What does it mean to be awake? Where as Buddhist can only explain theoretically what the awaken state is, such explanations are limited by the lack of the experience itself whether be personal or impersonal. Where as Buddhist text describe such state as of experiental attributes of mental lucidity, a state of bliss, etc., in my personal experience I have come across 4 particular individuals whom in my limited perspective, I wholeheartedly regard as awaken or near awaken. The first two individuals although I do not recall the order in which I met them, are perhaps the ones who stand out the most. Let's start with "Fishing Santa Claus at the pier". It was a warm evening, next to dawn, that I had either decided to go out for a stroll or a jog along the "seawall" in Cozumel circa 2012ish in one of my previous lifes. Towards the north side of the wall, where the town of San Miguel begins to blur on the seaside with small resorts, MargaritaVille, and some other tourist traps, there's a small harbour with concrete piers where local people - isleños - tend to fish at night. There, that dawn, I met the awaken Santa Clause for a lack of name. I had either arrived after him or he had arrived after me, the memory surrounding the details of this encounter are now blurry to me but the particularities of it are tattoed in my memory for good. If you could picture an average or perhaps shorter than average Santa Clause looking gentleman, that was him. I remember him at the end of the pier, fishing at some point or another, but at some point, gifting to a local kid next to him, whether a lure or a fishing pole. Something which caught my attention as I remember thinking to myself "This isn't cheap". Whether it had been a fishing pole itself or an expensive looking lure. Next, due to the interesting interaction I had just witnessed plus my natural curiosity, I approached the men as started a conversation. He was Canadian. Perhaps French Canadian since I dont particularly recall lucidity of the English language on his end. A doctor who was perhaps retired and now then, lived in the woods. Neither the first nor second interaction led me to believe he was necessarily awake but rather, what I witnessed next. As we were talking and speaking about fishing or what not, his wife arrived. I believe she must have called him, I don't remember correctly, but what I do recall properly is him turning around, spotting her from a distance, waving and running to meet her and kiss her as if they had not seen each other for years. An absolute embracement of love with nothing holding him back. If that wasn't enough, I realized they had not been away from each other for an extended period of time meaning days, weeks, years, but rather just a couple of hours. It was however, as if he had not seen her for that long plus a life time more. Absolutely engulfed in joy at her sight and running towards her as you would see a child running towards whatever catches his or her heart. The awaken heart.