The kind of people you would normally expect to be readers of this daily web page would be the same general sort nowadays called, New Agers,
and in previous times, occultists, mystics and metaphysicians,
and herein when reference is made to, the few,
(indicating those with an interest in this type of activity),
readers most certainly overestimate the number of this group;
after all it is common knowledge that there are numerous monasteries throughout the world whose stated purpose is the achieving of enlightenment
who have full time students in the thousands,
not to mention the many uncounted smaller groups and communes,
so while there are easily hundreds of thousands who say they are an active part of
this undertaking, the real-few number not in the thousands, not even the hundreds;
if a figure was here given, you would either not believe it,
or you would be mystified.
 

The brain of every ordinary human on this planet has an in born interest in this activity; be they religious or atheist; liberal or conservative; rich or poor; educated or illiterate;
any person who ever has thoughts about anything other than food and sex;
about matters which are not material,
things you can reach out and touch,
these people’s minds are interested in enlightenment;
such minds are the normal minds of all the world’s normal humans.
True, only the hundreds of thousands, or millions who say directly that
they are involved in the kind of activity associated with the term, Enlightenment
are publicly identified as having this interest,
but it is present in every person who has thoughts and who is curious beyond the basic, instinctive questions of: what is for dinner? --  and who will I sleep with tonight?
 

Most of those who identify themselves as having this interest in an active form
display same via the purchase of apparently pertinent books;
the attending of relevant lectures; the participation in meditation and related classes,
or even the full time apprenticeship in a group with a guru,
but none of these are of the real-few;
their sincerity and interest is not the question;
they believe they are of the few, but they are not,
and have no way of knowing they are not;
they cannot be told they are not;
any one who knows they are not would not tell them,
and even if they were told, they would not understand or accept it;
that is how it is.
 

All but the real-few believe they are studying something;
a method to achieve a personal enlightenment which will explain everything;
a discipline that will awaken them from man’s normal dream state;
a system that will liberate them from the routine restrictions that bind man’s mind,
and when you study something, you study something outside of yourself; a book,
the words of a teacher;
whatever it is that one seeks to learn is obviously outside of oneself
or else you would presently possess it and not be seeking it;
no other possibility does the mind even consider;
no other approach is initially conceivable.
 

The million or more of these professed-few never go beyond their
studying of a method;
they are not subjects for ridicule or criticism;
they enjoy what they do, and if there is more to life than that, no one knows what it is,
and the intent of today’s writing is not to condemn such people,
but to tell you that the reality that gives rise to this interest in man
is not to ever be found in any teaching, method, or idea you will ever hear of;
any one who offers to tell you what it is does not know what it is,
or they would not tell you that they can tell you what it is.
Be assured that there is a something;
quite truly, “an answer” to every question any man has ever had; “an” as in one --
a single thing which, when realized for and by yourself alone,
blows the game sky high.
But as totally perplexing and apparently unusable as the statement first seems:

In that we must employ words to communicate ideas,
let us for the moment use the classic description pertinent to this ancient affair
which says that:  although man believes he is fully conscious,
he in fact lives largely in a dream world,
but through certain efforts he can awaken from this dream,
and be enlightened to the truth about everything,
and let us take note that while the many-of-the-few are engaged in the study of
various methods devoted to bringing about the awakening: Zen, Sufism, Yoga, Christian & Jewish Mysticism, and the untold smaller schools,
the aim of them all is to awaken from one dreamy and distorted state of consciousness into a new, more comprehending one;
then it can be put this way:
if the many-of-the-few ever do awaken,
it is only the real-few who understand what awakening is,
and right there is perhaps the best hint verbally possible of
the distinction that separates the real-few from the mass who are
doomed to forever search for it --  even feel themselves almost within reach of it –
yet never quite grasping it.

The missing, indescribable trick/key/link is that while most-of-the-few
forever study something to bring on their awakening,
the real few somehow get past that, (who knows how?!?!),
and as best as can be put:
they study the thing that wants to study something that will bring on awakening --
--  they investigate the investigator, (much more said than this, turns into just more dreams).
But this is the distinction,
this is why, (as foolish as you may have thought it was when it was first printed here),
that anyone who tells you they are awake  --   is not  –  they cannot be,
for if they understood from their own life and experience
the reality of what the words reflect,
it would never occur to them to make such a statement
anymore than they might suddenly announce they were from Mars.

Being more awake to what is going on in life is one thing,
understanding what those 13 words actually mean is something so far removed from what the 13 words seem to indicate
that the many-of-the-few do not even realize the existence of the real-few,
(assuming there are any presently alive).
 
 

In your own interested mind there are both the many-of-the-few,
and the potential, real-few;
take a short cut, (if you can find your way how), which is to:
turn all of your attention onto that within your brain that says it wants to
awaken from the dream;
study just that one thing, in you; the thing that wants to study: How To Awaken;
exercise your interest in this wondrous affair by being only interested in the thing,
in your mind, that has this interest.

Do not call it, The-study-of-yourself --
thinking about it thusly will misdirect you severely;
just look intently at what it is in your head at this very moment
that is looking intently at these words;
scrutinize relentlessly the activity in your mind that scrutinizes ideas such as these.
 

If there is anything in the entire universe trickier to do  --  no human knows what it is --

As much fun as the study of: How To Awaken can be –