Cycling

I am a bit confused about the topic of cycling through the nanas during everyday life. I would very much appreciate if I could get some feedback from more experienced practitioners to my questions.

Daniel Ingram writes in MCTB (chapter 28, page 249):

'Before enlightenment, one always had to developing access
concentration, attaining Mind and Body and working from there every
time they meditated (unless practicing very strongly, often and well,
when one may be able to keep up enough momentum to avoid falling
back to the beginning). After attaining a path one begins at the level of
the Arising and Passing Away and proceeds with much more skill and
confidence.'

If a yogi is currently at 5th nana when he is about to sit down and meditate, should it not follow that he will start his session there and then proceed to nanas 6-11?

1. Is off the cushion cycling happening also before the stream entry and one is just not aware of it?
2. Do the lengths of the cycles vary much? How long / short can cycles be?
3. The cycles have their effect on the yogi, but how much does the yogi affect the cycles? How much do his interests, activities and so on affect the cycles?
4. Does fruition/cessation happen between all the cycles?
5. Does the off the cushion fruition feel different from the fruition during meditation?

Antero.

Yes i think so, the meditator should progress or at least stay there, unless s/he is battling with real negative stuff during that sit that would lead him to go down.

1. Yes i think so..
2. Yes they do and there are mini cycles within each cycle too, and like the book says, even cycles within those mini cycles.
3. I think one thing that influences it is: How deep you are progressing. In my experience, the more i was meditating, the faster the cycles. Also, some people talk about learning to speed up or slow down the cycles, to resolve to stay in equanimity, or to go more quickly past the dark night.

4. Yes. The thing is, some people notice it better, some people barely notice it at all. Some may have an afterglow feeling of it, some may not notice any difference in the way they feel. Personally, most of my fruitons don't feel extraordinary. The fruitons at the end of Paths are the strong ones.

5. Feels the same for me.

-

2 questions i also throwing out there about cycles is:

Do non-meditators also go thru the cycles? Do they have mini-cycles of dark-night, a & p, and equanimity?

Are we also bound within bigger & longer cycles of A & P, dark night and equanimity, like with our age, the tides, the moon cycle, or the seasons? (Its said that early mornings or late at night is when we are most equanimous or meditation is easiest. does this apply to seasons or age? Are there other factors as well like geographical location maybe)

"4. Yes. The thing is, some people notice it better, some people barely notice it at all. Some may have an afterglow feeling of it, some may not notice any difference in the way they feel. Personally, most of my fruitons don't feel extraordinary. The fruitons at the end of Paths are the strong ones."

If everybody has cycles and there is always a fruition between the cycles, then also everybody is having fruitions. This is contrary to what I have learned so far that the fruitions are experienced only by the post path practitioners.

oops. Yes, thats what I meant. Sorry about that. Frutions are only experienced by post path practioners at the completion of each cycle