Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

Everyone in our culture knows what a chair or an
automobile is, while an Australian Bushmen of two
centuries ago may not have had that concept at all.
But let us take a closer look at the whole notion of
ego, mind, and I.
Why do the Neo-Advaitins assume that just because
the word ‘I’ does not point to anything, that the ego
does not exist? Who said that the ego or self would
have some form or an objective nucleus such that by
looking into one’s subjectivity, it could be found as
some sort of ‘object?’
What if the ego is not a single entity, but a
"collection" of learned responses, learned patterns of
perception, interpretation and adaptational psychic
processes by which we function in the world,
combined through developmental patterns into a
functioning human being?
Or, what if that sense of ‘I’ and the ‘I-thought’
really point towards a non-entity, a non-object,
namely the subject of everything? In that sense too,
no object of inquiry could be found, yet certainly we
cannot doubt that we exist and experiencing is taking
place.
When we use the word ‘ego,’ are we not talking
about complex behaviors: thinking and interpreting of
external events, the ability to focus on external and