Maharani

What is enlightenment "good for"? Why are we seeking it? What will we have after enlightenment that we didn't have before? Disclaimer 1: I've been studying non-dual teachings for about two years, but I am definitely not "there" yet. This is simply the non-dual teaching that makes the most intuitive sense to me, and feels to me like the most direct non-psychedelic path to "enlightenment". Disclaimer 2: All of these are just concepts, which can never be "truth". They are just pointers meant to aid reflexion of your own experience. Your experience is the only "truth" there is. This is my clumsy summary of a conceptual framework laid out by Roger Castillo in satsangs uploaded to his YouTube channel Being Lived. Roger is a student of Ramesh Balsekar, who was himself a student of Nisargadatta. *** What we are really looking for is happiness in daily living. The flow of Life will always be a mix of (physical and emotional) pleasure and pain*. Human unhappiness ("suffering") is our psychological attitude towards the flow of Life. Happiness is unbroken peace of mind regardless of circumstance. Peace of mind is simply the absence of suffering. Suffering manifests as 1. guilt, 2. blame, 3. pride, 4. worries & anxiety, 5. expectations & attachment to outcomes. The root cause of all suffering is our false belief in personal doership. When we examine how thoughts & decisions come about, we find that they are always the result of a person's genetic make-up & conditioning through Life. Our feeling of free will is both an illusion and a gift. The experience of being alive as a human is meant to feel as if we are free to do whatever we choose in each moment. Our own free will is never different from the will of Life (or "God's will"). When we deeply feel and understand that Life unfolds according to "destiny" (cause & effect), our attitude of doership & attachment falls away and peace of mind persists on a continuous basis. *** In Roger's words, non-dual awakenings (such as those brought about by 5-MeO-DMT or DPT) are simply means to an end: to find happiness in this human lifetime. The happiness that's available ("enlightenment" or liberation, which are synonymous in this framework) is simply the absence of our psychological attitude towards pleasure and pain: unbroken peace of mind regardless of circumstance. * Painful emotions include anger and sadness, which we only tend to know with psychological suffering layered on top: Anger plus blame, sadness plus guilt. Even after "enlightenment", we still experience emotional pain, except without the additional layer of uncomfortableness that is suffering.

It's not about pretending, it's about feeling that you have free will (whether you want to or not). The falling away of the belief in "personal doership" simply means to recognize (not intellectually, but again, by way of feeling) that your actions are always determined by your genetic make-up & conditioning through Life. That we have the gift of a feeling of free will at the same time is indeed a paradox that cannot be resolved intellectually. Yes, Roger does say that the "ego" or person remains after the belief in personal doership has fallen away: We still have to live this Life as a human being. According to the framework, the reason that sages have told us that we are NOT the body is simply because that is the most effective way of showing us the consciousness aspect of ourselves that we have "forgotten". But once it is recognized, it still has to be integrated with the fact that our experience is that of a human being - a person.

Roger would agree with this 100 % - *believing* a concept will not bring about unbroken peace of mind. Another definition of enlightenment is that it is the falling away of *all* beliefs (the belief in personal doership is simply the most deeply ingrained one). "Pre-determined" simply means unfolding according to cause & effect. Life only ever goes one way, down the one possible path. Even still, it can be seen as a spontaneous happening that occurs all in one moment. And just to emphasize again that even according to Roger's conceptual framework, even after the belief in personal doership falls away, the *feeling* of free will is a permanent component of the experience in each moment.

Roger groups self-pity under guilt, and resentment under blame (or guilt, if it's directed towards yourself), but I agree with you that it's essentially semantics. Dropping all prejudice, forgiving yourself and the whole world, the disappearance of the horrible story in your mind - definitely sounds like liberation ("enlightenment") according to Roger's definition to me.