In the beginning of my practice awhile back, I made progress, but admittedly, I spent too much time trying to diagnose exact nanas and such. Eventually, I decided to stop doing this in practice, seeking possibly only to view the practice in context of which vipassana jhana it could be. This seemed to be efficient, as I was able to direct my effort in a way according to where I thought I was, in such a manner:
-Pre 2nd vipassana jhana? Look into bodily sensations, dig into impermanence, cross the A&P, piece of cake.
-2nd vipassana jhana? Just rideeeeeeeeeeeee... whew, that was fun. (although, lately, I've noticed that the joy aspect is diminished, leaving the experience mildly uncomfortable due to the twitching and intensity. This isn't a problem though, as I said, you just ride it down to 3rd vipassana jhana)
-early 3rd vipassana jhana? Let up on tight effort, make provisions of sukkha, then head on into the investigation of suffering. Falling asleep seems to happen here the most
-mid to late 3rd vipassana jhana? See suffering, accept it
-4th vipassana jhana? Well, this is the newest territory so I haven't really devised much of a strategy besides probing with investigating 3c's
Anyways, as much as I use this as guidance, it's really more of a matter of telling what side of the A&P I'm on, and distinguishing 4th vipassana jhana from the rest. Otherwise, I've tried to not look too much into cycling or worry about what's going on. I figure I can do that in the review phase.
These questions will probably be more easily answered by people who have experience with the review phase, which I have not.
-When cycling, is the question of whether or not the strata are more jhana or vipassana geared relevant?
-Kenneth Folk has described that the further into the strata of mind you go, the less of a distinction there is between vipassana and jhana. Thus, if one were in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th jhana, would switching to investigation in vipassana remain within that strata of mind, or would there be a "jumping up" from the 1st vipassana jhana?
The previous question has some implications which I'd like to explore, as I've been practicing concentration lately, to the results of increased stability and calmness, but also clarity and natural equanimity when I do vipassana. In particular:
-Can SE be obtained by investing the 3C's while in stable/mature 4th jhana, or 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th?
It seems like Buddha describes a similar process, where one does jhana and then sees the 3c's, then moves on. What I'm proposing is this scenario. I do jhana, cultivating each one quite strongly along the way. I get to the 4th, and cultivate it for awhile, until it is quite mature. Then, I switch to vipassana. Would I find myself in 4th vipassana jhana, or in 1st, building back up to 4th? My 4th jhana seems to be much weaker than my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, plus I have a wee bit of trouble recognizing what vipassana jhanas I am in, so it is tough for me to answer this question. Alternately, I've speculated that perhaps since people often describe formless sensations up to the point of stream entry, stream entry happens within 4th vipassana jhana, but more realistically within the mental strata of 5th, 6th, or 7th jhana.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdxFS-j5oD0
Ayya Khema mentions in this (excellent) talk on jhana, that people tend to attain to stream entry from formless jhanas, but I'm not entirely sure if this is strictly applicable to the Buddha method of abiding, exiting, seeing the drawbacks, and continuing to the next. Seeing as I have a fair grasp on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd vipassana jhanas, perhaps I could go up to 3rd jhana and do vipassana from there.
Anyways, it would be really cool if I could rise up to the highest jhana I can muster (4 or possibly 5, but I've definitely experienced sensations of consciousness dominating the vipassana practice, so maybe the implication is that I could make it to 6), skip the unstable strata of mind (that so badly suck), and do vipassana at that point of equanimity, gaining stream entry. Of course, these lines are blurred (for me, at least) when vipassana is on only one object, and when smooth concentration is following moving objects. My understanding is that you have to come to terms with the unsatisfactoriness on some level at each strata of mind to be able to access the next. This would explain why I had trouble with jhana, did vipassana, then could suddenly access the early jhanas.
There's also another interesting question: why does the mind naturally shift onwards in jhana? Increased mindfulness could be an answer, but I also hypothesized that this could be a result of the characteristic of unsatisfactoriness (and impermanence, now that I think of it), being clear on some level, clear enough to create enough dispassion to stop the jhana loop and move the mind up a strata.
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So there's a lot of speculation, mixed in with my practice experience. Basically, I'm really relieved and excited to find that my practice of vipassana and my practice of jhana are both coming together, excited at the possible options and experiments between the two, and interested in increasing my understanding of how the two practice have been used by others to gain stream entry and more. After more or less "dry insight" practice, I'm a big fan of integrating jhana, and recommend anyone with dark night troubles to do the same!