Engagement
Falling up was going in one ear and out the other; it was just true. Once you get through her complex style of explanation all she says is true, but recognising this truth was not going anywhere especially as the purpose of zandtao reading this book was Ch5 on consciousness. The key to the engagement is in her title “Falling Up: A Path to Self-realization”, as this is telling me it is about zandtao’s total zeer vision - rather than a waiting for consciousness for Ch5. It will be the whole of thezeer, and this might mean additions but mostly it means engagement when reading - why is this not part of thezeer? At the same time there was clearly pathtivism so in this engagement zandtao will specify pathtivism so as to include in Ch6. Back to the beginning again!!
Meaning of Falling - P
“Each of us has a peculiar relationship with life itself. Some need to fall in order to rise. Some choose to rise in order to experience the fall. Some choose to avoid the dormant yearning to rise altogether, while others are willing to pursue it at any cost, even if that means traversing chaos and discomfort along the way” [p.1 ln48].
This includes a lot for path recognition including the majority who are dormant avoiders, for zandtao the first sentence is “Each of us has a peculiar relationship with path itself”. The path is there and we choose not to engage with it - avoid engagement.
Human Potential - P
“Some of us have never even wondered about the depth of human potential, failing to consider whether being human is simply a matter of experiencing our physical template or whether it is more of a demonstration of how we choose to live up to the potential of the human essence. All of us can actualize this potential if we choose to rise to the challenge of self-actualization and realize the purpose that creates a reason for the human experience” [pp. 1-2 ln55]. This potential is significant in what pathtivism is about, it is this potential that nature has created and wants us to use for harmony. It is the purpose of consciousness in daily life.
Human conditioning - P
We have to understand there is conditioning. “Many of us experience this journey in a way that we feel is beyond us, informed by our environment, our predecessors, our ancestors, our parents, or society that conditions us to believe we must rise up to the challenge of experiencing our humanness by conforming to preformed expectations, standards, and conditions to live up to some ideal that was created by those who came before us” [p 2 ln59]. This is the conditioning of Buddhism, it is the agreement of the Toltec 4 Agreements (Addon) LINK, but it is more accurate to describe this conditioning as conformity; whilst conditioning is a timeless process as described by the Buddha it is met as conformism. As a term conditioning has more of a programming description than agreement but what is happening is conformity in terms of daily life. At the same time we have to recognise that this conformity is not exclusively concerned with daily life, conditioning goes far beyond this. This is what is recognised in pathtivism, conditioning conforms but it also avoids the path. When we consider the soul of the path - the graces of the directions and skills of consciousness, directions as love, wisdom, sila and truth and skills as mindfulness, focus and embodiment, then we can see how much conditioning limits human potential and natural harmony, how much conditioning fits the societal infrastructure and limits the potential of the human infrastructure (see intro-visions).
Dimming our light of purpose - P
“Many of us are raised believing we're each a tiny speck in this collective conglomerate. We may appear insignificant relative to the human race since we are just one out of billions of other beings trying to make sense of our role on the planet. However, this programming model creates the kind of separation that dims our light, deprives us of our power, and causes us to miss the point of our human experience” [p. 2 ln64]. For us to see our purpose in daily life the implications of this conditioning need to be understood. When we are separate we have ego, and this ego wants solutions - grand solutions - solving whatever problems. Ego does not want to see that our path is enough, and sadly that our path is all that we can contribute. Sadly is also arrogant here, it is sad that we can only follow our paths but it is not natural for us to control the behaviour of others. Each person follows their own path, makes their own decisions, avoids their path or not; despite how much our ego might want to a person cannot impose decisions on another. This is where the ego of dictatorship begins - feeling our own decisions are superior and feeling we have the right to impose on others. And there is then the Clivego that says if I can’t make the world better I won’t bother with my bit, and the Clivego just makes matters worse because all with the Clivego don’t follow their purpose, don’t develop their potential and don’t develop natural harmony.
With ego there is separation, with soul there is unity and focus on our own human potential that comes with natural harmony.
Natural Duty - P
The problem with ego and the separation it causes is that it does not see the point of performing natural duty - what is in it for the ego?, and this quickly leads to the situation of what’s it all for? described in the intro-vision of societal infrastructure. “Although many people are awakening to their power worldwide, our planet is still engulfed in the shadows of violence, poverty, war, and disempowerment. All these elements of the collective shadow should be feeding the creation of solutions, but alas, groupthink has it that we should care more about ourselves as individuals rather than as collective stewards of change. We may excuse ourselves from being part of the solution by believing we are here to deal only with the issues presented along our paths, ignoring what is seemingly outside of our control” [p. 3 ln 13]. The collective shadow that is creating the defilement that gabiK described comprises of egos, and we should understand shadow on an individual level and how it contributes to the collective shadow that are these defilements of war, etc. Contemporary ref - our collective pathtivist inactivity has led to US under Trump thinking they have the right to move the Palestinians after providing the weapons that bombed them - how grossly inhuman!!
Perpetuate through status quo - P
“We perpetuate the issue without even realizing we can be part of the solution! In doing so, we intensify the problem. If we submit unconsciously to the status quo reality of division, we feed duality through our inability to create unity. This is so important to recognize because the world is changing, but many of us are not. There is a collective reluctance to truly synergize, integrate love, and choose to claim the deeper purpose of conscious evolution, preventing this evolution from taking the form it can” [p. 3 ln82]. This is exactly why it is so important to recognise the conditioning of conformity within the context of the societal infrastructure. What’s it all for? has been reduced societally to an economic system that profits the 1%. This is such a ludicrous fundamental core to what we do. So there has to be a great deal of delusion to ensure that systemically this core is what is accepted; that is the need for us to conform as wage-slaves and how much conditioning is required for us to accept that.
If this status quo is understood we can see the ludicrous nature of general delusion; wars etc. so that the 1% can increase accumulation they don’t need - such egoic greed. But that understanding is not a solution but a starting point. When we can see the fundamental core of societal infrastructure we can see that no more do we want to contribute to such a perversion. Then quite naturally sampajanna steps in, knows that we cannot accept such a ludicrous situation, and asks what to do to enable change. If we allow the ego to ask for a panacea then we know there will be no answer, and the ego will just promote its own survival and there will be no change to this ludicrous fundamental core. But if we release the ego then we can also see that nature gives us the answer - follow our path, and following collectively is the source of change.
Will we see results? Not necessarily, that is further fuel for the ego to delude. Can we know that the path is the answer? Quite simply - yes. We just need the conviction arising from the path, and stop being deluded by the aspect of conditioning that promotes the ego through creating a shadow of futility.
“You may hear a cynical voice in your mind telling you nothing can be done about it. Or perhaps, “Who am I to think that I can change the world in any way?” These, too, are thoughts created by the critical ego that sabotages that purposeful way through its limiting beliefs that sustain fear and disillusionment. Because of the oppressive personality of the ego, the collective shadow remains charged by every disempowered soul who has lost faith in their ability to take empowered action, honor their purpose, uncover their gifts, give rise to their authentic self, and do whatever it takes to bring this innate power into physical form to contribute in their own way to global peace. Every seemingly insignificant act of imbalance caused by every individual is deepening the divide that we see today” [p. 3 ln84].
Conditioned delusion - P
“Far too prevalent is emptiness disguised as fulfillment, sorrow hidden by satisfaction, outer riches concealing inner poverty, and external popularity covering inner loneliness. The divide in today’s world is a startling manifestation of the internal divide that the majority of human beings experience within themselves without even realizing how they project these splits in their outer reality. Most of us don't take it upon ourselves to consider how our unconsciousness maintains the collective unconsciousness, and that may just be what we are here to discover” [p4 ln94]. We see a world that is divided left and right but we don’t see that world as divided between forces for or against unity. Yet this colonial practice of divide and rule is becoming more and more common-place within our western societies - as opposed to a strategy for colonial subjugation; it has become a strategy of subjugation within western society.
A Strategy of Compassion - P
Spiritual recognition and then spiritual unity could help clarify the root of this societal division or in daily life we could simply be compassionate. However the lack of compassion that arises through conditioning is perhaps too difficult to withstand without the spiritual path. We could use the graces of the directions and skills of consciousness and the tools that come with a sound spiritual practice to become compassionate - or perhaps we could overcome the conditioning another way, but being compassionate in daily life is the objective - where we need to be at. Quite clearly social reality and societal decision-making are not based in compassion at the moment although individually many people try to live compassionate lives. This cannot be changed through one beneficent panacea but comes about through the collective development of societal consciousness towards compassion; this is the natural way. It is a matter of personal reflection and enquiry, are we compassionate? Can we bring compassion more into our lives? Can we help build compassion? If we work hard at building compassion throughout our integrated individuality and promote societal compassion then we are doing the best we can.
Honesty without Deception - P
But this requires a deep and discerning honesty with ourselves but through conditioning we have delusion rather than the necessary honesty with ourselves to see whether our actions are compassionate. For zandtao compassion came through practice eventually leading to autonomy that then recognised the purpose of consciously loving and evolving consciousness. There are many paths to compassion but all need a deep and discerning honesty backed up by a deep commitment to implementing this compassion in daily life. Given the way conditioning currently is, it is the embodiment of compassion in daily life that is perhaps the hardest to achieve. Given all the delusions that conditioning puts in the way of this compassion we need nature’s help and that is why zandtao promotes pathtivism. The path provides us with the conviction and discernment to withstand the delusions that conditioning places in the way. It is nature’s way, and as such has the compassion, unity and harmony built into it by natural design; where nature is concerned there need be no ontological intellectual diversions or systems or ditthis (ditthupadana). Nature’s way is the way of compassion, unity and harmony, the way of unity as opposed to the divisions dominating western society at the moment.
gabiK’s Rallying call - P
“This book will be a journey facilitating your evolution, my dear reader. I encourage you to surrender to your own heart as you take in these words, feel the energy of these intentions, and allow them to infuse your spirit with more faith, acceptance, and love so that you can embrace all of life's challenges challenges as gifts, bringing you into closer alignment with your own soul and its sacred purpose along our collective journey” [p6 ln110]. Replacing “this book” in this quote with pathtivism or following the path is the same rallying call that zandtao would shout out.
Grassroots Rallying Call - P
But for zandtao the emphasis for pathtivism is different because his rallying call is directed to grassroots activists. When it comes to activism activists focus on a cause whether it is the grander class change or a particular focus such as oxycontin and the Sacklers (see Dopesick). Usually activists demand a perspective from each other - typically a Marxist perspective (even though within activism there is a markedly different understanding of what Marx wrote). Essentially this perspective could be considered a ditthi, and that activists demand a particular ditthi (ditthupadana).
In non-Buddhist terms activists demand of each other to believe a perspective or set of ideals or a system or an ism, and encumbered in this demand is a level of division when there is not agreement as to the system (or ditthis). Especially amongst groups of Marxists there is a sense that activists should believe in certain Marxist ideals, work together in a certain way, and failure to do so indicates a level of lacking commitment. Inherent within this type of activism is division, and considering the power and influence of accumulation such divided activism creates potential downfall.
For pathtivists the emphasis is not on the cause or the system, the emphasis is on personal development whilst maintaining a focus on the need for social activism. Very few people in general dispute that there is no need for change, but dispute arises as to how. Within that dispute there might arise the ego that there is nothing that can be done, or with others my cause is more important than your cause, or with some your cause is not valid because of the organisation your cause is in (eg Marxists not working with religious activism on social inequity).
The commonality for pathtivists is not the cause that they are active in nor is it a system of ideals, it is however a focus on ongoing personal development the consequence of which is some form of societal activism. A chance meeting might be - how is your practice developing and what are you active in now? In such an approach there is no separation within compassion. Compassion gives rise to a particular cause based on the individual’s upbringing and lifestyle, the personal development of a pathtivist will lead to organisational skills, and the individual pathtivist will then be a valuable activist for that particular cause.
Pathtivists would then balance their time as to their own personal development and commitment to the social activity - whilst also having to earn money to live (and feed family?). There is an unwritten assumption amongst most activists, they believe that they have seen through conditioning - even if they don’t call it conditioning. The left and right swap insults such as sheeple in which their own disunities talk of the other not seeing the way they are programmed. From bill’s experience the left did not throw off their conditioning, they threw off some of the conformity of their upbringing. But once they were aligned with a particular leftist cause they failed to develop personally, and did not further explore the conditioning and conformity of their upbringing. Rather than the reaction to conformity being a starting process in transcendence - the end of being conditioned, these leftists remained conditioned to a significant extent demonstrating this conditioning by becoming attached to a particular systemic view and the way to challenge it.
zandtao has observed this on the left so can talk of it from that experience. With regards to the right he has no experience but does not view their adherence to views as being beneficial. Neither of these left or right activists are working towards unity, at best the left are working towards a unity so long as all believe a particular doctrine. It is not compassionate to expect all to believe the same, and it is also not natural to demand of others that they believe what you believe. People must follow their own path, and if we show tolerance there is a process towards unity. And rooted in that tolerance for pathtivists is the understanding that nature’s paths will bring compassion, unity and harmony.
Paraphrasing gabiK pathtivism will be a journey facilitating your evolution, my dear reader. I encourage you to surrender to your own heart as you take in these words, feel the energy of these intentions, and allow them to infuse your spirit with more faith, acceptance, and love so that you can embrace all of life's challenges challenges as gifts, bringing you into closer alignment with your own soul and its sacred purpose along our collective journey. Within the life of a pathtivist life’s challenges would involve social activism and a cause to produce change. Trust in the soul means that there would be inherent discernment concerning the cause for change, and attributes such as feel the energy of these intentions, and allow them to infuse your spirit with more faith, acceptance, and love will provide the strength and vitality to help change the societal infrastructure whilst at the same time building unity amongst activists.
Technofud:-
Understanding Change in Societal Infrastructure
As a pathtivist it is essential to understand changes in societal infrastructure. Following our paths requires an understanding of societal and human infrastructure, but when it comes to pathtivism we need an understanding of methodology for change. This can come under two considerations - mindful consuming and mindful labour.
Looking at a simplified traditional Marxist model - traditional economic model, an individual used their labour to create surplus value and there was a struggle between owners and labour as to who got that surplus value. As an individual the wage was the product of that labour and we were conditioned to spend that wage in a certain way of consuming. Advertising and marketing tried to condition us as to how we spent those wages.
Over the years accumulation has expanded beyond this simplified model in order to expand accumulation. This was done through stock markets where various financial mechanisms were used to increase accumulation. This could be seen in terms of futures derivatives etc., all of which were not based on surplus value and were not based on an actual product. The result is there was an increase in accumulation without any change in available products. This left the economic system vulnerable.
Going beyond this finance institutions began to see new ways to engender the servitude of wage-slavery. To buy a house was beyond the actual available currency in an individual family so institutions developed debt strategies. It became acceptable for families to go into debt to buy a house, and as a result their wage slavery was guaranteed.
The 2008 crash misused this debt mechanism. Originally banks were constrained by regulations and common sense. The amount a bank could lend initially depended on the gold standard, the amount of money banks could lend depended in some way on the amount of gold that backed up the money. But banks wanted to make more profits, and knew that they could increase their own profits if there was increased debt. So regulations were introduced to enable increased debt, typically a house could not be bought unless the price was less than 4 times joint annual salaries. Soon banks found this too restrictive and the regulatory practices got less and less. Unscrupulous lending practices were significant in the 2008 crash as humorously explained by John Bird and John Fortune.
Nations have a role in this economic system. Increased accumulation arises through wider markets, increased resources and cheaper labour. In the US cheap labour was originally slaves, but this then changed to migrant labour - cheaper than the typical US member of the working class. Whilst this labour was enabled by the government at the behest of industry, the majority of people scapegoat this cheaper labour as being the problem when it is the owners who wanted the cheaper labour in the first place. Similarly in the UK the political system is dominated by the issue of immigration. This immigration was caused by colonialism, introduction of cheaper post-war labour - rather than wages being governed by supply and demand, and this century following the US model of bringing in cheap labour claiming there were not enough people to do the work. This was never done for the benefits of the British people but for the owners.
Colonialism arose so that the UK could get the resources not available for the industrial revolution on the small island. Historically it had always been acceptable to plunder for gold and other aspects of wealth, what was originally done by the navy of pirates such as Drake and Raleigh became commonplace as colonialism sometimes using missionaries and providing development as an excuse. Colonialism demanded taxes thus ensuring barter economies had to die out as the colonised were forced to pay taxes. One excuse for taxation was the roads, presented as a benefit for the people but primarily developed to transport goods back to the hegemony.
And once people were brought into moneyed economies they also became moneyed consumers - market place. Businesses did not have the colonial might so government instructed their military whilst businesses benefited. Wars were fought for control of these resources and markets - the First World War ostensibly being the division of the African cake. Whilst Germany lost the war the country was never decimated nor was the government changed significantly as the war was about African resources. Soon Germany became economically powerful again - often through investment famously the US Bushes, and a new war started. This was manipulated by the design of Bretton Woods and the marshall plan leading to the US hegemony the world lives under now. That hegemony wages war through NATO expansion and control of oil resources.
Within this infrastructure the owners have been increasing the profits from production through automation. This has meant that the need for human labour to create production has decreased. This has placed increased burdens on nations and their taxation as fewer people are working and paying taxes yet there are more people unemployed and needing these taxes to survive. On top of this BIG business is now refusing to pay taxes showing that government does not control business.
Where people consume is changing as the market places are increasingly online thus creating BIGtech. The business model for online profit-making is clickbait. An individual watches content and is then subject to marketing. Follow the money. Because these BIGtech companies are so profitable it shows that the business model is a success. Labour produces content but is it always paid? My current favourite reels - these gorgeous Chinese triplets, how are they paid? Yet their content is attracting consumers to facebook reels, and somehow Meta profits. It is hard to see the connections. When we go to a shop and buy a product we can see the consuming connections, and how the various players profit - the producer shopowner etc. When I view the gorgeous triplets it is hard to see profit yet if you follow the money you know that Meta is making huge profits - hope the family of the girls get good money through advertising deals etc. But it is hard to know when compared to the traditional consumer connections.
When I watch content on youtube I am forced to watch adverts so the financial connection is there. Whilst I still have difficulty connecting the content-watching to profit-making following the money recognises the huge profits Google makes. And at the Trump inauguration the platform was full of BIGtech.
As a pathtivist we must consider our mindful consuming and mindful labour. Since upheaval bill has always resisted advertising although as a child he probably applied consumer pressure on the limited funds of his parents. In the UK how many kids force their parents to pay for football kits of their favourite teams? How unnecessary is this? Yet they are expensive and an integral part of the profits of teams. Advertising works especially when targeted at unmindful consumers such as kids. .zandtao consumes. Technology is significant in his consumption. Computers for writing, and computers, big screens and storage for entertainment; it is not mindful. When does mindful consuming stop and conditioned consumerism take over? How we consume is the essential control that we have. How much are we influenced by clickbait? Can we control it?
***follow this up and consider mindful labour
Mindful Labour:-
Mindful Labour
This first concerns the labour of the 99% - at whatever level of non-ownership you are in. It is important to see clearly whether you are 99% or not - there are only 2 classes based around ownership and level of accumulation. Small business owners are not 1% - they do not have the level of accumulation to exert influence by its investment. If you are an employee in a transnational - labourer or middle management you are employed, have limited accumulation, and can be fired at will. There must be a line in the transnational the crossing of which the person has the accumulation and power to influence global capital flow and decision-making but zandtao does not know where that line is as he has never been a part of transnational structure. For most people conditioning encourages you to think that your identity is with the 1% as a tactic of division; this conditioning particularly applies to the top level of transnational, middle-classes and small business owners. The reality is that we are 99%, and accepting our position in the societal infrastructure is the first step in effecting change.
The 1% are also conditioned even though they benefit in terms of consuming and other benefits from influence and conditioned responses to that influence. Because of our conditioning we believe that the 1% are happy but in my view they generally are not. Other than media betrayals zandtao does not know the 1% so this is speculation but within the societal infrastructure they have accrued great power and influence so if this is not implemented skilfully that responsibility will start to weigh heavily. From the outside it is hard to see evidence for this.
However zandtao addresses the 99% because that is the class he has always belonged to. In terms of labour the 99% are wage-slaves. Within the infrastructure there are various tactics used to divide the 99% but these tactics do not change the basic nature of the wage-slavery. A person’s labour has 2 components:-
Money for survival
Labour for social responsibility
Our labour is our means of survival. But our conditioning encourages us to go to be “successful” in other words go beyond our survival level to have a “better standard of living”. How far we accept the “better standard” influence is a matter of personal assessment, but there is a constant pressure to earn more to spend more. And this constant pressure encourages us to earn more to seek escapism - often leading to addiction.
But our labour is also our means of community improvement or duty. Ideally our community improvement or duty would be carried out as part of our waged involvement. But in reality that waged involvement is usually directed to profit-making for the accumulators.
What we are dealing with in terms of community improvement and duty is compromise; how much compromise are we forced to make to obtain money for survival? If we are part of the business community we tend to be focussed on our work to avoid the cutthroat issues that develop in business. Usually such people are forced to limit their caring to their family. This is a difficult compromise as business tends to be focussed on profit, and the consequences of such profit-making can cause social problems such as damaging environment. The top level (1%) make the decisions that leads to such damage; at lower levels the direct impact of their decision-making is limited. Typically middle management would see the environmental damage but would be unable to effect change without risking their employment. At the production level people have the power of withdrawal of labour. However this power has steadily been diminished by restrictions on trade unions and the increasing automation that reduces the dependence of profits on human labour; middle management have usually been completely compromised and can usually be relied upon to maintain automatic profit-making production.
Many people try to choose caring professions as their means of community involvement or duty. Whilst these professionals are needed the institutions are intentionally underfunded but they do provide sufficient consumer power. Because of the underfunding the institutions these caring people work in do not function well - they passably function, and are never sufficiently funded to enable change. In the Matriellez book zandtao soon after retiring described his own teaching and the restrictions placed on his compassion during his teaching life. At the end he saw himself completely compromised; despite his own initial compassion direction, in the end all he was doing was funding his early retirement. Whilst teaching ought to be a profession for compassion and change the societal infrastructure ensures that those with vocation can never impact educational direction. .zandtao suspects similar in other caring professions.
Most peoples’ labour are directed towards the accumulation aspect of the infrastructure, and the support services are optimally financed to ensure that people can contribute to the world of work. In the healing profession there are health services not geared to proper holistic healing but sufficient healing that they can return to work eg antibiotics. In education people are given sufficient information and develop sufficient skills that they can be used in the world of work. However there is no indication that education will ever provide critical thinking that would enable change - such thinking will be developed in the transnational where the hidden factors maintain the control. Critical thinking within the school-aged is so difficult to control.
In school they provide the illusion of choice through careers - and this illusion of career choice is maintained throughout life. But there is never a situation where an individual can make effective change - as the appalling US delusion says “make a difference”.
So the infrastructure forces the caring into activism beyond work. It is the world of work that causes life’s problems - the extinction events, yet within that world there is unlikely to be effective change currently because the 1% appear not to be questioning themselves and they have the power. Political and grassroots activism is not within that sphere of influence, they are outside trying to look in and make a change. Activism functions mainly as an escape valve, a way of letting-off steam for the activist and a way for the system to say there is activism but people are not sufficiently interested. Current activism - political and grassroots - is unlikely to be able to alter the current infrastructure although they do make some changes - most conceded, some fought for.
Within the sphere of activism there are various inaccurate analyses. zandtao is particularly concerned with the delusions surrounding socialism (inc Marxism and communism). History has shown that revolution as class change cannot be long term effective. In the end many people died without any significant long-term power change (see Eckhart addon). There are 2 reasons. Firstly in a system where money buys success it requires a level of commitment amongst all participants, and participants can be bought off; such a level of commitment that resists financial bribery is a delusion. Class change also requires a commitment of most of the class, given the level of conditioning such a commitment cannot happen.
At this point apathy seems the logical conclusion. If class change - proper democracy - was the objective then it cannot happen. It requires a lifetime of delusion to consider that class change through overthrow can occur.
So there is pathtivism in which there is no delusion. Yes there is an ideal. If all people followed their paths there would be a form of natural utopia. But pathtivism as nature is evolutionary, it is concerned with the evolution of consciousness - follow your path to conscious love and consciousness is consciously evolved. But that is not the only plus. There are what can be called the fruits of the path. As we follow our path we evolve and we get the fruits that are joy and peace that come with that evolution - a selfish motivation if you like. But part of that path is embodiment so when we follow our paths and bring embodiment into daily life there is community improvement and quite often that can bring some level of joy. But to be honest in terms of social evolution and seeing change, the reality of pathtivism is that we get the joy that comes from fulfilling our duty - it is right!! Pathtivism as with the path itself requires discipline. A pathtivist cannot expect for conscious social activism to bring joy of success - the societal infrastructure and its conditioning will not allow that.
Our activism becomes our duty, and it is a lifetime commitment without societal reward. There are fruits on the path but embodiment will not bring those rewards. What we have to understand is that awareness and embodiment are the yin and yang of the path. If we pursue awareness only that will be possible for a while but ultimately leads to spiritual bypassing. If we pursue embodiment only then ego will develop - either egos from success or egos that come from failure. The suffering in embodiment is part of the development of the path. We need awareness that comes from study, learning from practice - meditation or otherwise, and learning from embodiment with its societal failures but with many personal interactions that are rewarding.
One could argue that embodiment is a sacrifice but there will always be some personal interactions that bring joy. But the real joy of the path comes from following and that brings nature’s fruits - those fruits can seduce into spiritual bypassing so beware. And we follow the path because it brings with it the conviction that can cope with societal suffering. Following the path and pathtivism are tautological. The purpose of introducing pathtivism as a term is to avoid the bypassing, and to ensure that the path that includes the embodied activism that comes with clear understanding.
Practical Considerations for Mindful Labour
In terms of your labour what does conditioning want? What does conformity want? The societal infrastructure wants the more able to perpetuate the system - that is the conformity. For these individuals they want the training on the corporate ladder or in the investment of the city, and their community involvement focussed on their families, the upbringing of which will lead to conformity in the next generation. For the 1% they want the healers and educators to be the best so there is financed private care but for others there are financial obstacles to good health and education. For the poor systemically there is little more than survival.
Where is the choice in this? Enable your compassion, and choose your working life to be compassionate; encourage others to be compassionate. Whilst you know such labour will never be financially rewarding you can know it is mindful labour. Avoid careerism as careerism is just a conforming process - keeping your mind focussed on more for yourself whilst building accumulation. For those who are free to be compassionate in their labour look around for the “most compassion”.
And perhaps the most community-oriented is to use your labour in a commune. Whilst your labour is not then being used for the wider community working in a commune could well be a mindful way of using your labour. Economically a commune has less involvement with the societal infrastructure, and whilst the material benefits of a commune are likely to be limited much can be gained in terms of harmony in a skilful commune whose ethos is compassion.
Mindful Consuming
Mindful consuming has two broad categories:-
Mindful Consuming for Personal development
Mindful Consuming for Evolving Society
When we consider mindful consuming for personal development we are primarily looking at consuming for physical, emotional and mental health; in truth if we do this we are also evolving society. It needs to be recognised that what is sold as food contains toxins. These toxins are introduced for various reasons within the food production process to enable profits. Preservatives can be toxic. Antibiotics are introduced into meat and egg production to control disease in the inhuman way we keep our animals for food, if we choose to eat meat and eggs for health reasons or otherwise mindful consuming demands free range. If meat and eggs are not consumed for health reasons there needs to be a strong case why consuming is not vegan. Foods contain addictive additives such as sugar, aspartame, MSG and others. Perhaps the worst aspect of this toxic production is that BIGfood addicts children to sugar. It is hard for parents to prevent children becoming addicted to sugar given all the advertising that addicts children to sugar products.
When we eat these profit-enabling foods the toxicity affects our health on all levels - physical in terms of disease, emotional reactions to the toxins in our bodies and possible mental consequences to the introduction of toxins such as sugar addiction.
Consuming food for health is not easy. Whilst supermarkets offer wide varieties of choice, one of them is not usually organic. We can also be presented with luscious choices for vegetables but bulbous colour is often created through added water. Socially people who ask for a healthy diet can be marked out in a social gathering, and this can have a big impact if those gatherings are connected with careers. This has improved in bill’s lifetime but consuming for health can lead to some level of conflict.
Given the level of toxicity in our diets there becomes a healing component. When this is added to the huge levels of issues concerning well-being we have to consider what is the medical response. There are many concerns with toxic drugs that BIGpharma offers for mental well-being as well as coping with disease. What we take to heal also needs to be a concern for mindful consuming. It is difficult to assess what is appropriate for illness and disease as BIGpharma is deeply involved in the health pipeline from medical education to providing doctors with the drugs through medical reps. Mindful healing is a whole book in itself but zandtao has only sufficient knowledge to flag it as an aspect of mindful consuming.
This brief mention of mindful consuming for personal, emotional and mental well-being is a mere flag, a pathtivist needs to make an effort to understand their own consuming and well-being. Encouraging others to be mindful in what they consume is evolving in itself. For the conformed to question their own consuming of food and medicine might open their eyes to the level of conditioning, and how integral it is to the lack of care and morality in profit-making. Activism is not simply about an ideal, it is well-being by example.
Consuming as escapism is also a huge problem in society - we might include this as mental well-being. When we look at movies we constantly see positive images connected to the consuming of alcohol. It is very rare for a social engagement such as a date not to include alcohol; given the level of sexual abuse that occurs the last thing a person needs to be clear headed enough to give consent is alcohol. Alcohol to a certain level is considered acceptable yet alcohol is toxic. Marijuana might well be less toxic yet it is still an illegal drug. There are many illegal drugs available for escapism, each with varying levels of addiction and degradation attached to them. Mindful consuming would not choose these.
Different aspects of mindful consuming can provide good campaigning collective action for a pathtivist. In such campaigning it is important to try to broaden the understanding of the campaigners to the path itself, the ability of the mind to fragment focusing positively on one issue whilst ignoring or even burying other issues is something to be aware of. A pathtivist needs integration as do people s/he works with.
Along with mindful labour, mindful consuming is the most effective way of evolving society given that the societal infrastructure at the moment cannot have a class change. Whilst the 1% uses mechanisms to increase their accumulation, these mechanisms are based around ongoing income through consuming expenditure. Such mechanisms are based on predictive income, and therefore it is to the benefit of the 1% to control and expand your expenditure.
Within recent accumulation, capitalism that grew beyond feudalism, this control was gained through advertising. And in recent times that advertising in the West has been geared to the nuclear family. Whilst nature fits into a nuclear family such nature and family functions better through an extended family. There is greater consuming within nuclear families, and no ageing wisdom to resist indulgent consuming. Given the traditional emphasis on the nuclear family - worker, homemaker with caring duties for the children, there was a level of predicted expenditure that meant these mechanisms for increased accumulation could flourish.
This advertising has now become computer-driven algorithms in which expenditure can be more closely monitored and in some ways the algorithm can began to choose the way you spend. Resisting the algorithm is mindful.
|
text 