I believe I've been close to reaching 1st Jhana once, I was able to steady my mind to the point that I felt nice and cool tinglings on different parts of my body, as well as a lightness and a sort of euforia bubbling up. After that the cool tinglings lingered for quite a while, but faded when I didn't meditate as much as before.

Now I'm doing a solo retreat and the cool tinglings have appeared again. I believe I've been close to some form of jhana again too. BUT, even though my concentration-skills feels much better now, getting into jhana seems harder. I should note that I've been alternating between samatha and vipassana during this whole time and I think I'm starting to reach A&P-territory. Every time I sit down and try and get absorbed in my breath, I get disturbed by all the vibrations. After a while I might get a bit irritated and start to feel like I'm wasting my time with the samatha practice and I should just get done with the cycle as quickly as possible.

What do yoy think, should I keep up with both my samahta- and vipassana-practice or if I should just focus on one? Maybe I'm foolishly optimistic, but I feel I don't want to give up the vipassana because I feel I might actually reach stream entry during this retreat (lasting just over two weeks more). Now the reason I don't just give up my samatha-practice straight away is that I think I'm the kind of person how could really benefit from having that place where I can go and ground myself during turbulent territory. 

Thoughts on how to think about alternating between the practices are also welcomed. Can I for example switch over to samatha in the middle of a vipassana sitting? Is it a good Idea to practice samatha before going to bed, to sleep better?

If you think I'm stupid for writing this in the middle of my retreat, go ahead and say so  

Sounds like piti / sukha, which is one of the defining characteristics of jhana.




Makes sense. 1st/2nd jhana and A&P are closely related and, with some experience, one can switch from one to the other and see that they are two sides of the same thing actually.



It is up to you. Both are feasible. It boils down to your priorities.



Everyone is that kind of person!


I wouldn't switch in the middle. I would consider these options:

- Not mixing the two within one sit at all.

- Samatha at the beginning of each sit to "wet" the vipassana and make the process smoother.

- Samatha only at the end of each sit to "smooth" the transition back to "ordinary life".

- Dry vipassana, with samatha only as needed.

Samatha in the *middle* of the sit does not make so much sense to me. But if it works for you, go for it.

Before going to sleep, give this a shot: Very hard dry vipassana immediately before going to sleep. With some luck, the momentum will carry on during sleep and you will be having some low-level awareness and meditation throughout (part of) the night.

Hampus:



It sounds like you have some confidence/efficacy with vipassana, in which case I think you should just do that.



I don't think most people can reliably get into hard, sustained jhana (i.e. without distraction), even after SE.  IMO this might not be a realistic goal except for the long-term.



As Neko said, the tingles are a sign of one factor of jhana appearing.  For me, the absorption aspect make it seem like hard jhana, even in the absence of things like continuity and stability of attention.  Also, as your thread title suggests, this phenomenon is stage-based... developing the ability to access it across stages is a big project.  My experience is that SE takes less effort (if you are willing to note all day long in daily life).