We will start this discussion by mentioning a westerner who was working in a very practical sort of job in "The Times" in London.I am specifically mentioning this so that one is aware that even a person who lived in one of the most advanced cities of the world having a good earning and reputation was not unaffected by the quest of the self which led him to relinquish such a good career path and made him wander for years in the poverty stricken regions of India somewhere around the first quarter of the previous century.
Dr Brunton traveled far and wide in the ancient lands of India, Egypt and various other parts of the globe in search for the "I" or self knowledge.
Finally he met a master from the southern part of India who taught him that the search for "I" is actually not a mysterious search without an end in sight, but quite a practical sort of approach which could be followed even by people from the western world who are mostly doubtful by nature because of the strong inclination against blind faith which typically signify the general public of the orient.
Of course this is but a single example of such a quest.