There are many myths and misconceptions about awakening. One of the more outlandish ones is that it involves omniscience and/or omnipresence.
Does it? In a conventional sense, no. We still have access to the same information as others – our eyes, ears, skin and so on take in the same type of information. We don’t necessarily know what’s happening somewhere else or what someone is thinking or feeling. (Although we can develop sensing into these areas.) We don’t know anything for certain, no more than anyone else. And we are not everywhere at once, no more than anyone else.
In another way, there is a type of omniscience and omnipresence. The omniscience consists of knowing – of directly perceiving what everything is to us. Everything happens within and as what I am. To me, it’s what I am. I can also label it consciousness or presence. And omnipresence consists of oneness. To me, all happens within and as what I am. What I am – capacity, awakeness – is everywhere since everything to me happens within and as it.
So in a conventional sense, omniscience and omnipresence is a misguided fantasy spun out of ideas and imagination. If we look a little closer, we can find the grain of truth in it.
Omniscience is to notice and know what everything is to me, and omnipresence is to notice it all happening within and as what I am.