Life for bill, zandtaomed and zandtao has been fortunate in that from an early age, 23, bill partially reconnected with the path. This partial reconnection took him to writing, compassion and teaching, and whilst teaching is dominated by the corporate paradigm (1%-satrapy or patriarchy) bill was still fortunate enough to be teaching – and have sufficient to retire early and follow his path as zandtaomed then zandtao.
In following his path bill retired early, zandtao developed his practice - ZPAP, and recently crossed the threshold of autonomy; in this autonomy zandtao continues his practice but is mainly focussed on his quest into the unknown through writing. That quest into the unknown is Eckhart’s 2nd aspect of consciousness - conscious evolution.
In retirement zandtao has been able to help with some meditation training through zandtaomed, but in truth zandtaomed has not been fully equipped to do such. Recognising his limitations allows him to continue legitimately but advice can only be based on his experience – as such it is better advice but .... However there are risks concerning trauma. Bill's own trauma is limited so when handling trauma he is risking making matters worse even though his intentions are good. In truth zandtaomed evaluates that the trauma aspects of zandtaomed’s work has not caused harm but at times the advice could have been at risk.
If.Ph D concerns a what if. What if at 23 bill had reconnected to the path with sufficient strength that he could then have been an adviser – a Kalyana Mitta; zandtao supposes this would have been his ideal life. It was not possible to be so but what if …. Bill quite likely would have wanted to jump in and teach, the path grabs you that way. That would not have been the wisest. Hopefully Bill would have learned the need to be trained in trauma counselling.
Nicola Amadora PhD is the teacher who has helped zandtao produce a love-wisdom balance. When zandtao saw her quoting PhD, he questioned because academia as a whole sucks - there are parts .... But the truth is that a wise zandtaomed would have become zandtaomed PhD in the hope that that would give him some knowledge of what experienced people have used previously in trauma counselling. Whilst this second-hand knowledge does not match with any experience zandtaomed has felt, it is better than going in cold and hoping. Zandtao cannot say but he suspects there would still be risks, but what zandtaomed brings in terms of his openness, compassion and limited wisdom would enhance the academic training and limit those risks.
Listen to Nicola on this she is clear:-
Nicola’s words are based in experience as she brings training into her spiritual work. Zandtao remembers Brad Warner saying something like he offered spiritual teaching, and for trauma these seekers must go to a clinician. This has been zandtaomed’s approach. If he had met trauma that he couldn’t cope with he was prepared to advise “going elsewhere” such as Nicola, but by then harm might have been done. Fortunately he assesses that no harm has been done. For this reason this is not a post instigated by guilt, but the trauma he has met might have been handled better – who knows? And if it happened in the future? Zandtao would now choose his experience backed up by training - hopefully to Ph D (a timewise impossibility).
Alternatively zandtaomed might have become a Teal Swan counsellor. If on upheaval his path had taken him to studying with Teal Swan in Costa Rica, maybe he could hopefully have trained to become one of her counsellors. Whilst zandtaomed is less sure of this "What if" - he has no knowledge of the program, what he is not unsure of is Teal's love-wisdom; hopefully this would have shown through in her counselling training.
We have reached the path thing that bugs zandtao about Mcmindfulness and Commune. As generalisations Mcmindfulness offers “mindfulness within patriarchy” or mindfulness that helps with productivity – such mindfulness might also help with some well-being but avoids mindfulness as part of the path. Commune works on trauma and well-being, and whilst zandtao considers the teachers are probably on their paths limited spiritual work is done in Commune; at least Commune describes itself as holistic health bringing its purpose well within patriarchy. As such (within patriarchy) following the Mcmindfulness and Commune approaches, there is no evolution. Evolution occurs on the spiritual path, that is what zandtaomed was advising towards - with limited success.
As a result autonomy led zandtao away from zandtaomed and onto a quest into the unknown – conscious evolution.
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