I agree. It doesn’t have to be painful. Alan Watts says that you awaken when you believe you deserve to, if people have a script that “spiritual awakening requires pain and hard work before you can achieve enlightenment" then they will only achieve enlightenment once they believe they’ve suffered enough. There is no requirement that this happen though. Shedding the ego or false beliefs doesn’t have to be agonising. From a different perspective it can be a relief, or even funny!