The first thing in any consideration of people concerning the delusions of the system-of-accumulation is that so many people don’t really question the system, and just do their best to survive within it. Taking solace in what materialist advantages they have, many people - as parents especially - hope that their children can also accept this way of materialism, and hope to pass on their way of coping with the societal infrastructure. Without deeply questioning whether this system-of-accumulation is the best way to live, most people just try to survive, cope and develop within the confines of this system. Accepting their conforming in this way, some people become more strident attempting to be beneficiaries of this system through increased wealth. Whilst this rarely happens as the rich have developed a level of exclusivity, such ambitions are encouraged thus incorporating such strident minds within the conditioning confines; these ambitions usually become satiated with additional materialism. Most people live their lives coping within the system-of-accumulation, but zandtao notes there is so much more beyond this coping.
Conditioning develops conformity
What creates people satisfied with the delusion is a combination of human infrastructure, agreement and/or conditioning within the societal infrastructure. Let's start with human nature. It is natural for people to want to live together in harmony so it is equally natural for nature to help our children grow into this harmony. But in this aspect nature is not discerning, for this purpose it does not value one particular societal infrastructure over another - nature simply wants our young to grow up harmoniously in the prevailing society. To this end nature gives us instincts so that through these instincts we grow up to live in some form of harmony - to develop and survive within their society. Such a typical instinct is that of loving parents and seeking parental love and acceptance. In our upbringing, especially the early years, our parents are significant in our development - as nature intended.
As part of this loving process children make agreements with parents and then with wider society, and through these agreements they conform to what is required of them. Again this agreement process need not have any negative connotations in upbringing. In most situations it would be reasonable to conform to what parents would want, especially if parents want the best for their children. But this conformity is affected by societal conditioning and more significantly the Sacred Wound; the Sacred Wound is not concerned with conformity and will be discussed later.
Societal conditioning is the aspect of our upbringing that conforms us to the system-of-accumulation. What society wants is for us to fit into the system-of-accumulation by educating us to become wage-slaves. At the same time given all the possible defilements children can fall prone to, most parents agree to conform children to this system-of-accumulation as being the best way to survive. Parents encourage education - often with heavy discipline so that with appropriate qualifications their children as adults can gain from the materialist system.
So when you put these 4 conditionings together - by parental love, by instinct, by agreement and by societal conditioning - it is not unusual for people to grow up satisfied with the delusion, and decide to cope with life in this way.
Delusion and self-esteem
In order to survive and be successful in society, upbringing aims to build self-esteem in our children. Children who have built up this confidence often end up successful materially and in terms of the delusion that materialism is considered success. Few parents would be criticised if young people grow up to be a successful business person with a "good home" and family. Few would question whether such a person who is likely to have self-esteem is successful. For the more compassionate parents their children might grow up to be doctors or teachers caring for others, but does that compassionate caring question the system and the way it causes so much harm?
Self-esteem that is not questioning is part of the delusion. And in many ways a person with self-esteem will find awareness and awakening more difficult because of the success that derives from their strengthened selves. They are the people who have been conditioned to conform with the greatest systemic success, and their egos are therefore more likely to want to maintain the delusion.
Conditioning builds selves building self-esteem.
Conditioning builds selves building self-esteem through attachments. Basically a young person is successful at something - maybe a school subject. So parents and teachers give loving approval so that the child wants to continue to be successful, and this reinforcement builds attachment or identification - I identify with being good at maths, I attach to my success at maths as being important. These attachments and identifications build up selves, and if there is sufficient of them the external facade becomes self-esteem.
What is wrong with this? A child grows up, is successful, has a good job, she builds a home with her husband and kids, and repeats the process with her own kids. There seems nothing wrong with this conditioning process if society is good, but based on the intro-vision of societal infrastructure this is not good because there is no end to the harm present in the system. At the same time there can be far more to life than just coping.
Whilst our upbringing through conditioning and conforming creates self-esteem, another process is going on - that upbringing protects the seed-consciousness. This can occur in two ways depending on the level of protection needed. During upbringing it is expected to agree with parents and community but what if those parents and community are inimical to the child's interests; or maybe simply the way seed-consciousness wants to develop is being oppressed or repressed by that upbringing. If it is drastic the child will hide away the part that is being shut out creating a fragmented ego. But if it is not so drastic then there will be various protections put in place. Perhaps the child will feel anxiety as a result of the disagreement with parents, maybe the problems will be little more than stress or agitation but there will be processes that will protect the child's consciousness. In the teenage years a young person will begin to recognise the system-of-accumulation for what it is, and depending on their seed-consciousness will need to protect themselves from the impending need to compromise and accept wage-slavery.
As they get older the young person will learn to reinforce their facade and protect themelves by clinging to what they found worked. As explained in human infrastructure these characteristics develop as defences but they prevent consciousness from expressing itself.
This pattern of conformed upbringing accepting the system-of-accumulation has existed for a long time, but recently some people have become enraged at the system; however this anger has been incorporated within the system and turned to support for authoritarianism that supports the bottom-line of accumulation. This anger arises mainly because it has become harder for everyone to cope, but the response of this anger is to ask that the system change so that people can cope. This changing rage is arising from the system-of-accumulation trying to accumulate more, and taking more from the poorer people trying to cope although most people don't see it this way. This is a different way of conforming but it is still within the system-of-accumulation. What zandtao is addressing in zeer-consciousness, what he is looking at here is the feeling that there is more than just coping. Examining societal coping issues and looking at the rage comes in Pathtivism when zandtao considers embodiment.
What is almost completely absent in this process of coping is morality. Conditioning continues irrespective of whether the system-of-accumulation is moral. And clearly if there are endless wars it lacks a moral basis. Given there is some moral input from parents, schools and religion. it would be more accurate to say that the upbringing has individual moral adherence but does not ask morality of the system-of-accumulation. Because the system-of-accumulation is lacking in morality, do we educate our children with morality - thus possibly limiting success within the system-of-accumulation? Compassionate parents whose children become carers or teachers would argue for their moral imperative yet systemically these people are underpaid and have limited impact on society.
And for the rich in this system where is the morality in the greed that builds accumulations in bank accounts? What are the caring consequences of their accumulation? Is this accumulation therefore moral? This moral imperative is a dilemma for compassionate parents as they wish their children to be moral but they know the system-of-accumulation lacks such morality; coping somehow lives with this dilemma uncomfortably. Increasing questioning of the system-of-accumulation often has a moral basis.
Awareness sneaks through delusion
Out of this conditioning can come a reaction to upbringing that can bring awareness and the beginning of awakening - that is not the same as the increased rage with the system yet for some they confuse rage with awareness. With an initial awareness might come a feeling that there is more to life than the materialist coping within the system-of-accumulation - as opposed to a material demand for help in coping.
The feeling - Dissatisfaction with conforming and coping, there has to be more than this!
Whilst awareness is individually different and each journey is unique there is a commonality in some experiences. One such commonality is a feeling that coping is not enough - not fulfilling.
Where does this feeling of coping is not enough take us? What is so important is where this coping is not enough takes us. Sadly because such experiences are not common-place in the mainstream we do not always embrace this so-important feeling; such awareness can get lost in the busy-ness of life - or get confused with the rage of people trying to cope.
Sadly such feelings of awareness are not enough. Feeling such an awareness is likely to emerge within an ethos where it would be countered by upbringing, family and friends around all of whom predominantly accept materialist conformity and are trying to cope; within such isolation the strength of the feeling might get lost. It is likely that such feelings will repeat themselves at different times in life but they might not be sufficiently strong to impact how you live your life given all these conditioning and conformity factors around you. That would indeed be sad as you would miss out.
Where do these awareness feelings come from?
zandtao associates these feelings with 4 key areas - creativity, compassion, nature and possibly romantic love. For the creative such awareness feelings are completely natural - arising from creativity. For the creative, simply being creative brings with it an understanding that there is more than just materialism - the creativity that is beyond materialism. It is for each creative person to answer why their own creativity leads to or does not lead to awakening; some might focus on the commercial value of their creativity and so the creativity might not provide an escape from conditioned materialism. For genuine creatives there comes a feeling of arts-for-arts sake, and that is a path that is not materialsism.
As in the case of the creative the compassionate experience feelings that do not fit in with materialism; these feelings are drawn to sila - a compassionate and moral nature. Their compassion might take people to a position of anger against a system-of-accumulation when it sees how people are suffering because of the system - not the same anger as those who want more for themselves so they can cope. These compassion feelings might recognise that the materialist system creates harm but it does not have the deep conviction of path-awakening. There are many good people who spend their lives living through compassion without seeing a path. For such people the joy they get from compassionate work - helping others - is enough. Such compassionate people are closer to the path, often reject the vision-with-delusion but can compromise with the system as it enables their compassion; compromise does not help with awareness and awakening. Carers and teachers often live their lives sufficiently with the awareness feelings and joy that arises from their compassion without ever recognising path. This is sad because path-awareness and path-activism would bring more joy, certainty and strength when life is difficult.
Nature often brings with it a sense that there is more than materialism. For people who spend time alone in nature - away from human development, there can come a feeling of belonging that is different. There is nature that is beyond materialism. Try walking alone along paths that few walk. See a tree a short distance from the path. Go sit under that tree and look away from the path - away from human development. Just be in nature and then ask - is materialism enough?
Romantic love can bring with it human happiness and passion but there are so many conflicting factors involved in romantic love. Lovers can say that love is more than materialism but marriage associated with love is appropriated by the system as a means of conformity; family and home can be used as a means of conforming. Romantic walks in nature can often bring awareness of nature and oneness with nature but are these associated with romantic love or nature? Is it then awareness?
For some, romantic love opens up awareness of spiritual love - as part of the soul's journey to spiritual Unity. But the awareness and awakening associated with spiritual love might be confused if experienced in romantic love. Radical spiritual love brings awareness beyond materialist conformity when it focuses on loving yourself completely and then develops spiritual love.
These 4 key areas of creativity, compassion, nature and spiritual love arise from the seed-consciousness - consciousness expressing itself; if you experience any of these awarenesses then you are in a position where you could go beyond coping. But remember, awareness is not enough.
Awareness is not enough. Awareness and awakening could be seen as a correlation to the theory and practice of the path. Ideas come and go - as do thoughts. Feelings of awareness or thoughts associated with feelings of awareness can equally come and go. There is a need for embodiment of these feelings of awareness.
How can we develop this embodiment as awakening?
Through a Culture of Awakening
Maybe you have been fortunate. With the arising of these feelings of awareness there might well be sufficient people and reinforcement around that these awareness feelings start to become some kind of awakening on the path. With the support of people reinforcing your awareness, you can develop a practice so that your seed-consciousness can consolidate itself into awakening on the path. But without practice there is no path - just a collection of awarenesses. Once you become even partially awakened it never leaves you - that embodiment of awakening on the path never leaves you even if you stop practicing; awarenesses however can get lost in thoughts. It was just over 30 years between the time that zandtao became partially awakened and the time that he took early retirement to begin living his practice.
Culture of Awakening (CoA) is a rather grand term for the collection of individuals who accept awakening; you cannot find CoA in a database, as a term on facebook or other social media. You cannot take a bus to CoA, or fly a plane to a CoA destination or camp. But it exists as a sub-strata of personally-powerful people for whom the word path opens a door to much understanding. Connections to CoA happen through good fortune, happenstance meetings, amazing coincidences, and as such CoA is part of the awareness of consciousness. You might find a book or clip that elicits tremendous joy - perhaps even bliss, experiences that confirm for you there is more to life than any shallow merriment gained in materialist indulgence. Value the CoA and people you meet within it.
But joining a collection of people who follow particular approaches of awareness is still not enough - that is not embodiment, that is following. Awakening as embodiment of these feelings of awareness comes as a recognition inside of the path - through practice. What we awaken to is a path inside us that we are born with. The initial feelings of awareness that there is something other than materialist conformity are feelings of awareness of this path starting to become conscious - sneaking through the delusion. Being aware there is this path and awakening however partially is not the same. Through practice the individual has to experience the path to some extent - embody the path, not to simply be aware of a vague feeling of path, a vague feeling this materialism is not the way. There is a make-or-break interim of substantiation (however long) or consolidation between awareness and awakening. During this interim there are minor skirmishes between conditioning, upbringing, family and friends and this innate path inside you. Because of the lack of a mainstream Culture of Awakening the odds are stacked against you, however many people do awaken to the path - far less than those who have starting awarenesses sadly.
For those who accept the delusions associated with the system-of-accumulation yet have some awareness, they have a lack of conviction concerning path. The vague feelings of more-than-materialist awareness remain just that - a vagueness, whilst life continues within materialist conformity. One could consider these vague feelings as a lack of embodiment. For such people satisfaction with conformity might have been better than the spiritual doubt sneaking through the delusion, because that doubt would bring discomfort; consciously or unconsciously the individual chooses to cling to materialist conditioning - chooses to cling to what is known, what they know they can cope with.
Partial awakening is not all roses
Awakening leads to a conviction there is path - at least some level of embodiment of the path, but what is path at this stage might well be vague even though the embodied conviction is not. At this point individuals have become seekers for whom at a core-base to their lives is this path but if they do not practice seekers do not know what their path is - nor are they following their path. What they have is conviction that there is something other than materialist conformity - something beyond coping.
And here is where it is not all roses because whilst they have a partial awakening, conditioning around them mocks the spiritual path. Whilst that spiritual path is limited - limited embodiment - only a low-level conviction, a seeker does not necessarily know what to do to deflect the mockery - not all roses. But the partial awakening never leaves the seeker, and that at some stage they will return to the practice that brought the first partial awakening.
Enquiry erodes conditioning
When we erode the conditioning we expose the path to the vulnerability of the light of day - eroding conditioned delusion, if at the same time we can go through a process of embodiment through practice then we essentially are following our paths in daily life. A visualisation of our human nature is that we are born as this path - seed-consciousness, but that the path has become increasingly hidden by the conditioning that is built up and surrounds it during upbringing. As we erode that conditioning the path starts to shine through. At the point of awakened conviction sufficent of the path's light has shone through, that no amount of conditioning can submerge that light again.
The process that erodes conditioning is a practice of deep and genuine enquiry - a real desire to understand - ultimately to understand life - tathata. If we can abide on our paths then we will know what it's all for, but awareness is far from this abidance. We begin eroding conditioning by asking, we have to question what it's all for - one question at a time - and become determined to find deep and meaningful answers.
Enquiry can take many forms that can be delusional, to find deep and meaningful answers is not delusional. Up until the questioning on path there has been little genuine enquiry in our upbringings. In mainstream daily life such as politicians and journalism, we can watch interviews to see all kinds of questions being asked, none of which are intended to find answers nor are answers offered mostly. How do we know that our enquiry is producing deep and meaningful answers? When the path is convinced; we develop some kind of clarity as to what is meant by path-listening, deep-listening, listening-through-consciousness. Through enquiry our awareness becomes internalised using embodiment and consolidation leading to path conviction at whatever level - practice. We deeply know the answer is correct - try to feel that deep knowing.
How far does this enquiry go? One purpose of this enquiry is to end delusion yet sadly some level of delusion is always with us. Do we need to be in a state of permanent enquiry? Can you rely on any conditioning? Do we eschew everything we have learned? In some ways we must but if we do that we have to establish a new core way of living - abidance in practice, and that can be difficult.
For those people who move towards and then awaken on the path, they cannot live with any delusory acceptance. This path that includes permanent enquiry gets easier with time as conditioning recedes during that time. As the path illumines the depth of conditioning, the seeker starts to rely on themselves detached from conditioning, observing any conditioning with enquiry, and choosing how to live for themselves. For the conditioned this state of permanent enquiry sounds so difficult but once the seeker learns to trust the path - trust themselves on the path, life becomes so much easier - and better. It does however become hard to understand how so many people accept the conditioned level of delusion. They also start to see the truth in the vision-with-delusion, and move beyond coping.
It is somewhat amusing that in the West the system-of-accumulation has decided now to expose government as corrupt - especially as those governments have always been corrupt and are satrapies with the rich being puppet-masters. Usually the system-of-accumulation has created both sides of the two-tier political divide with delusions on both sides - the veil; currently political rhetoric is concerned with one side deriding the delusions of the other side, with the rage this rhetoric is becoming increasingly vitriolic. Meanwhile the richer get richer in their system, and the wars continue. One way of responding to this with your own embodiment is - is pathtivism your choice of embodiment?
Let's be very clear about what happens when we question everything, it leaves us in a difficult position in terms of system-of-accumulation acceptance - with the potential difficulty of satisfying needs such as shelter, food and money. However the path does provide, it is necessary to trust the path in this way. Initially when conditioning is removed and we see delusions for what they are, it becomes hard to see a way forward. Depending on the speed of awakening, a seeker will have had the core basis of their upbringing removed yet they still need money to survive in daily life within the system. For the seeker however less money is needed as their enquiry has led them away from the greed of the system-of-accumulation, the seeker is not atrracted by materialism.
There is a difficult transition to make, the transition from relying on the system of their upbringing to relying on the path - which although being substantive does not initially appear so - especially if you are affected by the derision of the system and its conditioning. The more the seeker becomes convinced of the path the easier life becomes, and that conviction comes from developing a practice that includes enquiry.
Practice enables path and joy in life
Chapter 2 starts to look at how zandtao developed his practice. But his practice is not the only way, each seeker must find their own practice and dedicate their lives to that practice. That is the way we learn to survive and enjoy life in the system-of-accumulation.
Let's be clear, practice helps us follow our paths and clear away the delusions of conditioning. We have discussed an important aspect of practice - enquiry, but enquiry tends to be concerned with awareness and wisdom - knowing the system-of-accumulation for what it is. But practice is far more than this knowing.
To be honest zandtao’s khandhas (see
Ch2 Being Dedicated to Practice
) find it hard to say that the practice can be other than meditation but recently his meditation of freedom from the 3 restrictions is so different to his earlier days that it makes it easier to say "Not One Way". zandtao suggests that a practice iunclude the following components:-
These 8 core components grew out of the z-quest on
Secular Path?. They were developed throughout that book but particularly in Ch11 when considering
Culture of Awakening in zandtao's path. Whilst the development of these components started in zandtao's Buddhist practice, as components they don't require any Buddhist beliefs or Buddhist understanding. As will become clear in Ch2 the conviction of the path only develops with a good practice, but hopefully seekers will get to see that practice is the only requirement whatever form it takes. Practice enables the path, turning conviction into path and turning awareness to awakening and embodiment.
When a seeker begins their practice it would be worth asking if the 8 components are part of that practice.
Path of nature has morality, Unity and Love
So far we have examined path as developing in an individual. In upbringing a child develops self-esteem through a process of conditioning, and becomes part of the materialist society - they are being conditioned to wage-slavery within the system-of-accumulation. For some conditioned people the delusion falls away, they become aware and can start to awaken to the path if they develop embodiment and follow a practice. None of this really talks about what the path is - so far it has only been mentioned that we are born with the path as seed-consciousness, and that during upbringing it becomes surrounded by conditioning that hopefully an individual can break through.
Put simplistically:- we are born to follow our paths. If we accept existence of path then there is purpose only if the origins of path give purpose. Path comes from nature - Gaia-nature. Imagine yourself as Gaia, Gaia-consciousness lives to develop and as part of that development lifeforms on Gaia follow paths that come from Gaia-nature. If all beings on Gaia follow their paths then life on Gaia is optimal. Sadly humanity rarely follows their paths but instead live in a system-of-accumulation that is destroying Gaia. For those who accept this there is existential concern for humanity, Gaia will not allow herself to be destroyed so if humanity continues in its destructive ways then Gaia will find a way to control humanity.
Intrinsic to this path there are a number of factors that lead to living in harmony. First and perhaps foremost the path has a code of morality that enables people to live together in harmonious society, this code is not part of the system-of-accumulation. We have already discussed instincts that sadly are misdirected by conditioning but following the path brings with it so many qualities - truth, honour, compassion, harmony etc. - as part of a good practice these qualities are intentionally developed. If paths with these qualites were followed, system-of-accumulation and the intro-visions would be very different - there would be a compassionate world where people lived in harmony - no wars, and Gaia would not be on a road with so much possible destruction.
Coping - Satisfied with Delusion
Books:-