Hi Tommy,
Thanks for the reply. It does seem like a textbook experience and so it is strange reporting it - textbook experiences are textbook because they happen most regularly, but of course they are most likely to invoke confirmation bias. Still, what happened happened. :-)
I sit about half an hour a day, generally just focusing on the tactile feelings of the breath, occasionally noting, occasionally inspecting for the three marks. I work part time at home and so I focus on the present and on the breath when doing chores. Essentially whenever I'm not working at the computer or talking, I am trying to maintain presence, usually focusing on the breath. I probably do about 2 to 3 hours of that a day. I don't regularly surf the web or watch TV or listen to music or play video games.
My current meditation focus has been jhana practice, and I have reasonable control up through access concentration and occasionally into (what I think is) the jhanas. Lately I have been quite fatigued (sleepy) when meditating, but that has been quite interesting. I usually have a dull headache which I think diminishes or blocks the physical aspect of the jhana pleasure (the pleasant tactile sensation of the breath), and I have a tendency to slip into dream states in the second half of the sit.
The slipping into dream states has been a good thing, actually. I have developed the ability to identify the state, gently ground myself back into reality (remind myself "I am sitting on my cushion in my bedroom"), and re-focus on the breath. It has also very much internalized the idea of thoughts as just sense perceptions. A dream-state, or a remembering thought, or a future planning thought are just senses that arise and pass away - I am increasingly free of tendency to identify with them.
After my last post, I sat with candle flame meditation as a somewhat easier focus than the breath. I didn't get lost in thoughts, but lately I've had good control with that anyway. My experience the rest of the day and this morning has been of a mind inclined to the present. Previously I've had to work to bring my mind to the present when I remember it, but all yesterday and so far today (it is 7:30am here), it has just drawn itself naturally to the present. Or if I've had thoughts of the past or plans for the future, when they subside I just move without effort to the present, whether visual sensations or aural sensations or just the breath.
Peace. And I have no plans to stop the practice.