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Isn’t “non-identification with our desires” also a form of control? In fact, everything we do is a means of controlling our perceptions to be in accordance with our goals/expectations (or “references” as they’re called in Perceptual Control Theory).

When we are capable of “seeing desire like any other externally arisen phenomenon that has no import to you,” it’s because the perception of that desire does not result in error — our perceptions are in line with our goals. That is, perhaps, that we have over time developed in such a way where we operate according to a high-level goal such as “non-attachment”. We have a high level goal that controls for and values not chasing after or identifying with arising desires.

Furthermore, this is not because “there’s no you there”. In understanding ourself as a hierarchical control system (as described by PCT), we can also come to see that all control, action, desire, perception - everything including our very self is dependently arisen and empty of inherent existence. Living in such a way doesn’t require convincing ourself that we don’t exist, but rather seeing ourself and how we are and act as empty and dependently arisen. This is deeply freeing and is the door through which we can naturally develop such high-level guiding principles like non-attachment, where we transcend the need for both enkratic and sophron methods of self-regulation that ultimately don’t work and only prolong a life of suffering.

I posted an article yesterday on this topic that you may find of interest:

https://open.substack.com/pub/aaronlessin/p/no-self-no-problem?r=oevw8&utm_medium=ios

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