I don't understand how both of the following can be true:

1. Before stream entry, meditators must go through all the pre-A&P stages (Cause And Effect, Mind and Body) in each sit until getting to the A&P, where they may experience an A&P event involving awareness of the three Cs, which can be mistaken for fruition/enlightenment. Progress in insight requires putting effort into noticing the three Cs.

2. Pre-stream-entry meditators drawn to this stuff who have experienced unitive/unknowing/ecstatic experiences are quite likely to be Dark Night yogis, who are cycling from the A&P through the DN phases and into Equanimity, but don't make it to Fruition. Instead, at some point in mid or high Eq (?) they jump back to the A&P and may experience an A&P event. The stages are always cycling for DN yogis, no matter what they do or how much effort they put into insight.

Can someone clarify? How can you be in the pre-A&P stages while also DN cycling? If you're DN cycling doesn't that mean you're already in one of the post-A&P stages automatically and so you shouldn't need to go through the pre-A&P stages?

Daniel's flow chart of the nanas/jhanas appears to show that from reobservation you can fall back down to 3Cs or to mind/body.  There is also a video of him explaining the chart.

Mind Maps Full Size
Mind Maps Explained Video

Wow, thanks! What a cool chart - so it looks like you can only go backwards in the progress of insight in a few ways.

In Eq (11), you can stay there, get a fruition, or drop down to D for D (9) or Reob (10).
From Reob (10) you can drop into 3Cs (3) or M&B (1).
And from A&P (4) you can drop into 3Cs (3).

Everything else is just a straight shot forwards. In particular, you can't go backwards through the DN - too "steep" I guess.

So Dark Night Yogi cycling orbits around 10 or 11 and looks like:

11 -> 10 -> 11
11 -> 9 -> 10 -> 11

or:

10 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 6 -> 7 -> 8 -> 9 -> 10
10 -> 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5 -> 6 -> 7 -> 8 -> 9 -> 10

and another type of cycling is going back and forth between the A&P and 3Cs without hitting the DN - how would you do that?

3 -> 4 -> 3 -> 4 -> 3 -> 4 -> 3

I guess you'd have to catch yourself in the A&P before the "point of no return" when you fall into the DN, kind of like tantric sexual techniques.

I really appreciate this explanation of nana cyclings back and forth. Makes me make more sense of my practice.