Do you dream in colour?
Would you rather have the reality of your dreams or the reality of your senses? Can you tell the difference? Where do you feel like a superhero?
If you had a choice, an honest yes or no choice, would you stay asleep if asked to wake up?
Chuang Tzu dreamed he was a butterfly. But he also dreamed he was a man watching a butterfly. Which would you rather be? A fluttering consequenceless marvel of beauty and flight... or an ever destructive being taking a break from dreaming and sitting upon a meadow for a relaxing afternoon among flowers and butterflies?
To lightly reference the Matrix Trilogy... To wake up is to unplug. Decide right now what it is you're plugged into. What would you consider a model for being plugged in to be? Would you use the analogy of two metal prongs having been inserted into an outlet? A gas pump nozzle into your car's open gas tank? A penis in a vagina? The ball joint of your shoulder? A bullet into a revolver? A hand into a hand? Participating in a discussion? Dreaming of things provided by your daily experience of faces and stories?
If you can't decide... it should help then when suggested to you that any inescapable contact, direct or indirect, is you plugging in. When you're asked what love is... you plug into your memories via simply thinking. What you say is plugged into your cognitive and stem synapses that counter with your voice box using gathered air to vibrate. The sound plugs into the ears of who is listening and awaiting your answer, the walls in which you're speaking within.
But how to unplug? Wake up?
What is 'waking up'? Waking means to be alert, suddenly conscious. Conscious of what? That you were previously asleep? Or that you were so deeply plugged in that you were thoroughly integrated with what you were plugged in with to be convinced of anything else?
Up means completely or entirely in the phrase 'waking up'. Completely conscious. Do you think you're conscious now? Can you feel the room around you without thinking about it? Can you point north without looking out a window? Do you know what day it is without looking at a calendar? If you got only 2 out of the 4 questions above asked... then no. You're not awake.
You're between the dream state and awake. You're a drifting biomass whose inertia provides no external aid as to where your consciousness might teeter.
There's a lot to be aware of for you to wake up. So much that your immediate opinions regarding these symbols gathered neatly in lines and understood left to right are expected. And in saying that, you won't reply with said opinion. Who knows, maybe you'll be brave enough to get to Step Ten.