How Do You Know You're Enlightened?

When you drop a stone in a pond, ripples radiate outward from the centre.  A tree that falls in the forest also radiates waves of vibration outward.  The falling tree changes the sunlight available to nearby plants and, of course, the tree body decays.

Life works exactly the same way.  Within each moment, previous moments have left their traces.  Someone who pays attention can perceive these traces.  The more traces you perceive, the more you can incorporate the needs of the moment into the moment.  Those needs include your own.

So, when you achieve enlightenment, you perceive (see, hear, smell, taste, feel, etc) the broad field of the moment until you need to focus on specifics.  Your awareness stays in peripheral mode.  If you need to identify a detail or remember something specific, you zero in on the information you want.

You feel pain, fear, excitement, pleasure and all the primary emotions.  You have not become a god.  You still have needs, wants and goals.  You simply discard distractions as they arise and concentrate your attention into the top priority of now.  You rest in empty awareness.

But...

"Now" contains the traces of the past and the future.  If you know where you want to go, you can spot the subtle signs of the route forward.  And you can identify the obstacles from the past you have carried into this moment.

If you just want to enjoy the journey, you will find the seeds right now.  And if you really pay attention, you can see the same things for everyone involved in the moment with you.

When you shift freely between focused, peripheral, internal and external awareness and include a balance of the needs of the moment and your own needs, you're there.