A question has come to me recently through a variety of ways
How do you know if you're awake.
Sounds stupid doesn't it
You achive the state that millions of buddhists and spiritual seekers are striving to achive......
And YOU DONT EVEN NOTICE.....
Can happen... Believe it.. for various reasons.
The first one - is maybe you don't know what waking up is and have no idea what it feels like.
That happened to me the first time round and caused me no end of troubles.
Secondly - Maybe you are not trying to wake up of believe it is so far off that you won't achieve it this lifetime.- this happened to a friend of mine recently
Thirdly- waking up - the initial stages - are fairly subtle. The second time I woke up (20 years after my first time) my first thoughts were "Really!!!! - This is it...was expecting something more" and yet later it became more than I could have possibly imagined.
So what are the symptoms of being awake
1.) Your awareness is turned in on itself all the time. Whenever you are doing something and at every moment during the day you awareness is watching the world and itself at the same time .. the observer is the observed ... to quote Kirshnamurti
2.) You get to take on others negative energy. When you have cleared so much of your own stuff and are burning brightly negative energy and forms will leave others and come to you to get burned in the fires of awareness. It's a bit like water flows down to the lowest point. If your vessel is empty then if you hang out with somone who is feeling heavy, sad, angry, ect ect then some of their pain will shift to you and they will feel better for a while. Some people who are not awake can do this but everyone I know who is awake does it just by being.
3.) You get a buddha field. It's kind of an extension of the above effect but has a palpable presence. People near a person who is awake can feel the buddha field and it can help them drop into awakening as well. One of the benifits of having an awake teacher.
4.) There seems to be a lot of space,emptiness and peace inside you
5.) You may experiece a lot of bliss and joy
6.) You may be happy all the time for no particular reason
7.) People may ask you (in all seriousness) what drugs you are on and where they can get some (This actually happened to me).
If you have all of the above symptoms you may be awake
Goodluck with that
