I think I got 2nd path about a month ago. It's a dramatic shift whatever it was. However, it's started to dawn on me that I have access to a new perspective when walking around in the world which I just wanted to run past you guys...

The new way of looking at things seems to be that, in any given moment, 'I' am what I'm looking at/experiencing, rather than the historical self based on talk and images which occur inside my head. I'm also dimly aware that, without my nervous system there to organise perception, what I'm looking at wouldn't exist independently of 'me'. It often feels like the 'external' world is taking place inside my head?

To put it another way, if someone asked me to draw a self-portrait now, I wouldn't be sure whether to draw myself externally as I would appear to someone else or whether to draw THE CONTENTS OF MY CONSCIOUSNESS AT THAT MOMENT, which would include the outline of my nose and whatever is in my visual field (presumably including the person that asked me to draw myself as I see them from my perspective.)

Is that what this enlightenment thing is? This kind of relativistic flip in perception? And why there's always all that stuff that enlightenment was always already there before you realised it?

It seems obvious to me how the morality thing would flow from this shift; I wouldn't want to stab someone now (not that I ever did before!!!) because 'I' wouldn't want to see/be the horror?

Or to put it another way, I can't see any barrier between myself and the world anymore in terms of my direct experience (if there was I wouldn't be able to see the world!)

Am I on the right track? Guys? I'm really trying hard not to parrot a load of 'non-dual' sounding stuff here but to report a real perceptual shift....

This is familiar to me as a big insight into non-duality, though there are stages beyond this. I find http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.ca/2007/03/thusnesss-six-stages-of-experience.html to be a helpful reference.

Thanks d34 34! It's funny because the insight that preceded this shift was a 'non-dual' one. I was noting effortlessly for several days and not thinking 'philosophically' whatsoever and it just came to me in a flash in the gym that the fitness instructor on the other side of the gym was also IN MY HEAD!?

I guess I know the answer to the koan 'who is the master that makes the grass green?' now?!

i think you could be 2nd path, because at that time i got all the crazy ideas.

Imho all the insight you will get is serving their purpose and they will disappear when new one rises.

there is many possibilities how you would finally realize what you need to do to resolve all your karma what could cause you birth again.
The last thing what you will do is for everyone the same no matter how you reached that far.

for example I needed to experience total cessation and the deeper level of samadhi to finally put things together what i need to do.
Then i just compared these experiences with my ordinary reality and then integrated into one by resolving the idea what i was holding in ordinary reality.

Think its simple, that it is possible to do it by just hearing the truth. So it can't be the change of something. You will just give up the illusion what you are subconsciously(without knowingly) holding(one day your awareness will meet with it).

The moment you will give it away you feel "lighter" like you really have given away something bad and feels good about it. After some time you will forget it how it was to be with this and everything will be ordinary, thus they say we are already there but have not yet realized it.

Maybe you have just read insane person ramblings..

Shit- sorry for the overload! I just don't have anyone else to talk to about this stuff! God I hope the next DN passes as easily as the last...

Its good to log your experiences Robin - Thanks.

Could anyone with more experience just quickly chip in and confirm if I'm on the right track here? Or has the noting practice somehow sent me up the wrong path/ driven me more mental?

If there's any anxiety in your questions that should be noted too.

I also like to post this because people keep noting to get rid of things:

Gil Fronsdal Noting

I'd also recommend reading The Direct Path by Greg Goode.

Have you driven a car while nondual? It's a trip, literally. Who is driving? shift the focus so you are sitting still and world is moving around you. Learn to trust whoever is driving. They seem to know how.
Lots of fun.
Explore the 3 C's while non dual. especially impermanence and your sense of self in space.
I had this aspect arise at 2nd path as well. Did some stress go away? sense of self change?
Good luck and have fun,
~D