Awakening is the recognition of the existence of the ego.

In self-realization the core of the ego is gone, and the ego stops occupying the central stage, that is, it stops bossing you around. It still exists, but, as many self-realized people say, it is “seen through”. That is mostly an illusion - it’s impossible to “see through” ego, because once something is really “seen through” and accepted, it disappears, just like the majority of pain and suffering disappears in self-realization. So, a self-realized person who says he doesn’t suffer at all, but “sees through” ego contradicts himself. Anything that needs to be “seen through” is, by definition, not true, and all falsehoods bring suffering, however subtle or unacknowledged.

In enlightenment, ego ceases to exist completely. There’s nothing left to “see through”, and no more suffering.

So, in other words, spiritual journey is a journey from living in falseness, to recognizing your falseness, to then finding the core of truth, which in its turn allows you to see the rest of your falseness in ever-increasing amounts, until the moment when nothing is false anymore and only truth remains. Don’t forget to have fun doing it!