1.) I am finding myself very unaffected by the ups and downs of life. This aspect is always there and I don't need to do anything to be this way. 2.) I can see the three characteristics clearly and without effort when I choose to.
It seems very likely that you are in High Equanimity.
If being completely free of the self is what it means to be first path then I don't think I'm there. But I always thought being completely free of the self was saved for 4th path, and stream entry was just the first major step in that direction.
At stream-entry only the "self-view" is broken..which means *conceptually* a person can never think of the self in the way
one used to think before however the *feeling* of self will continue to arise after that and complete obliteration of the
feeling of self goes only at 4rth path.
I think you are very well on track and you just need to continue practising..I would strongly suggest that you bring up the 3 Cs
more and more in your noting and just keep going relentlessly !
Another thing that helped me immensely is categorising every experience in terms of the 5 aggregates and this way you gain
confidence that you are covering your entire experience and not missing out on anything at all.