I've read most of MCTB 2 and all of MCTB 1 a couple of times and wanted to mention something I think is related to the concept of cycles that occurs in normal brain operation.

(Corollary: I have never attained to any major achievement through dharma practice.)

I have noticed when playing difficult games, particularly Super Meat Boy on some of the later levels, a certain learning progression that seems standard for long periods of focus. At the start of a level I'm focused and using my existing skill to get as far as I can and find the crux of the level that I need to figure out. Then after retrying for maybe half an hour or so, I'll notice my hands start to feel awkward like I don't really know how to move them properly anymore, and difficulty focusing and playing well. After sitting and continuing in that state for a while, and maybe talking to a friend a bit, I won't really notice it ending, but I'll make major progress on the level and maybe even finish it. If I don't finish, then the cycle repeats until I do (which on some levels took up to 2 hours of straight attempts without my friend saying anything to distract me the entire time sometimes).

This leads me to believe that the cycles experienced by awakened practitioners are a function of periods of learning and adaptation or rewiring, followed by a period of enhanced performance. Except that since the thing you're learning to enhance the performance of is now perception itself, the effects are much more strongly perceived.

I just thought this hypothesis was kind of neat, and wanted to share it. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

That is neat. I'm not sure if that's how it works for me, but I just bought I new game so I'll pay attention when I start playing it.

I think this is a great observation, and it absolutely jives with my experience of practice both mental and physical. I think anything that transforms the self through any sort of incremental practice will exhibit this kind of cadence. When we talk about the phases of insight here, I believe we're describing a finer-grained model of the same basic pattern: I think of it as a three-part cycle, and if I were trying to market this idea as a self-help book I would label the three parts Breakthrough, Backlash and Balance. The period of awkwardness, or rewiring, that you describe fits in the Breakthrough-to-Backlash part.

Even when my experiences don't seem to line up precisely with the many phases of the PoI, they still seem to fit within this more general three-part description.