Isn’t calling oneself awakened or enlightened a bit of boost to ego?

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Of course. There are three aspects to self. The aspect that wants what’s pleasant. The aspect that want’s to distance oneself from what’s unpleasant. And finally the aspect that just wants to say screw it and go play soccer or have sex or whatever, the part that insists on staying ignorant.

That is what self is, that is what self does. Spiritual exploration plumbs the depths of this self, reveals all of it’s dark corners, to understand that these three aspects are really all self is, was, or ever could be. Moving towards pleasure, avoiding what sucks, and constantly throwing away what one has built or learned.

It isn’t just calling oneself enlightened that boosts ego, everything does! Because everything one does is done for one of those three purposes, many of the times all three. The magic of Buddhism, the magic of spiritual practice, is that the self isn’t all there is to existence. One can use their willpower to examine the self and see it for what it is, unlocking new ways to see and experience.

Awakening and enlightenment do not remove the self, and ones actions and motivations are as guided by it as they ever were. What changes is that before you didn’t know that, after you do! So you can take more interesting actions, still guided by self, than you were able to before you became aware of the nature of self. Interest in the spiritual and higher aspects of life still fulfills the goal of wanting what’s pleasurable, and moving away from discomfort.

And every now and again you catch glimpses of eternity, the stopping points where experience falls outside of time then jumps back. Having fun with this is just more ego. Everything about existing contributes to self, even spiritual growth and attainment. Calling yourself enlightened, compared to the hundreds or thousands of hours spent pursuing spirituality out of egoic self, well that’s just a fun joke.