When Aang met the guru, the guru showed him the??chugarts (spelling stinks, i know) philosiphy that is in Buddhism (or Hinduism... oh well).
While Aang performed all 7 stages, it showed Aangs fall when he let go of Katara.

So though the writers talked about the 7 stages, is he really attacking them, opposed to supporting them (which it seemed like they were doing in the first episode)?

If you understood that... yeah... hahha. I just found that interesting