here's my take... keep in mind it isn't the final word!
[quote=Villum (redacted)]Anyways, as i can remember, it goes like this.
Establish focus. very quickly get floating sensation, then something seems to solidify, my focus seems harder.
access concentration
[quote=Villum (redacted)]I start to get light tingling on the body, nice at first, turns into annoying "pleasurable" vibrations.
light tingling indicates 1st/2nd jhana. i'm not sure why they became annoying so quickly - how long did that take? annoying pleasant vibrations might indicate late 2nd jhana. what was the quality of effort? did you initially have to sustain effort (when you said 'something seems to solidify') and then it happens on its own? or only one or the other?
[quote=Villum (redacted)]These sensations come to a head, and instead there's the full-body floating sensation again.
can you describe the full-body floating sensation better? i haven't seen too many examples of people going back into a base state in between jhanas, so not sure what it is.
[quote=Villum (redacted)]This ends up in a state with pleasurable vibrations again, much like the first one. There's some floating, and sometimes more pleasurable vibrations, then after more floating, there begins to be a noticeable sense of peacefulness and clarity. It takes a while in this state to notice light bodily tingling, Eventually, this state, too, seems to reach it's conclusion...
hard to say... maybe you are dropping out of the 1st/2nd jhana from before back to baseline ('floating') and going in and out of them. or maybe this is getting into 3rd jhana as the peacefulness is more apparent and the bodily tingling is harder to notice.
[quote=Villum (redacted)], i get the floating again, and another state seems to show itself.
The peacefulness is clearer here, and there seems to be a neutral attitude towards things - not a "don't care"-attitude, really.
Peacefulness seems mostly to be just outside the surface of my body, and inside the head, around the witness.
This state comes to a natural conclusion too,...
maybe found a more stable 3rd jhana (since things are just outside the surface of the body). equanimity getting more noticeable.
[quote=Villum (redacted)]and there's a shift (can't remember if there's floating this time).
Now the focus is almost entirely in the head, the body seems much farther away. Also, the vision is a much less dominant part of my experience. Much more of experience seems to be inside the head, around the witness.
I notice a vague sense of expansiveness, and that the peacefulness has become subtler, and i don't remember it being anywhere except in my head.
was vision a more dominant part of your experience before? you didn't mention much about it - what were you seeing?
what do you mean about experience being inside the head? were you only experiencing sensations that seemed to be inside the head?
[quote=Villum (redacted)]More floating, states much like the first one, don't notice any more expansiveness. At some point, the physical sense of pressure around the witness seems to extend out to the sides to outside the head, and possible around the back of the head.
Next, more floating sensations. State solidifies again. I remember describing it as strange. I still notice sensations in the head, but there's also a sense of there being something around the witness i can't really get a grip on.
There's some more shifts with floating, states much like the last one, can't really tell them apart.
not sure
[quote=Villum (redacted)]Eventually i arrive at something new. There seems to be a light tingling at the third eye, and the body is back in awareness again. I get the vague sense that this is a "place" in a way the other states weren't. Clearly different from the inside-the-head focused ones. Feels very nice, clear. Peace, very light bodily tingling.
Focus/tingling/pressure crawls up the head to the crown. There's a sense of being pulled up, still this very vague sense of a "place", but in this case i am floating above it. I'm pulled into a properly straight posture, remember describing this state as wanting to make sure i sit straight.
not sure. maybe a harder version of one of the earlier jhanas.. maybe a light A&P? (pulled into a properly straight posture.)
[quote=Villum (redacted)] I shift back to what is probably the previous state by falling out of the witness, then return.
I remember describing this as a peacefulness that comes from the absense of even the sense of peacefulness itself - English doesn't seem very useful at differentiating between all these different flavors of peacefulness and clarity.
Focus moves further back, down the spine. There's a tingling up and down the spine, that ends up centered on the lower back. I shift some more and end up in this state again, same focus/tingling on the outside of the spine.
ya maybe A&P, with all the tingling. not sure though.
[quote=Villum (redacted)]After this, things get confusing. There's shifts, and movements of focus. At one point the witness seems to almost disappear, and instead there's a sense of some sort of "field" filling my head.
need more to go on, here.
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it does sound like you're getting into some jhanas. it's hard to tell which they are, though. generally it's a much clearer progression.. taking
this post as a recent example. you might just need to up your focus a bit.