It seems that waking up does not necessarily mean that you automatically become a nice person. I personally would have thought that waking up would by default have lead to one having a nice nature filled with love and compassion for all beings. This however is an assumption.
If you also have this assumption then sorry to burst your bubble but it seems to be possible to be quite awake and still be a complete jerk at the same time. As the book says if you see the buddha on the road kill him. (this is not literal) but if you find some palce, anyplace inside you where you are putting other people - including 'awake dudes'- on pedestals then you need to destroy the idol to go on.
I can relate to the above statements for two reasons.
The first one is that in my first waking up experience I was definately waking up. I was also a complete a##$$%#le to many people close to me. I didn't see that at the time as I was in a missionary mindset and my tool was the sword. By this I mean I used the truth to cut lack of awareness from other people. This is never a gentle approach and in my experience is rarely appreciated by the recipient.
Don't get me wrong - the sword definantly has it's place in this work and it may be a fast track for some. But it's not for everybody.
The second reason is that I've met some teachers that seem to be complete jerks.
Completely awake but still jerks.
So here is the heads up. If you decide to hang out with a teacher and they're awake then while they may be a saint that doesn't exclude them from being a jerk.
Preconcepions suck dont they.....
