Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

the person’s acts, the reality principle. The ego had a
very difficult job.
Back then I spoke of many forms of spirituality as
being conscious mechanisms of finding rest from these
internal wars by consciously creating no thought, no
emotion states which were a parody of a “true
spirituality” where a person sought their own core
Self, Self-Realization, of which the personal self was a
part.
Through this faux spirituality, people found rest
from neurotic anxiety in teachings of peace, love,
acceptance, or ideas that humanity was turning the
corner into an enlightened world of no war, no poverty,
no disease or death. Or else they got into various
healing modalities, and New Age philosophies,
dominated by positive thinking.
Meditators could find peace by staying in
meditation on the various voids or states of emptiness.
People lived by examples of lofty teachings, glad
tidings, concepts of being a good person, etc. Or they
used mantra and japa to crowd out all thinking and
emotions.
Eventually, either the methods failed and the
person abandoned them, or perhaps they died to their
emotional selves and became emotionally deadened.
They lost their humanity and became permanent