For the few:

     What is lost is superior to anything gained.

Instead of describing the goal as: 
“achieving Enlightenment,”  ‘twould be better put:
”leaving the shadows,”
and in place of: “Waking up”  --   ”losing sleep,”
and rather than: “expanding consciousness,”
to say: “giving up being stupid.”

Nothing, including a man, can ever be better than it is.
The greatest “change” possible is in being less, 
less-as-good
as you could be.

Loss and poverty are the keys;
not gain and wealth;
you do not need anything additional in your mind;
you have too much in there already 
to ever realize that specialized goal.

A clever man’s greatest possession is poverty;
the proper understanding of poverty, 
(that being): A lack of useless possessions,
and nothing is found to be more useless to a man with open eyes/I’s than what his mind knows. 

An awake man is poor --  and I mean – DESTITUTE!
 

           No possessions  --  no sleep.
           No attachments  --  no  stupidity.
 

Stupidity is its own reward;
being ordinary is its own reward;
a perceptive man seeks no reward,
(beyond those of his stomach, genitals & muscles).

All density and drowsiness is due to having 
useless attachments to meaningless possessions.
Physical possessions are irrelevant in this matter;
what we are talking about is the clinging to foolish ideas:
which mean nothing, reveal nothing, and do nothing
but encumber a potential freedom of mind 
unsuspected by ordinary men.
 

Routine thought says:
"Since an increase in physical possessions is good,
an increase in my wealth of ideas would also be advantageous,"
but this is not so concerning the mental world  -- IF
what you want 
is to live in one 
other than 
the standard model. 
 

If you want to be an automotive mechanic
then the more knowledge you possess about cars
the better mechanic you will be,
and even beyond the the physical domain:
if you desire to be an erudite historian
then the more historical facts you possess
the more erudite you are taken to be,
but all this totally collapses when you enter the singular realm of trying to mentally stand on top of your own mind, (i.e. Wake up;  achieve Enlightenment;
be Liberated -- stop being stupid).
All of the aforementioned are verbal representations of what would happen if a person’s mind could 
raise itself higher by climbing atop itself;
physically, like you making yourself taller by
standing on top of your own feet .

A REAL artist,
(being as original as is possible within a closed system), 
will employ as few available materials as possible;
a painter would try to not use any colors 
already in the palette; 
a writer, no words presently known; 
a musician, no notes heard before,
and a man wanting to create a new mind for himself
would try not to call on any of his current 
mental possessions.

If what you already know could wake you up,
you’d already be awake;
and if what anyone else has ever written about enlightenment would enlighten you,
then such would have occurred every time you 
read such a book.

Why would a person visit an Enlightened Teacher  except to gain new, needed knowledge about how to achieve Enlightenment for yourself?!
Your mind says: “If I had the knowledge necessary to wake up, I’d already BE awake….and I’m not!….
so I obviously do not possess the knowledge needed, and equally as obvious --  I need to acquire it.”
         Assertions impossible to refute, 
          to the mind life issued to you.
 

For a man who, wants-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-things,
and not feel any stupider than is absolutely necessary:

        What is lost is superior to anything gained.
 

Being asleep, confused, confined & stupid
is caused by one thing: What you know.
(or, let’s be more verbally accurate,[it costs no more]);
being asleep and unenlightened is caused by what you THINK you know,
but about the non material world -- you know nothing;
it is a world totally made up by man’s mind,
thus anything you “know” about  that world 
is also made up.

There is actual knowledge concerning a carburetor, 
but none concerning politics, literature, 
allah, or “the truth.”
All you need to be dazed, distracted, 
dozing-in-a-dream & stupid, 
(to be ordinary, in other words),
is to think that you or anyone else 
possesses knowledge of the mentally based,
secondary reality in which men live a great part of 
their lives, and which,
with a straight face-and-ability-to-think --
they pretend to take seriously.

If your conscious mind did not take the so-called, knowledge, facts & views it finds 
unaccountably in its possession
as being the full expression OF itself,
you would not feel yourself living in a shadow world,
cut off somehow from a direct mental connection with
a more solid version of what the reality of life is.

     You know too much -- you don’t know anything!
 

The notion of there being, “Secret knowledge”
is sweetly alluring --  and there is such --   but
it is not at all what anyone’s mind is naturally 
primed to hear and use.
There is a single piece of knowledge that is the supreme key to the locked code of waking up,
but it is not new knowledge you need to come in possession of;
it is the losing of your present knowledge --
--  THAT is the secret knowledge.
 
 

Wanting to wake up without ever understanding
what waking-up is,
is like going to an, 
“All You Can Eat for $3.95” restaurant,
and after having one plate full
you’re refused more and informed that 
that IS all you can eat for $3.95.
 

A person with an excited ear, and anxious eye,
and a strong bladder should be greatly enthused 
by today’s News;
believe me, there is nothing else you need possess
to realize that extraordinarily satisfying goal;
all you need to do is
         dump all the junk you have now.

              ......(See you later  --   at the land fill).

                                        JAN