see it, you strongly imply that after a month of practice one can expect to be good at posture, good at attention, and experience equanimity. I consider that really unrealistic expectations. When after a month of consistent practice nothing happens, one is doing fine. Six months? Then it might be time to take a closer look, because by then one might actually be able to see the problems.
You can claim that every meditation is "correct", regardless of the presence or absence of these indicators, but I don't think Buddha attained what he attained by getting lost in thoughts and being distracted.
I could claim that. Do I? Cite me!
What I would claim is that additional effort only gets you so far. After practicing piano for a month for 20 minutes a day, how much progress would you expect? Do you really think this would be an appropriate amount of time to look at progress indicators? Is that a good point in time to evaluate how well you are practicing?
That timeframe seems much too short to me. After a month of practice you know what a piano looks like, and you start to hit some keys reliably (and you slowly get used to the feeling of a zafu on your ass, if even that).
Moments of equanimity and joy can happen in a month, but it seems a bit optimistic, and that certainly isn't an indicator of good or bad practice. Those moments will all go away again pretty soon, especially if you start to increase meditation times a little.
If you visit this forum, you know what comes then. The big crying: "I was so happy last week and totally peaceful, and this week everything feels bad again! What am I doing wrong? Where has my progress gone?!"
At which point someone has to patiently explain that progress in meditation is not a linear thing, and that one shouldn't expect too much, and that it's important to treat oneself with kindness and that states which indicate progress in insight meditation are mostly bullshit anyway... sigh
How is uncertainty a bad thing?
Have you been reading those forums a little? Every day we have a lot of people here who are looking for the right meditation. What is the best meditation for me? What is the magic pill that will get me the best results fastest?
Those are really stupid questions. What is the perfect musical instrument for me? Which one will I learn the fastest? Which one will give me the best results? I can hardly produce a tone from my trumpet. I am not sure if the trumpet really is right for me. Maybe it will all be better when I change from trumpet to guitar! Probably that is the problem!
That's when uncertainty is bad. People look for perfection. For equanimity, concentration, silence, peace, perfect posture, all within a month. And when that doesn't work, they change their methods, because it seems that when you are meditating well you should be able to get all that. At least some articles seem to imply that.
You will not progress when you constantly switch methods. When you are so uncertain of your method that you waver and analyze and doubt and readjust whenever you hit a little roadblock, when you doubt every time when you think that things happen which don't conform to what you think progress has to look like, that is not a good thing. It's not paralysis though analysis, in case of meditation it usually is anxiety through analysis.