Enlightenment is supposed to end suffering, but does it really?
Q:
Have anyone experienced a change (for better or worse) in the
experience of psychological trauma following attaining a path (SE
through to arahant)?
We all know enlightenment is supposed to end
suffering, but does it really?
I know Daniel Ingram and Tina
Rasmussen mentioned still having ego material, even after
enlightenment, which I find disheartening. Maybe I am just
overthinking it, but I would love to hear anyones direct experience
with this, if you would be willing to share it.
Baba: Hi. It's a really good question that can't be answered in just one or two sentences. I'll explain this in nutshell and link a video that goes into this in more detail.
There are two types of subtle bodies: one made of one kind of channels (commonly known as nadis and chakras) and other made of different type of channels (commonly known as meridians). The meridian system is very closely associated with the physical body to the extent that traditional chinese medicine uses physical acupuncture needless on nonphysical meridian points to heal physical organs. The nadi system on the other hand is farther away from the physical body, though still connected with the body through the meridian system. If we look at these three bodies, the continuum is set like this: physical body, meridian system and nadi system. From grossest to subtlest.
Enlightenment through wisdom insight, as taught in buddhism, takes place in the nadi system and while all the bodies are connected and one event might have effect on all bodies, as a rule, it can be said that even if wisdom insight makes great changes in the nadi system of mind, the meridian system of mind and whatever is stored there can still remain mostly untouched. It's the meridian system that stores traumas (mostly).
If we leave the whole vehicle (skt. yana) discussion out of this and think of buddhists at large through the same lens, this explains (at least in some way) why some teachers who were considered to have been highly realized, acted badly or abusively because of their trauma. If you're solely focused on wisdom insight, most of trauma goes unnoticed and unadressed.
My present understanding of shamatha/calm abiding and jhana/meditative absorption is that they're buddhisms answers to adress the meridian system, though to this day I have not seen a presentation that would discuss them as ways to heal trauma, instead of being presented as concentration practices. I've recently been listening to talks by jhana-teachers and was just about to watch Tina Rasmussen's interview if they present this aspect in her tradition. View and instructions are everything in this art and largely define the results. I know lots of people who practiced shamatha solely from concentration/samadhi perspective that left their traumas pretty much entirely unadressed.
More in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iuNj_zU8A8
Hopefully you find this helpful.
