First, thanks so much for your response tarin! I really appreciate you taking the time to carefully address each of my questions - I'll do my best to do the same for yours.
tarin greco:
what many here would appreciate is a clearer description of what it is you are doing in the meditation experience itself.. what the premises on which you begin are, what the guidelines along which you conduct your investigation are, what the cues (among the many which emerge in meditation) to which you respond (by shifting your attention in some way) are, etc. i am intimately familiar with the 'sutta approach', but meditator idiosyncracies are many, and details about your practice are likely to reveal some of those, which can then be used as points of engagement. sometimes, the most meaningful points of engagement can occur at places you find most interesting in your own meditation, whereas at other times, they may be had at places you would overlook (or have already done so) yourself. with this in mind, would you describe your practice more concretely.. perhaps in the form of an account of a recent sit which includes both your intentions and the following results?
It's really changed this past week after the intense bliss experience (only 4 days ago, but I've been at 3.5-4.5 hours a day now broken up an to about an hour at a time), but since I've left the breath and settled on insight through the 3 Characteristics, this is what I've done:
-a la MCTB, I've set a vow the past several sits in terms of length and intention - something like "I will sit for an hour, deepening my concentration state to further investigate the 3 Characteristics".
-As soon as I close my eyes I feel/see the lights and buzzing (as they're already present in regular consciousness) and as I continue to sit they get more intense. I don't feel the need to watch the breath, I just hang out in the buzzing mindspace, attempting to center my awareness at the center of all impermanent vibrations. Thus, I've initially been working with "feeling" impermanence in the body as vibrations (easy to do, but trying to extend the experience to my whole body, even to the point of letting the sensations of nonduality present themselves to my awareness.) and to sound and thoughts as well.
-When thoughts come up I've also been attempting to feel their impermanence, and often I get the vague impression that they are "located" somewhere in the mindspace and even have some sort of inchoate shape.
Any thoughts on this particular sensation?
An account of my sit last night, where I had a mini-insight:
-I sat with the intention to meditate for an hour and to examine the 3 characteristics of my experience. Simple and straightforward like that. So I just settled into the buzzing and mindspace and intently "felt" vibrations, making effort to distinguish them in ever greater detail.
-I was just examining whatever was most prominent in my experience, and at one point this became the sound of crickets outside. Suddenly I had a "thought" about the "watcher" idea -- I began quietly questioning that notion, trying to find the "watcher" (or listener, in this case) and obviously couldn't…I subtly listened and then realized there was only sound and that the "hearing" (i.e. consciousness) was, as Daniel described it, just an echo (another causally conditioned thought/perception/whatever and thus NOT the listener!). I chuckled to myself a bit a couple of times, maybe felt a bit more relaxed. Had an energetic conversation with my friend who was also meditating afterward.
-Today I've been reflecting on that and it's strange because I can't seem to "get into" the same mindstate as that realization, but I feel like I do "understand" it, but can't quite penetrate it the same way, if that makes sense?
Hope the above is a good clarification for you and the description of my sit gives you enough to work with.
further, i would guess that you are hanging out around 2nd jhana territory..
You mean just in meditation? What about the persistent feeling of energy and pressure I normally feel? I've always felt it (since the A&P) but it's opened up to more of my forehead and face now...
my question here is, besides the bliss and the buzz, what new things have you noticed?
Ok, aside from the mini-no-self experience mentioned above, a few things.
First, a dream from last night. I woke up 2 hours after going to sleep with an image of a face with bright, burning circles of lights in the eyes - "spiritual light" that seems familiar yet I don't think I've experienced it in that intensity. It was bright pink with yellow as well and absolutely brilliant!
But there was a great sense of anxiety and fear, and somehow "I" was in control of how large the circles got and if I let them get too large…I don't know? Talking about it today with my friend I struck upon that it was identification that was threatened -- the fear of losing the deep sense of me, of being annihilated in the burning light.
Speaking of burning, when I awoke the energy that I now feel in my palms was more intense, as if it was burning as well…not painful, but really strong. The fear quickly left me, but even now I can vaguely feel the burning...
Some less intense experiences:
In my meditation, as I've mentioned I've been able to just rest my awareness in the mindspace. I think just from practice I'm getting better at not getting caught up in thought-worlds (or getting out of them more quickly). I'm really intent on seeing things as they are...it's really different from the past several weeks, in terms of approach -- I'm more focused with strong intentions to investigate as soon as I sit down. Perhaps it's something of a nascent "inner confidence" developing about practicing.
I've started to realize in my daily experience the suffering of identification. I still do it, but as Daniel says it's like a bad habit. I'm trying to break it now

When I start identifying, I just let go…still a shaky process, but I feel "better" when I do it.
Actually, come to think of it, I feel so much better in every moment when I just relax and don't identify. It's a hard conditioning to break, but it's very freeing.
Also, today I've been focusing on suffering some and there have been a few moments where I've really "felt" the suffering, even nearly tearing up (this was really strong with desire where as soon as I felt it I immediately questioned the yearning and focusing on how it made me suffer).
Also, when not meditating I have urges to "just sit" and not think about anything…sometimes "tuning out" to feel my experience, if that makes sense.
you are possibly thousands of hours away from getting them rock-solid as described in the visuddhimagga and other commentaries and as taught by hard jhana advocates, but so long as you conscientiously investigate your experience as it occurs, not allowing any form or type of experience to slip by unnoticed, until you are intimately familiar with every nook and cranny of your mind, then you are likely closer than thousands of hours away from completing a path. therefore, the question of whether it is worth it to think about these experiences you describe in terms of jhana depends largely on who you are talking to and on what you are aiming for.
Fair enough…well, I'm aiming for liberation

So I take it one can indeed experience "weak" jhanic states? Again, even when I had that cool burning sensation, I still have thoughts and even songs sometimes in the center…or I guess, given the nature of insight meditation that's the whole point (to have thoughts, feelings, etc. to come up to investigate them)? Perhaps in stronger states the mind is even more fixed and the feelings more intense?
I think I kept tripping up with wondering if it's insight jhana due to the differences between the concentration vs. insight jhana. With my (limited) experience of strong concentration jhana, I thought the mind would have to be equally concentrated in insight jhana...perhaps at a later point? Obviously the mind is concentrated enough to experience the bliss and so forth, so I guess that's enough for the present...
have you noticed that confusion and slight anxiety as to where you're at and how to proceed (..or as to anything else for that matter) are themselves made of momentary experiences, and have you noticed that this confusion and slight anxiety exhibit the same characteristics as any other object of your investigation?
if so, is it now clear how to proceed?
Yes, yes - I feel I'm increasingly realizing this truth, in small small ways of course (and maybe medium ways like last night). I'm starting to experience emotions and anxieties and just "bubbles" coming up my body and then if I don't cling to them, they pass. It's not an earth-shaking process or realization at this point, but it's freeing and something I feel moved to work at every moment I can.
both 'boredom with the breath' and the "intention to 'do' something else" are opportunities to get a good look at dukkha/suffering/dissatisfying characteristic.
what else would you do if you don't buckle down with mindful investigation of the 3 characteristics? to return to my first question.. what (else) have you been doing thus far?
tarin
Good point. 3 Characteristics feels right and it's giving results to a degree.
I do wonder about that dream - and I know the point is not to get caught up in the content - but I wonder if it would be good at some point to work on concentration jhana to "lubricate" some of the destabilizing nature of insight practices.
At this point I want to move with the momentum of insight, but maybe that's a possibility later down the path.