Assuming you are in Equanimity, go for stream entry right now. I cannot imagine any good reason not to.

A lack of seriousness in practice contributes to backsliding (apart from the issue of the raw amount of time you practice).

EDIT: As I realized I am not sure what path you are working towards...go for whatever path it may be.

Hi T.

I'm a rather straightforward person. From my reading of the Discourses, Gotama seems to have been rather straightforward, too, in the way he taught. He doesn't waste time teaching things that don't work. Not that people have an easy time understanding what he had to teach; but that's another story. With this in mind...

Have you stopped to think about this at all? I mean, really just sat down and contemplated the dynamics of what you are asking? I'm sure that you already know the answer you seek; it's just that it hasn't occurred to you yet.

What happens when you come upon an insight about the Dhamma. In one moment it's there, you can see it and agree with it. And then in another moment it suddenly disappears? What process has just taken place?

During the times when you can "see" the insight and confirm it, your mind is able to recall it and to make sense of it via your own experience of it. But what happens when you lose sight of that insight?

Generally what happens is just that: you lose sight of it; it's no longer "real" or relevant to your present moment experience. You become unmindful of it. And so you slip back into your previous view of things.

The only way you can slip backwards is to become unmindful. Therefore, if you wish to maintain cognizance of insights that have occurred to you, you must remain mindful of them at all times. And, you must change the conditioning of the mind to align with the insight you wish to remain mindful of. This is a gradual process for most of us.

The Dhamma is there to correct a person's view of reality: all phenomena are anicca, dukkha, and anatta. All phenomena arise co-dependent on causes, or put another way are dependent co-arising. In order to make progress in the Dhamma, one needs first to develop Right View (samma-ditti) along with the other seven steps of the Noble Eightfold Path. Just this Path is the way to the ending of suffering.

What happens when you become unmindful of the Path? Your mind reverts back to its previous conditioning.

Knowing what the Path is and maintaining mindfulness of it are two separate operations. One can know what the Path is, and yet be personally unmindful of it in their own mind, in other words. What you might call "slipping back."

See?

In peace,
Ian