Close & Not
An awakening to no "I" is both very close to how we typically experience what is, and yet quite far away.
Very close
The content is just as it is, although the "ground" is much clearer - that which everything happens from, within and as. There is still the sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and so on as before. Yet, it all comes and goes as and within the ground, the crystal clear space.
It is very close to how we experience what is before this particular awakening. The only difference is in the existence of an "I" prior to it, and of no "I" following it.
After the awakening to no "I", we see how simple it is. How it has always been here, we just didn't notice. We were too preoccupied with the particulars of the always shifting content to notice.
Yet far away
At the same time, it is quite far away.
With a belief in the thought "I", there is an identification with a segment of what is, making it into an experience of I and other, and giving birth to a more dualistic view. We become preoccupied with the particulars of the content of what is, and loose sight of the context - the ground.
Becoming deeply familiar with this way of operating, with the experience of an "I" as a segment of what is, it is almost inconceivable that there is no inherent "I" in what is. The "I" - whether it is placed on a part of our human self, the whole of our human self, or formless awareness - seems so real.
And it is real. What the "I" is placed on is real. It is just that there is a larger whole beyond and including I and other, seer and seen. And finding ourselves as this larger whole, the "I" placed on a segment of what is falls away. There is only what is, as it is, with no "I" to be found anywhere.
In a way, we can say that the reality of what the "I" is placed on - whether our human self or formless awareness or something else - is mistaken as the reality of the "I", the separatedness of I and other.