Or how do you know that you Know?
How do you know when your spiritual path is finished?
Perhaps you have to see a white light, or angels, be tremendously happy, or profoundly sad, or pass a certified enlightened teacher’s quiz.
All such things are of the realm of time and motion. A “thing” being any physical or mental manifestation – any experiencer and all of experience.
A final spiritual realization, a realization of the Absolute, is death. Death to every single thing. That statement allows no escape, no ifs ands or buts. The Absolute is a place without place, beyond every thought, every manifestation, where there is no you, no this or that, where every word that attempts description falls completely short because there is no witness, and no thing witnessed – only an impersonal One with no other.
Such finality is worth every effort.
You must have potent honesty to keep searching until you truly find. Most likely you will consider your search done before it is because the mind has a limited time horizon with which it is concerned, and sadly limited goals.
If you return to this place after an absolute realization, there may be symptoms or aftereffects such as: whatever question drove you to search is answered or is no longer relevant, or being no longer driven by the will to survive (in its many manifestations). However, these symptoms may vary because every mind and body is different.
Can you tell that another made the complete trip? You can’t. At best, you can sense a depth or profundity about them. You can never know for sure because you do not grasp an Absolute realization with your mind. You may sense depth, emptiness, or death around them, but these senses only concern your mind and body. If you are certain a teacher is enlightened you are lying to your self. To know for sure you must make the trip.