Strobing and the end of blips

This is an inquiry. In the last leg of attaining first path I experienced myriads of tiny strobe like effects in the visual field, like flickering glitter so to speak. This event was to become a signifier that a cessation was about to occur, what I think we all call the 'blip,' experience. This same process occurred when second path was coming to a close. When the 'glitter' appeared I knew, second path cessation was not far away and sure enough, one day...blip. On the way to third I have now passed through three maybe four discernalble insight cycles, the glitter marks the onset of a blip, and then back to the beginning again. However, the last blip out occurred about ten days to two weeks ago. The process appeared to end after I had the experience of inlfating to infinity. The blips no longer occur. However, the 'sprinkling,' continues. Also, I'm not even sure I'm cycling anymore. Nothing is discernable during the day. What appears to be an insight stage rises and vanishes almost as quickly. Unless of course the cycles are now just happening at a rapid pace which I am not discerning. I hesitate to describe the experience as strobing as strobing to me is intense harsh light paired with black. Even very very fast strobing still has a hard edge to me. This glittering or sprinkling is softer, appears from the top or left or right of the visual field, fills the field and vanishes. It never arises from the bottom of the field. I was thinking perhaps it's actually a marker for moving into a higher jhana? Any insights and suggestions are very welcome. Ta.
Paul

Hi Cartago
I never got the lights you mentioned but your exprience sounds like the confusing "hall of mirrors" that is 2nd path. I would not get fruitions for a couple of weeks at a time and it was very hard to figure out where the hell I was in the insight cycle. Cycles within cycles. What the fractal!!!

I just had to surrender to the strange-arse process. Lately the confusion has died down and I feel quite different. I have 3rd path symptoms, possible nirodha samapati and 2 jhanas after the 8th and I am aloof as, but I can't quite say when that shift took place. So many "special" fruitions happened that it is hard to pinpoint when the transition may have happened. Maybe look out for the signs would be way to orient yourself. Eventually I just got sick of the blips because they really weren't changing my perception like I thought they would. Try forgetting about the blips and focusing on the emptiness of it all, the sensations, "I" etc. That helped me let go of the confusion and frustration of the fruitions that would seem to do nothing for me.

Nick

Funny thing I've noticed -- mind always tries to get a story going. Everything that happens must have a purpose, a role in the overall plot. Then at some point it dawned on me - maybe some of this stuff just happens and there's no meaningful relationship to anything else. Random things do happen, and more often than we think. We're wired this way and thus predisposed to see stories, cause and effect, and draw those kinds of conclusions. Ever notice how literally everything that gets reported here gets interpreted as a practice effect?

Just sayin'

Indeed. I certainly notice it happen during meditation as well. The mind is often trying to plan how it will phrase things when I put them in my practice journal. I feel something and then part of me wants to figure out where I am on a map. Better to just note (although when you note that you are thinking this way it tends to snap you out of it).

"Ever notice how literally everything that gets reported here gets interpreted as a practice effect?

"

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Hi Chris,
And thank you. I am smiling as I write this reply. It's just as easy, in fact easier to just view it as 'nothing much,' on the way. Narrative is a hard habit to break, particularly when one is aware of a map. It's quite a giggle really, comparing, viewing, reviewing, postulating, considering....and it's all just unfolding the way it does. Some really powerful sensations recently for me is that all of this is doing it by itself and I'm commentating as though the commentary makes a difference. I'm wondering as though it makes a difference and really it just gets in the way. .

On the other hand, if one drops the commentary altogether, and things progress and progress, one will find it harder and harder relating to others whats going on for oneself. There is value in making attempts to express/verbalise to oneself whats going on...it maintains verbal skills at the level of ones practice...if one can still verbalise it one can maintain connection to other people in this way too. Just my 2 cents but there was a time when I refused to verbalise even to myself 'my experience' and became more and more speechless when people talked to me. A mistake Im not going to repeat!!

I am familiar with the strobing. The strobing feels.... empty, doesn't it?