Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

still running and how program-less and free its actions
really are. That is the explanation that comes to me
but it might be completely wrong.
If you have any comments that would be
wonderful!
Ed’s Reply:
You are so completely right.
Almost no one who claims to be awake really is.
They cling to conventionality and habit and never see
that the world they live in is so illusory, totally a
mental creation. They know it as an understanding,
but they do not breathe it, and their "enlightenment"
is confined to "Ahaa!" moments of insight, or recurring,
but contained experiences of the Void, sighting the
Self, or of bliss. Then they return to making a living in
their old way.
Ramana dumped everything. Robert left his family
and went to India at age 18. I left my job and home to
go to the desert to meditate and then went to many
Zen masters before I settled down again.
This is not to say it is a requirement of awaking
that you abandon your family. Both Robert and
Ramana were boys when they left, and I was living
alone.