Man experiences few true dichotomies: dark and light, life and death; most everything else he perceives to exist in graduated degrees.
When a person first hears that man is asleep but can awaken, it is a genuine dichotomous situation. They either instantly Get it, or they do not; not instantly awaken, but instantly recognize its validity to them.
Pagans can be turned religious, meat eaters made vegetarians, liberals converted to conservatism; but those who do not initially, Get the idea of, waking-up can never be made to do so. Yet still, most of those who say they do get it – do not – never have and never will.
At any moment in human history, the vast majority of those who say they are actively involved in some activity devoted to waking-up never got it and never will. This does not mean that they cannot enjoy the activity they pursue, and this will not keep them from believing that they are making progress and gradually becoming “more awake,” but they are never actually going to make it and understand what is really going on.
In the lives of those who do, instantly and instinctively, get the idea of waking-up, there exists a parody of the above situation. Even though these people alone have the potential, before it is realized they too feel they make incremental progress, but just as is true at the outset, so it be at the end. You are either awake, (which is to say), you know what’s going on or you do not. It is that clear cut.
J.