Here’s a wild idea: maybe enlightenment is so hard to achieve because most people are already enlightened?
The way my wife and I approached yoga was very different before aripiprazole. For me: perfection, tempering the soul, self-discipline, hatha. For her: pleasure, relaxation, routine, self-care.
Same for meditation. I went in with the intent to become enlightened. Most people do not, and somehow I felt embarrassed about that, despite meditation being a tool that was literally created for this purpose.
So what is enlightenment?
Well it’s a brain state.
Sorry buddha, mate, but there’s a definition. We just don’t know it yet because we don’t have the language, but if we build the tech then we can map it out.
B-man describes it as a falling away of desire. That’s it; ignore everything else; they’re all subsidiary to desire. Desire is dopamine. Craving is attachment: monotropic thinking and rsd. And dopamine *fluctuations*, not overall dopamine levels.
Maybe the vast majority of people do not have these matters to address. Maybe their brains do it automatically. Maybe this is why my friends stopped smoking weed and drinking heavily without effort; because their brains were functioning normally and said ‘woah nelly that’s a bit too much dopamine for a single substance’.
Buddha talks about rebirth, the fractured self, there being no self, the eternal now. Everything is on a continuum. There is no ‘bang’ enlightened for most of us. For most of us, we incrementally move in the right direction, and I think that happens with time.
Maybe most brains just gradually head toward enlightenment / acceptance as they near old age and death. Their dopamine fluctuations die down and the waves in the pool settle. My grandad seemed very at peace with things when I spoke with him last.
But maybe because of irregular time sequencing and processing of emotions, those with audhd can’t do this. And maybe the buddha turned his trauma mechanism on himself and killed his desire that way.
Pretty wild if so. That’s some next-level biohacking.
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