I had a really interesting experience today. I was looking at my hands and experiencing them as not-self (something that has been going on since I first got equanimity prior to Stream Entry - it shocked me at first, but now it seems normal). Then I looked at my wife's hands and was struck by how her hands were 'not-other'. Looking back and forth between 'my' hands and 'her' hands, I honestly could not say one pair was 'me' and the other was 'her' (if that makes any sense). Obviously, intellectually, I know that my hands are attached to my body and her hands are attached to her body, but this is no way altered the experience of my hands being 'not-self' and her hands being 'not-other'.

This makes me wonder, are not-self and not-other two sides of the same coin?

Cheers,

Nick

I like the use of not-other. It makes sense to me that it's two sides of the same coin, as you suggest. As I recall, my first profound experience of something similar was with space. Space was not-self and not-other; space became connecting rather than separating. Somehow, I'd tended to assume that space was separating. It blew open an insight regarding the interconnecting quality of all sensate reality. Fun stuff!

Appears so, yes What applies to you also applies to everyone else through you, since you create both yourself and others: you know no one and no one knows you. Also not-self and self are two-sides of the same coin as well.

I had some similar experiences myself yesterday, it's super fascinating to explore this selfless territory, but also somewhat horrific. Keep reporting what you stumble across, it's interesting to read, you have a straightforward way of writing which I appreciate...

They point to the same experience. Both self and other drop away in one moment of realization.

it's also fun observing yourself walking around, then observing others walking around, and noticing how the movements are all the same, just that yours are coupled with some extra tactile sensations. hey and why stop at people.. look at any animals/objects moving around

Not two sides of the same coin, but more simple than that: all empty phenomena (meaning empty of a permanent/controlling/perceiving entity (no need to break this down into a permanent self and a permanent other)), all just sensations, all causal, all perceived where they were as the same as manifestation, all transient, all natural, meaning just stuff happening, just things presenting, just colors, forms, textures and qualities, that basic, that straightforward, that literal, that direct, that simple, that just what is happening now, only that, just that, precisely that, all-inclusively that.

Daniel