Greetings all,
I'm currently either working on first path review or in 2nd path dark night territory. Recently the range of phenomenon I'm capable of being aware of seems to have expanded and then I had what I think was an A&P like event for the 2nd path (followed by a day of what felt like intense cycling and followed by some irrational fear/yucky stuff before sleep, nightmares and then semi-waking nightmare upon waking up... but nightmares happen from time to time so could be coincidence).
In any case, around this time, a new type of experience seems to arise for me (I've been able to replicate this over about 10 sits spanning around 4-5 days). After I get past the A&P like point, things seem to mellow out and then I begin having these incredible lucid dreams during meditation - not typical verbal thoughts or random flashes of images, but very vivid experiences engaging what feels like all of experience - these are often so completely vivid that I completely forget I'm meditating and begin trying to move my body and live as though in this world. Usually these last about 5-15 seconds before the mind suddenly wakes me up back into the present.
However, I have also been trying to rest in this space like awareness that I sometimes am able to find where I can simply watch both the sensations of a subject and object arise (and what I think sounds very much the attention-bounce referred to here and at KFD), and see not-self clearly in both of them. I've also being focusing a lot on carefully dissecting the sense of a self that arises when thoughts are juxtaposed with sensations at the back of the head.
Anyway, I have found that I can actually remain completely aware by resting in this space like awareness while these mental dreams play out. Furthermore, I've started getting a strong sense that when I do return to the present moment out of these dreams, there is a very similar dream like setting constructed that informs me that i'm in my room sitting on the floor meditating. Furthermore, if I simply let this process play out for sometime, suddenly I seem to rise up a jhana into what I think is equanimity.
A couple of questions:
How can I make better sense of this space like awareness? Is this the 2nd gear practice / The Witness that Kenneth Folk refers to?
What new territory does 2nd path work on? I'm trying to get a bit more structure in my practice as to what to look for as I've found it fairly easy to simply go through the jhana's and get a fruition (I've been practicing reviewing fruitions and have gotten a decent number of very clear occurrences), but now I want to move onwards to 2nd path.
