fruition

What happens during a fruition and how can you tell when you've had one?
I keep seeing this phrase and realise it has to do with gaining a path but what are the characteristics?

I'll speak as the most minimally-qualified person here, since I had my first one only a few days ago, but maybe, in this instance, a newbie perspective is useful

Short answer: you can't tell per se, because it's not an experience. From what I gather, it's an incidence of actual cessation / nirvana / nibbana / the unconditioned, etc.

Slightly longer answer: at first, assuming you spot it at all, all you really know is that there is a moment where something is suddenly different from the moment before. This might manifest as a sense of being suddenly startled or shaken awake.

Last night I think I had one while walking home- and all it was was the realization that the train of idle background thought going through my mind had come to a full stop, and picked up again elsewhere. It was immediately followed by a sense of freshness and alertness.

I guessed that it was a Fruition due to the place I felt I was in in the cycle of stages of insight, which are currently cycling rather rapidly for me, in this immediate post-First-Path phase.

I wouldn't have even noticed, except that Kenneth recently coached me through the stages as they unfolded, and I was able to make that educated guess.

Apparently, it can get much more tangible than that- I'll let you know -but it might be no big deal at first!

Thanks Rob.
I had something happen during meditation a few nights ago. I had risen through jhanas ( not sure which jhanas are which at this stage in my practice) I had reached a jhana that i hadn't experienced before that felt so solid. Just before entering i had a big jolt to the left of my head which felt like i'd been pushed over. The solid feeling was accompanied by a feeling that a stage had been completed.
Could this be a fruition? Steve.

"Thanks Rob.
I had something happen during meditation a few nights ago. I had risen through jhanas ( not sure which jhanas are which at this stage in my practice) I had reached a jhana that i hadn't experienced before that felt so solid. Just before entering i had a big jolt to the left of my head which felt like i'd been pushed over. The solid feeling was accompanied by a feeling that a stage had been completed.
Could this be a fruition? Steve."

It doesn't sound like a fruition. Fruitions are seen subjectively as gaps in experience, more like a "what was that" kind of a feeling than a big explosion. They are also typically followed by a wave of bliss throughout the body.
There is however a lot of energetic work that gets done when you move through the progress of insight that can feel like big explosions. It can get pretty dramatic sometimes.

Thanks owen.
"Progress of insight" Is this related to the nana map? Which stage would this happen at?

Yeah, it's where we get the nana map.
Check this out, might be some fun reading:
www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/mahasi/progress.html

There is also a lot of material under the 1st gear section of this site.

One stage you might want to check out is Arising and Passing Away. Its preceding stage, Three Characteristics, often involves weird body stuff such as feeling as if you're falling over to one side, or pain, or spontaneous movements.