Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

way over to absoluteness without having to live in a
cave by myself. Nor does it seem particularly desirable
or altruistic to extinguish one's humanness in pursuit of
the absolute
If a response is merited, do you have any advice for
me?”
Ed’s Response:
IS THIS NOT THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE; THE
OSCILLATION BETWEEN WANTING FULL INVOLVEMENT IN
LIFE, VERSUS THE DESIRE TO RUN FROM IT AND REST IN
THE ABSOLUTE?
Freud characterized this as the struggle between
Eros, or love and life, and Thanatos, the desire to die.
Is this not what we struggle for when we try to
awaken, to get away from the human condition to a
place of transcendence and not being touched by life?
Is this not what my teacher, Robert Adams, was
always talking about, not being touched by the world,
that the world was not real, it is an illusion, do not
involve yourself?
On the other hand, modern clinical psychology
takes an entirely different tact, moving us to an open
embrace of everything, becoming totally human,
feeling a full range of affect as well as our strengths
and vulnerability within the context of having a body