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muflax comments on Meditation, insight, and rationality. (Part 2 of 3) - Less Wrong
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Dayum. And I thought I could add something of interest. ;) There are maybe a few nitpicks or "I'm pretty far along the way and stuck on some specific problem" kinda advice, but as you already mentioned Buddhaghosa and Mahasi Sayadaw, there ain't much left I could possibly add. And as fun as "my tradition is better than your tradition" is, I'll just fully endorse everything you said and confirm it.
In detail? You recognize these stages as having happened, and have had similar experiences? Would you describe anything differently?
In general, yes. All the details I cared to investigate match up, though the exact extend of some of these stages (especially emotional side-effects) varies a bit. Personally, I'd prefer to use a somewhat different lingo and different organization of the map[1], but that's more of a different perspective than an actual disagreement.
Also, these stages matched the experiences for all the people I know well enough and who practiced similar techniques, regardless of what tradition they came from (be it Zen, idiosyncratic drug use or Carlos Castaneda's stuff). I only learned of the Theravada maps once I was already way in and past lots of the exciting stuff. I stick with them because they are so accurate.
[1] Specifically, I'd stress the fractal nature of the progression. There are many self-similar patterns within the stages. Also, I'd divide it more, but this is an introduction, not a comprehensive account.