| | Being good at getting to a particular stratum with one technique (investigation, in your case) doesn't make you good at accessing that stratum via the other technique (serenity meditation). This is because the vipassana jhanas and the shamatha jhanas are different things, even though they have similarities.
You CAN expect to more easily recognize the third shamatha jhana when you encounter it, because it will feel a lot like Dissolution. But practicing vipassana does not teach you how to practice shamatha, even if you sometimes encounter concentration phenomena in your vipassana practice.
Think of the strata of mind like a single coordinate in a system that has many other coordinates. Sort of like latitude, longitude, and altitude for describing points on Earth. The climates on the 70th latitude are all cold, but there are many different places on the 70th latitude. And you have to use different means to access different places. On water, you need a boat, but on land you need a land vehicle or airplane.
Unfortunately, being a good driver or pilot doesn't make you a good ship captain. |