Wake up

Every night you enter a full-blown hallucination. You see people, places, events. You feel emotions, you talk. And you never doubt it’s real. Until you wake up.

What if you’re asleep right now? Asleep on the way to work, at work, on the way home. Asleep sitting, standing, walking, driving. The lights are on, but nobody’s home.

You are sleeping
You do not want to believe

– PQM

You’re driving, and suddenly you realize you haven’t been here for the last ten minutes. Caught yourself on autopilot — that’s the moment you woke up.

You send a message and get no reply. An hour goes by. Two. And your head is already running a whole series: they’re offended, they’re ignoring me, I said something wrong. They were just busy. That’s how we live — reacting to our thoughts, not to the situation.

You think you’re driving this guy. He’s driving you.

Thoughts can only say what they already know. They hold you in a Groundhog Day where everything stays the same, and the autopilot switches on.

The autopilot is everyday samsara. Catch it — the circle breaks.

There are moments when you suddenly switch on. You see the sky. You hear the sounds. You feel the air on your skin. That’s just you, finally awake.

Whoa — I stepped out and noticed I was gone. Just a camera moving. No thoughts. No body.

At first it lasts seconds. Then minutes. Then you start catching whole chunks of the day when you’re actually here. And life becomes different. Not because circumstances changed — because you finally look at them with your own eyes, instead of through the muddy filter of habitual reactions.

Look around: everyone’s asleep. Talk to them and they answer, react. Then drift back off.

We sleep through our whole lives face down in the salad, noticing nothing and taking it for the only reality. Then you lift your head and open your eyes — wait, we’re at a party! How could I forget?

Be the one who wakes others. Look for the ones who are awake.