Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

back, I would not now accept that initial no-I, no-self
experience as an awakening. The single experiences,
no matter how world shattering are not what
constitute “awakening.”
To me, the terms “awakening” and
“enlightenment” mean absolutely nothing. The big,
shattering experiences MEAN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
UNLESS THEY LEAD TO TRUE SELF-REALIZATION AND
HUMILITY!
One needs to go beyond any single or multiple
awakening experience, no matter how deep or how
persevering, through a long, long period of “training”
whereby one loses dependence and primary
identification with the conditioned false self, leading
to a discovery AND integration of one’s true self, with
all of its subtlety and sensitivity.
You see, the process of growing up and surviving in
the mad, mad world is one of progressively dying to
our deep sensitivities in order to fit and be sane within
the confines of our assigned roles and accepted
beingness in society.
Self-Realization is progressively letting go of the
conventional, and becoming open to repressed parts of
ourselves. By ‘true self’, I mean all of the powers and
percepts we had to reject in order to stay sane, but at
the same time, to recognize the need for the sanity