I'm interested in peoples' experiences of this; can many people identify with this concept? What was it like in terms of phenomena? Did it require any changes in practice? Was it uniformly experienced at a certain point (i.e. is it a sub-nana)? Any particular stumbling blocks/barriers to progress?
Aye, I'm definitely familiar with that and I know a few others on here who've noticed it before too. I'd describe it as being something like a ramp or a gradient at the start of Equanimity, you can take a runner at it, i.e. note like crazy and try to catch
everything that arises, but that ends up being counterproductive. Dan's advice here is spot on, in my experience:
Daniel:
Strong concentration, but not tight concentration, flowing, stay with it however it happens concentration, helps somewhat, as does really opening up and just letting things happen...
Phenomenologically, for me it's like a high-speed run through the whole of Dark Night, almost like a guided tour just in case you missed something on the way through, but if you just stay concentrated and observe without getting into the content, which can be pretty bizarre (I remember one time getting this distinct impression of being kicked out of Re-Observation and into Equanimity by the boot from Monty Python) it takes the edge off it.
If I remember rightly, Nikolai and the HP guys spoke about this in one of their podcasts a while ago but I can't recall exactly when it was. I think it was in one of the Dark Night discussion they had but I can't be sure, but it's worth a listen anyway.