Hi there, this is my first post so apologies if I offend any community norms.
I am seeking advice on ways to progress to second path. Most of the advice I read seems to assume that a particular method will be used - modern vipassana. But this is not the way I have made progress, so I am not sure that it is right for me now. My reading suggests there are many other methods of achieving insights, but they seem to be out of favour and are not much talked about online, and I don't quite understand what they are. Can anybody point me towards other traditions that I could usefully explore?
To help diagnose what I may need, here is some background. I had A&P experiences from adolesence and probably spent years cycling through these and the dark night. I spent 25-30 years training in martial arts and working at a University lecturer/professor. About 18 months ago I became interested in mindfulness and this led me back to buddhist teachings (I had some ignorant dabbling as an adolescent). I started accessing buddhist resources (Bikkhu Bohdi's talks, Daniel's book, internet resources), trying to follow the eightfold path, and cultivating the 8 jhanas. I was also studying memory and consciousness in my profession, and had previously studied philosophy of mind and personal identity. I made some really noticeable progress in the first and second jhanas, and some progress in other jhanas (my concentration objects quickly became the jhanas themselves). I gave up some pretty embedded hatreds, became more generous, and was achieving more and more profound insights about reality (sometimes with big moments of clarity, like a bell being struck, accompanied by temporarily altered perceptions of reality). So I guess in a sense I was also doing a lot of insight work in thinking about the mind and reality.
Then during my study of the mind, I finished reading a book on consciousness and achieved the first path through the non-self door. This was followed by after effects like bliss waves, partial loss of attachment, cycling through discontinuities and bliss (with decreasing frequency), improved sleep, and pausing my martial arts (partly because I lost interest in the violence and ego involved). While I have the occaional grumpy or unhappy moment they are now fairly transitory and there has been no sign of another big dark night. This was about 9 months ago. My meditation practice was only a few hours a week , but it was supplemented with regular yoga, martial arts and breathing exercises, together with many hours of intellectual contemplation of buddhist concepts.
So now I am interested in progressing. I know that I can just keep doing the same things, but I wonder if there is a more focussed approach that would amplify my approach to date? I guess some readers may think that I just had an A&P event rather than Stream Entry. That's cool, doesn't really change the question: what I am interested in is how to go forward in a way that works in with my path so far.
Also, I have had many subsequent fruitions (if I am interpreting them correctly), and meet the descriprtion of second path in the suttas in terms of attentuated desire and ill-will. But I don't think I have achieved second path. While I have eliminated fear of death and an intellectual belief in self, I have an active mental life that subconsciously seeks a nice shiny mental self - that is, I am still generating subconscious attachment to the 'mind' (and still have material attachments, albeit much attenuated).
Hope you can offer some thoughts on what to do next. Thanks, peace and love to all.
