It means that I have tools at my disposal that help me to live well and to cope with circumstances in life that had previously caused me a great deal of misery. It means that I can look at things that happen in this life in an enlightened way, so that I am not compelled though ignorance to become angry, upset, miserable, or anything else over them. It means that I do not have to be dragged through life by the nose, attached to emotion and craving for this-or-that thing or experience or illusion of status or ownership. It means that I can live life intelligently, and not be sucked in by shiny mental objects, that I can go against the stream and not be enslaved by the cult of television or political bullshit and all the other garbage that goes on there. It means that I can deal with what goes on in my life without my judgment being clouded by inappropriate emotions like anger and greed. It means that I do not have to rely on superstition and fear to correct unskillful impulses that may arise, that I have an unshakable ethics of reciprocity to refer to and guide me that is not based in superstition and nonsense. And that's just the *start* of it. The Buddha's own liberative doctrine teaches all of that and so much more, and all of these are benefits that one can enjoy here and now.