Hey there! Long time lurker, first time poster here. 

In MCTB2, Daniel writes about third path:

"Perception tends to get broader, more spacious, more expansive, more through and through, with awakening being now more of a waking, walking-around experience. This can be a long, developmental process from the first time they notice it to when it becomes a nearly complete experience."

Forgive me if I just haven't found that one thread here yet where that has already been adressed at length, but I would like to hear how this unfolded for the persons who been there (one of my better bad puns, btw).

I would like to get a rough idea of the possible range of how complete/incomplete that was for you guys in the beginning as opposed to that nearly complete experience. How much of a maturation was there from early to late anagami? Rather than asking for dharama diagnosis, wich I think it kinda futile on the internet, I think it's more helpful and interesting to get an idea of the range of experiences. I have found very little first hand descriptions of that aspect of third path, how much unfolding there was, how much of the criteria were already walking around experience in the beginning vs. end of that phase. So if you'd share your experiences regarding that, that would be great. Mapping at this point isn't a big priority, but curiosity arises nonetheless. What was unfolding donuthood like for you?

My personal experience was that the start of this path presented an opening - a wider view of everything, including my practice, my perspective, my ability to see my perceptions, and the processes being used by my mind to present my experiences.

The second most notable change was that the heart, feelings, emotions, and a sense of authenticity came to the fore of my experiences.

The third change was the silence - the lessening and finally the near total lack of mind-noise. The silence grew slowly but reached its zenith a few months before the next path occurred.

Finally, at the end of this path, there was an intellectual understanding of the full range of the Theravada paths, the 4-path model that Daniel Ingram writes about. I grokked most of it deeply, but I knew in my heart I was missing something very important, critical really, to the next path. That desire to seek and find what I was missing became an obsession. I think this overwhelming obsession was the key to moving on.

Then, one day, a change occurred in the way I perceived everything, and third path was done.

rumii, trtans barks, from  "the gazelle" in "feeling the shoulder of the lion,"


Diminish a little, for your own sake,
all this eating and drinking, and watch
a new basin fill in front of you.

Then God may say, “Death, 
give back what you took.”

But you’ll turn away.
You won’t want those things.

Sufis throw away their wanting and their objects.
They abandon pieces of clothing in the dance,
and those articles are never returned.

They are given to the singer,
or divided among the dancers.

They arise from a briny, annihilating 
ocean into pure clarity.

They confront the world openly with its arrogance
and its hypocrisy. They are warriors 
for non-existence.

The planter works with the most joy
whose barn is completely empty,
the planter who works for that 
which has not appeared.

Second by second I know you’re expecting
some sure understanding, some spiritual perception,
some peace, but I am not allowed to say
more about this mystery,

or else I would create a Baghdad
in the wilds of the Georgia mountains,
and there would be no more doubting!