A&P is great fun, but it's got this annoying habit of making people, me included on more than one occasion, think they've cracked the case and attained enlightenment. You've almost certainly crossed the A&P, if your descriptions are accurate, although the length of time which you experienced this across seems rather unusual, well, compared to my own experience at least which is the only comparison I can make.
I saw flashing lights in the air, which I think might have been electricity. The sky appeared to not be separated from my eyes. Strong raptures of bliss. I am almost positive it was A&P sensations.
Sounds pretty positive to me.
I believe I crossed the A&P again, where I was in an elevated, open, jhanic state that I believe happens after I cross the A&p when I cycle.
Sounds like you're hitting Dark Night, it tends to be quite open and sparse feeling at first 'cause it's hard to see the centre of focus, but some people cross this stage in minutes. Much as these stages do indeed arise in the same order for each of us, there's considerable variety in individual experience of them although they share certain fundamental aspects which allow them to be identified. Basically, don't expect your experience to exactly fit what someone else says 'cause it doesn't always happen like that.
I headed home and began to meditate 30 minute sessions and four sessions per day.
Fuck yeah! It's details like this that a lot of new people on here neglect to provide in their first postings. I know, I did it too so it's cool to see someone else give out the details as you've done 'cause then we can all get a look at what you've been doing beforehand.
At first, the sensations were rough and strong but not in a rapturous way. It would be as if a sensation is separate from my self but attacking with strong vibrations. I did spot some real fear and misery sensations arising from the stomache area and my mind would scream like in horror movies. After about a week of these rough and challenging sensations, everything panned out and became wide like the descriptions of equanimity
Sounds like Re-observation, back into late Dark Night, back up to Re-observation (that comedic horror thing is something I get too sometimes at this stage) and into Equanimity if you ask me. You seem to have a decent handle on the stages themselves and what goes on in each so I'll trust your judgement of what happened here, your information is consistent and sensations seem similar to my own observation of these nanas.
It was like I entered heaven and ease. It was as if I was perfectly relaxed in a spa. It felt great. Sensations were occurring mostly in my head but I was not confined to the sensation because their was a wider space present. It went space, sensation, then me(awareness). Oh and definitely felt formless like I was floating awareness inside my body but actually I didn't have a body. I was floating alert air. Experienced this several times. I should say that I noted throughout this entire dark night and equanimity and very helpful was noting the observer, which I felt progressed me quickly.
Sounds accurate enough to me. The formless thing is, again, something I've written about in my own practice threads in the past so you've got some strong concentration happening if that's the case. There's also the possibility that you may have solidified this state and missed the point although you do mention that you continued noting which would suggest otherwise.
By observer, do you mean the sense of there being an "I"?
I definately dozed of quite a lot during this stage. One time, I dozed off and when I came too, I felt the sensation described after stream entry
What do you mean by "dozed off" and "came too"?
Which "sensation described after stream entry" are you referring to, there's a multitude of sensations going on there!
This is quite important actually, although I think I know what you mean as I used similar terms in my own first post, but try to define it a bit clearer. What did you actually experience at that moment in time, be as accurate and honest as possible as this, as far as an online diagnosis goes from a guy who's not been doing this all that much longer than you have, is quite a definable event. For some people it may not be, I don't know, but you seem quite confident that there's been some fundamental shift in awareness which wasn't there previously and which you noticed when it occurred.
I know that time will tell all but there seems to be a definite physical change. I am now an awareness completely separate from sensations but still feels those sensations
Absolutely. Time and practice will show where you are, no one you're going to talk to online, without considerable personal interaction at a face to face level, is likely to be able to accurately diagnose these things, in my opinion, but fellow practitioners will give you some honesty and objectivity which is difficult to get from yourself during this stage.
So what is it that's actually changed? You say physical, but I'm hearing perceptual. Consider that it's not so much that you are "an awareness completely separate from sensations", but that you, this awareness of awareness itself, are also sensation which is to be noted.
I feel the difference between sensations inside and outside my body but they are now much more subtle.
Look at what defines "inside" and "outside".
It is so strange and really hard to describe. When I describe it, its not really accurate because it feels complex so I try to explain it in conceptual terms.
As you've seen for yourself, communicating these experiences, or non-experiences as the case may be, is fraught with difficulty if we wish to be understood clearly by others, particularly with no opportunity for being able to ask more questions in real-time, or the ability to see the non-verbal aspect of one's communication either.
In short, this is all guesswork. We're just people only marginally more experienced than yourself in this area so don't take anyone's word as final here. The only way to really know where you are is to get a teacher who's willing to discuss attainments, or at the very least familiarise yourself as much as possible with the maps and be honest, critical and curious about your experience of reality. When I first posted on here suspecting I had attained stream-entry, Daniel Ingram provided a kinda checklist of things a stream-enterer should be able to do which was massively important in my own understanding. Here's what he said, with a few notes from me after seeing how important these words have turned out to be, and hopefully it'll give you the opportunity to analyse your current position:
Daniel M. IngramCriteria for stream entry are straightforward, but seeing if they actually fit is a complex process and can vary depending on the training and talents and conceptual frameworks of the person being evaluated.
Big things:
1) You should be able to get into some sort of altered/meditative state at will within about 1/2 a second just by deciding to investigate something or look at reality carefully or incline your mind that way 100% of the time you try this.
Note: I understood this as referring to the ability to get "access concentration" and first jhana
2) Once you become familiar with the insight stages as described, you should be able to sit down in a brief version of 4th, progress down in to 5th, hit the Dark Night, progress to Equanimity, and then, maybe, depending on a number of factors, get a Fruition: note: not everyone can do this last part, even if they are a good meditator. Some can and some can't. Criteria for a Fruition are given in MCTB, as well as common mimics listed. Even if you are a stream enterer, if you haven't exercised this ability or done it only once, it may not be that easy to do it again until you have had some practice and maybe not even then. This is particularly true of those who have come up in other traditions where that particular ability was not the focus of practice.
Note: In my experience, if I don't get a Fruition during practice it's possible to get one after the session by recalling the practice, quickly but accurately noting your way up to Equanimity and popping one shortly thereafter by looking at the 3C's in the sensations of Equanimity. This may differ for you so do what works.
3) Your life should be completely different in some ways: problem is, the A&P can do this on its own, so this is insufficient criteria in and of itself.
Note: My own life has changed in ways I could never have imagined since attaining stream entry, I know now in retrospect why these changes occurred and that they were not solely related to the A&P so I can vouch for this criteria still being noteworthy. Be careful about this aspect though, I see exactly what he was saying now
4) Talk with someone who has stream entry about this, particularly someone who is familiar with the variability in presentation and abilities that can occur.
Note: There's lots of stream-enterers and above on DhO so ask questions and you'll get some answers.
5) Try to have repeat Fruitions: incline, incline, incline, and practice. Resolve, resolve, resolve and practice. Pay attention. Learn to navigate through the Vipassana Jhanas, learn their qualities, learn how to shift to each new level and know what they shift was and how it occurred: this is the foundation of the solid practice that causes progress and clarifies what was what.
Note: My god I can't tell you how useful this is, especially the last sentence.
I have no idea if you actually have stream entry, but do the experiment for yourself: see if you can get real, honest-to-goodness Fruitions or at least progress through the stages of insight up to Equanimity sit after sit, and watch for the changes, and, again: talk with someone about this: as trying to figure out things across traditions is complex. Best to get in touch with someone who knows the magickal frameworks you are coming from so they can translate that into vipassana terminology, if only for communication and criteria application purposes.
Helpful?
Since then I've thought I was everything from 1st to 4th Path, it's easy to get mixed up and fool yourself at times. I've done it myself which is why I eventually abandoned any ideas about paths past stream-entry for the moment, just focus on practice and everything will become clearer by the day. It sounds like you've got your shit together anyway, mentally and physically, so just be sure to balance up practice with a normal life and read Dan's chapter about
Dark Night which contains some amazingly useful advice about this stage. I think it should be essential reading to anyone intending to pursue the path of insight as I've rarely seen this stuff discussed in such compassionate and human terms. The whole book's a beauty, as you know, and there are some amazingly talented people on here who can advise on pretty much anything you're likely to encounter.
Take care of yourself and good luck with whatever you decide to do!
Tommy