When Are We Awake?
When we are aware.
When we are solely aware!

When the mind becomes attached to a thought, it goes into a day-dream state. This thought may be very profound but it is still a day-dream, and not actual experience leading to realisation. To prove this, we only have to look; that is why we meditate.

In Shamata meditation, there are three aspects: resting, stirring and knowing.
Resting is being relaxed and still.
Stirring is the arising of a thought.
Knowing is the recognition that a thought is arising, and we return to relaxed stillness.
There is still a feeling of ‘me’.

In Dzogchen meditation, the three aspects are called ground, path and fruition.
The ground is pure awareness, our essential nature of emptiness.
The path is our confusion about the ground.
Fruition is realising that the path (our confusion) never existed: we have been the ground all along.
Dzogchen is pure awareness, and there is therefore no time for a ‘me’.

It is the arising of a thought that sends us to sleep, and into a day-dream. The more we recognise the arising of a thought and let go, the longer we are awake. Our problem is that the stirring of a thought becomes interesting, and we follow – forgetting our original nature of emptiness. We become attached to the thought, and are therefore lost in the day-dream.

To be awake is to be aware. Just aware.