Continued attention to the vibratory nature of this state had me drop out again, and the session ended. It felt like I'd been meditating for five or ten minutes . . . not the forty-five I actually had been. (...)
Could some of you sound-off as to what the heck may be going on, and what I "should" be doing? Cheers!

Feel like sharing what you're up to, or is this a blind experiment?

I'm interested though, as to what you mean when you say "there are some basic good uses" to extending my time per meditation session "with a clock neutrally keeping time . . . and seeing how you and your mind respond . . .."

The advice I seem to be getting so far [in this thread] is to stabilize [the state I'm calling Pure Land One] and take my time investigating it through a more samatha-like process. This makes decent sense, since vipassana investigation leads to such a rapid fluxing of reality that I'm left with the feeling that my concentration abilities aren't sufficient to thoroughly investigate this experience. I'll try a more sequential and leisurely approach to negotiating the jhanic arc and see what happens.

For stabilizing them, you might try working first with first jhana, and ignoring any impulse to drop attention to pleasurable sensations. The jhanas are states of becoming, and you need to allow that becoming to persist for it to be stable. Lots of 3C's noting, which encourages the mind to drop whatever it grabs onto, would create a destabilizing tendency in this regard.

(If this doesn't make sense, just ignore it or keep telling me so. I have only attained stream entry in the 10-fetters sense [which did not involve any flashing lights etc.], and there may well be relevant aspects to 2nd/3rd path I don't comprehend. This and the previous suggestion are based on the understanding I've used for mastery of the first two jhanas, and ongoing development of 3rd and 5th.)

Edit: Thanks, I understand now.

I actually responded with the edit having read your updated comment too quickly, and thought you were saying that you have the skill to switch between the perceptions needed for talking and those comprising the jhana relatively quickly. Once I re-read and realized I'd misunderstood, I'd decided that what I'd inferred must be what's going on.

The way to 3rd is not as mappable in context as 1st and 2nd. You will mostly likely go through several (if not more) full insight cycles that will feel like a completion and then it will start over again.

For Stream-Enterers: A Different Way of Doing 2nd Path (and 3rd and 4th)

i'm writing this for stream-enterers, to suggest an alternate way of
doing 2nd path; alternate, that is, to what daniel ingram writes about
in 'mastering the core teachings of the buddha'. keep in mind as you
read this that the evidence behind this suggestion is mostly based on
the experiences of one person, me. i should also point out that in no
way am i knocking what worked so well for me for getting 1st path. i
would probably still be wandering around aimlessly, alternating
between getting oddly neurotic about my crap and spacing out into
equanimity and the formless strata, if it weren't for daniel, his
book, mahasi, and the maps. however, my rapid success at finishing 2nd
path makes me think this is worth putting out there because the method
i employed was so markedly different from how daniel portrays 2nd path
practice that i think other people should know about this alternative
as a possibility.

daniel recommends doing 2nd path like he recommends doing 1st path:
note note note, rise through the cycles, let it sync up, pop a
fruition. i did not do this. in fact, although i'd already dropped
into the next mind-and-body, i thought it might be better to not start
another path so soon and made no effort to cross the a&p. i went about
my daily life, making little or no time for formal practice, and
electing instead to, purely out of curiosity and fascination, watch
inclusively and in particular to see through the sensations that make
up the notions of 'inclusive', 'watching', and 'centre' whenever it
occurred to me to do so, or whenever it just happened on its own
(which, upon reflection, happened pretty often). the times i noticed
the cycles at all, i noticed them in a very basic and uninterested
way, made no effort to investigate them or the sensations that make
them up, and only recognised when i'd broken into a new stage after a
day or two had already passed. in retrospect, the a&p was inspiring
and energised, the dark night sucked, and equanimity was equanimity..
but i wouldn't have been able to tell you that while it was going on
(except by two days into the dark night, i knew it sucked).

here is the suggestion:
if, in working on 2nd path (or 3rd and 4th) you find yourself scrambling up the
insight ladder just because you think you're supposed to, but are not
sure why you're doing this, it might work for you to focus on seeing
the quality of the sensations here and now in an open and inclusive
way, keeping a clear eye on the so-called background to see if
anything's moving around back here. ignore everything that is not
obviously the clear and direct answer of paying attention here and
now.

it didn't occur to me, for the most part, to try to move from one
stage to another, but while i was in the dark night, i got concerned
about making progress for a day or two. but when it occurred to me
that i was only doing that because of pain and worry, i resolved to
stop running away and promptly did. if you tune your eye in to the
here and now, all that stuff will just rush by like water going down
the drain. just keep re-tuning your eye to this, knowing that none of
it is the solution. scary, mildly yet deeply painful, but try to run
this process in the back of your mind again and again while you're
going about your day. that's all i did, and less than a week after
crossing the new a&p, i got a fruition that left the background
shattered thoroughly and in an entirely new way. i had no idea i was
that close. it took a few hours to be sure i'd really finished the
path (but that still beat the few days it took to be sure about the
first one), and when i'd answered that question to my own
satisfaction, the certainty did not come from having had another
fruition, but from the clear difference in my baseline (read: right
now) perception and the diminished level of solidity in it.

so, once again:

see the sensations here and now in an open and inclusive way, paying
careful attention to the totality of experience as well as what seems
to be 'outside' that totality. don't get caught up about what things
mean and if you do, don't give a shit that you're caught up cos you're
not really, you just think you are. just keep paying attention in such
a way that nothing will take it away. the cycles may, and probably
will, happen, but ignore them and basically just practise as if you're
already in equanimity regardless of what shows up.

you don't have to wait until going for 3rd path to do this if it makes
sense to you to do this here and now.

tarin greco (theprisonergreco)

That's good practice advise, Nick, and I appreciate you posting it here.

It doesn't exactly answer my question though (unless you're telling me not to ask my question at all (which I guess you could be)): my question is this whether the insight territory between Second and Third Path involves multiple cycles through the insight knowledges, or just one cycle that is a little difficult to "map"?

If you are telling me not to worry about it, that's fine . But maybe tell me straight-up, because I'm a little dense at times, and I am most certainly confused about this issue (and maybe in general).

Thanks for being unambiguous, Nick.

Your comment that "Progress occurs when equanimity informs how the very formations that are fussing are experienced" is super interesting. It sounds like you're saying: pay attention to the here and now including your own paying attention to the here and now. Is that correct?

see the sensations here and now in an open and inclusive way, paying
careful attention to the totality of experience as well as what seems
to be 'outside' that totality. don't get caught up about what things
mean and if you do, don't give a shit that you're caught up cos you're
not really, you just think you are. just keep paying attention in such
a way that nothing will take it away. the cycles may, and probably
will, happen, but ignore them and basically just practise as if you're
already in equanimity regardless of what shows up.