The self knowledge wipes out all fixated points of view, it wipes out inner contradictions as well, and one begin to view the existence in different way. The truth is the flow that comes from a non-contradiction source - not from the egocentric base.
Much less damage tends to be done from that bottomless source. Once one has reached the phase where there is no fixed self-concept, he tend to be based on the non-dual existence. The only way to be free from the grip of duality is to be conscious of the true self/soul.
A true self isn't going to be selfless. It alone exits all else is mirage. Self is not physical but it is spirit. Identifying the self with the physical body, is the cause of the ignorance. The physical body and the world are mere experiences. The illustration is, in the dream , the dream body and the dream world are mere experience. Similarly the waking body and the waking world are mere an experience. The formless substance and witness of the experience is real and eternal.
It's simply that when there is no mind , self alone prevail as eternal existence. This self is very different from having a physical standpoint. Where there is action there is mind/duality. Self-Knowledge that awakens and removes conflict.
Mind arises spontaneously and subsides spontaneously. There is a need to discriminate between what seems to be the real and unreal. The physical self can discriminate between right and wrong within the duality. But on the formless base the discrimination is between the truth and untruth.
One need not intellectually discriminate anymore because on the formless base, the soul[true self] discriminates without discriminating; it knows without knowing; it moves without moving. There is no sense of being enlightened or unenlightened. Since there is no second thing other then itself.
One can talk about truth and illusion , and conceptually that has a use. But when there is no ignorance, when there is wisdom, the whole Self-Realization thing is sort of irrelevant because soul has become conscious of itself, which is enlightenment. That's what is often missed.
People believe Self-Realization is an improvement on reality, like becoming a super human being or God-knows-what. But Self-Realization, is when the Soul is awake to itself as itself within itself.
