In  we looked at how awareness arises; and how, through practice and holding space for consciousness, we could start to embrace Unity-consciousness developing the purpose of consciously loving and evolving consciousness. We might consider this our inner journey. But from awareness there is another journey, the path takes - our outer journey - from awareness to embodiment; we might consider this our outer spiritual journey - a part of our outer societal journey as a whole. Because our upbringing of conditioning and conformity focuses on the outer emphasising survival through self-esteem, as we mature and release conditioning and conformity it is quite natural to focus on the inner journey from awareness to conscious purpose. Through our inner journeys we learn the importance of awareness - the conditioned absence of awareness, and we then encourage the inner journey of awareness for others; almost instinctively this encouragement becomes our embodiment - part of our outer spiritual journey. Helping others become aware is embodiment as teaching - advising. Embodiment is a natural part of the path - as awareness arises we wish to pass it on, but is that sufficient for embodiment?
No new work is required from our awareness to have the desire to help others become aware, we feel it as a natural characteristic of awareness. Once we start to become aware, we gain the fruits of that awareness and our spiritual joy wants to pass it on. It is perfectly natural to want to scream and shout at the world the wonders of the path, this might be considered a natural embodiment. Such instinctive evangelising is not necessarily a good idea as following on from first grace (Addon C ) there is much to be learnt - however advanced is that awakening; this was discussed as inflation here [BZ find place in Batgap interview with Angel Ife]. At the same time we must know that individuals learn only when they are ready, and then it is their determination that teaches - guiding themselves to appropriate teachers or otherwise. How much is the instinctive reaction of inflation for our own benefit? Given the plethora of wise teachings should we consider a change in embodiment?
 Culture of Awareness (CoA)
When zandtao says there is a plethora of teachings out there it might be considered that once there is awareness the rest is easy because of the plethora. This is far from the case, and it is important to understand what are the restrictions on developing awareness. Try listening to the various awareness histories discussed at Batgap to gain an understanding of the magnitude of these restrictions.
Previously zandtao has discussed this as society lacking a culture of awareness; on this website zandtao’s writings include overcoming these restrictions as a theme throughout. Fundamentally zandtao feels the lack of teachings is not an issue, there are plenty of books and websites - and there are also the established religions. However each path is individual, and reading about another's path can spark an insight.
Myriad Teachings
For a moment please hold judgement on the premise that there is no lack of teachers or teachings - you might feel this is the case or not, and put yourself in the place of the emerging seeker. In a sense it is the very diverse nature of the path that presents difficulties for such a seeker as there is no one way. Which teachings does the seeker choose? And in some ways the myriad choices are the problem especially as many of the institutions associated with spiritual development make the false claim that their way is the only way; with such false claims the path is not complete. Which teachings are correct? In some situations it is the established religious institution that the seeker rejects as part of rejecting conformity; the path lets go of attachments that build up conditioning and conformity in our upbringings. With such a conformity rejection where does the seeker go?
But culturally the biggest problem is that society does not recognise genuine spiritual development. Many institutions will tell you to accept their dogmas and believe and act on them; as already suggested, it is quite possible that a seeker is emerging from such a conditioned background, and therefore rejects conforming to a doctrine. Within the many alternatives where does the seeker turn? Perhaps for westerners the nearest to a cultural consensus would be travelling towards Eastern religions - mainly Buddhism and Hinduism.
Here is an interesting question for those who have rejected their institutional religion of christianity and are “going east for awareness”. Within the eastern societies Buddhism and Hinduism are the established religions yet would you consider those societies aware? Yet seekers going East have often found guidance and started on their paths. zandtao found his path through a Buddhist practice (Buddhadasa’s MwB), but what he does as Buddhist has little similarity to the institutional Buddhist practice in Thailand (where zandtao learned the practice). In zandtao’s view “going east” works as the beginning of an inner journey because the seeker leaves their upbringing of conditioning and conformity and questions that upbringing. Seekers-going-East are also not attracted to the conditionings and conformities of those societies extracting learning from the dogmas but not following the way faith os practised there. zandtao might label his religion as Buddhist but in certain ways such a description of his path would be restrictive and perhaps not helpful.
zandtao did not go anywhere east until he was 50 but he had been attracted to eastern religion and alternative pahs before that. bill’s first grace happened at 23 - discussed throughout the zandtao website (there is no personal history perhaps the nearest would be included within the Treatise). From 23 he dabbled with many teachings in London and elsewhere, but whilst he was lucky to be connected to his path since 23, following the path only truly happened when he retired early, stopped voluntary teaching, and dedicated himself to the path. At that point he would have had the same dedication and enquiry as the seeker who went east. For his awareness to become following the path he had to be ready, and there had to be much seeking, enquiry and a dedication including a dedicated practice.
zandtao went through this development despite the society he was living in; in the West when bill was young there was only a limited culture of awareness, for westerners there was possibly such a culture in the East. But wherever you are if you are determined and ready you can find a way of following your path, find teachings that with determination you can follow the path - despite the prevailing societal culture.
The Changing Western Culture
With regards to many aspects associated with spirituality there has been a change because of “wokeness”, do these changes obviate zandtao’s concern about a CoA? There are 2 players zandtao wants to note to illustrate the changes. The first was Jon Kabatt-Zinn, and the other is Google.
Now JK-Z followed the Buddhist path, and chose to promote mindfulness within academia as amongst others mindfulness-based stress relief. He was successful in this, as meditation then became a tool for coping with stress and most importantly accepted by academia. That was late last century, and Google took the coping a step further by promoting a programme of mindfulness in the workplace for coping. They have set a trend where many workplaces now use the tool of meditation for coping.
Spiritual change? 
Spiritual change?
zandtao supports any use of meditation as it develops the possibility of an inner journey and improving inner awareness, but how far does this Mcmindfulness meditation usage go on this inner journey? For Google it helped the bottom line - profits, so as a tool the coping that came from meditation was good for productivity. But was this mindfulness meditation being used the way JK-Z was taught as leading towards a spiritual path?
zandtao sees this spiritual change as an improvement in well-being, and this is important as the pressures of the system-for-the-rich are leading to greater mental illness, both in terms of stress in the workplace and greater societal stress as fewer people have work with increased automation. zandtao sees the well-being industry as a step forward but wants to place it in the context of conditioning and conformity. To understand this we go back to upbringing, and the societal purpose of upbringing is to survive by developing self-esteem - and accepting agreement. What we see with Google’s Mcmindfulness (addon D) is the use of well-being techniques to help with the conditioning and conformity in the workplace - bolstering self-esteem - accepting wage-slavery and sometimes flourishing financial success within the system-for-the-rich.
What this meditation for well-being shows is that meditation itself although an excellent tool for developing an inner calm does not develop inner spiritual journey per se. Well-being stops short of spirituality as it focuses on calm and acceptance. Whilst these qualities are important n daily life they do not address questions of spiritual direction; they cope and coping (even if it brings societal success) does not bring with it the spiritual quality that shines. That joy and guidance comes from within when the seeker is ready, and that seeker then has the determination to develop a practice - that usually includes some form of meditation and will include well-being practices - to follow the spiritual path.
Skill of mindfulness
Mindfulness is a skill of consciousness that can avoid, it can be waylaid by intention and focus. zandtao does not belittle well-being but recognises that the well-being industry has become part of the societal infrastructure. When pop culture, the Beatles and others, went east in bill's youth it brought back a touch of "new spirituality" with enlightenment and nirvana as its highest form. Enlightenment nrvrt found its place in western culture but eventually thr skills of mindfulness and focus were accepted as well-being. This wokeness of course is an advance but it lacks purpose that can come with the directions of consciousness - love, wisdom, sila and truth, the purpose that can come with path.
Path?
Path is the word zandtao uses for describing diverse ways that can lead to a conscious spiritual purpose or spiritual understanding; in zeer-consciousness zandtao describes a process where, he hopes, a seeker can develop their inner journey of consciousness from awareness to purpose - following their path. But there is still no strong societal culture for seeking such a path despite the changes in the culture’s attitude to well-being. Given the change in emphasis on well-being it is likely that there are increased opportunities to find spiritual teaching. zandtao suspects that many seekers on a spiritual path are able to survive by finding employment within the wellness industry, and can willingly provide direction into spiritual understanding, but that cannot happen if the seeker is not ready. A culture that valued spirituality and spiritual purpose might well encourage such readiness.
Path culture?
Within our society there are many havens such as monasteries or spiritual organisations but these function more as retreats. Such retreats can be havens from the stress of daily life, and they might provide guidance towards finding the path. This guidance would of course be beneficial but would not be considered a function of a societal culture, more a marginal availability that encourages the path. Seekers cannot look to a spiritual-path culture in our society, society does not encourage appropriate awareness but there are many places where a seeker can retreat to learn and follow their path - when they are ready.
A seeker needs to be ready for a spiritual path, have the enquiring mind that will break down their conditioning and conformity, and be determined to dedicate themselves to a practice. There is no societal culture that encourages this, can there be? Certainly not within our societal infrastructure that is an system-for-the-rich, a healthy practice such as meditation was destigmatised by JK-Z and then Google only when the system-for-the-rich could use it for their benefit.
Why is path important for society?
The path has far more going for it than these but here are 2 faith pronouncements concerning path:-
 From nature we are each meant to follow our paths
If we all follow our paths we will live in harmony with nature and each other.
Just because zandtao says it does not make these 2 path pronouncements any different from ideas - see ditthi in Ch2. But for zandtao these path pronouncements are deep and meaningful and real - sufficient for zandtao to recommend acting on these faith axioms. But whilst zandtao considers these faith axioms powerful, he does not want any seeker to follow them blindly. These axioms are central to pathtivism but pathtivism is not an ism to follow. zandtao hopes that a pathtivist can embrace these axioms and their implications but that has to be the seeker's decision. Always decide for yourself.
Accepting these axioms gives a rationale for societal change - just a small ask, all people follow their paths and society will be in harmony with itself and nature.
Seeing the way it is
No delusions, at the moment this small ask is effectively impossible but it is purpose. Nature and consciousness gives us paths, and we can have harmony in ourselves and society. This dream is a much better utopian mission than anything else around - but with no delusion it might well be considered an impossible panacea.
But these 2 faith axioms are good starting points for societal change. It can be understood why the system-for-the-rich would not encourage a culture that would promote the path, well-being helps their accumulation but a natural path for all Gaia would end their system.
So we have reached a starting point as to understanding why following the path is not part of our societal culture:-
The 2 faith axioms would harmoniously end the system-for-the-rich.
How would seekers become ready if they accept current societal infrastructure? A seeker needs to be ready for a spiritual path, have the enquiring mind that will break down their conditioning and conformity, and be determined to dedicate themselves to a practice. Where does that conditioning and conformity come from?
These faith axioms are the starting points for pathtivism!!
Connecting embodiment
How does all this connect with embodiment? The key is readiness. When we are ready to follow the path we find the most personally suitable teachings, build our practice whose path leads to autonomy. Following the path and with autonomy comes a developing understanding of the faith axioms. One might be able to present logical and rational arguments as to the essential truth in these faith axioms but it is not likely that you will get there through sankhara - mental operations. This is an issue of experience:- when you know and follow your path then your experience of the path will bring truth and understanding to the faith axioms. This neither comes from a teacher nor a culture, it is a matter of experience. It might well be easier to understand if all in our culture were following their paths so we might be able to observe the truth of the axioms but that is not likely to happen any time soon.
Teaching and Readiness
So the issue is readiness, how can we help with readiness? One might even go so far as to ask - is it possible to help with readiness? If we could help with readiness then surely that would be a “job for embodiment”. So let’s investigate whether we can help with readiness.
Providing teaching would be the first avenue to explore for readiness. Undoubtedly teaching has its place but readiness and teaching are not necessarily consequitors. On reflection a teacher may know when they started to enquire about conditioning and conformity, and when they developed the determination to build their practice, and at what stage in their transcendence from conditioning and conformity they developed autonomy. But is that going to be the same for a different seeker? What teachers do is present the teachings that brought them to whatever stage on the path they are on, and just hope that a seeker develops readiness. The diverse paths to autonomy mean that teachers are offering only their own way - or perhaps a collective institutional way. Depending on the seeker’s individual level of enquiry and determination they would need to help their mindfulness grapple through engagement with a teacher, but enquiry and determination are part of readiness.
How does readiness arise?
Whilst readiness requires teachings it does not arise from the teachings, there is a state of readiness that took the seekers of my youth out East. They were ready for it!! Sharon Salzberg, a lifelong insight meditation teacher, just went East (at the age of 18) somehow knowing there was an answer there; from her upbringing she became ready and went. zandtao was ready for upheaval as a reaction to all the conditioning and conformity, he was not even consciously ready - upheaval just happened.
From within Sharon’s path she became conscious, and she went East. For bill conditioning and conformity had not worked he had no self-esteem, and as a young adult he was flailing until the path started to push itself through. There are many different "readiness" stories of Ordinary spiritually awakening people at Batgap.
Path Readiness and Restrictions
The path is always trying to find itself, it is natural that it wants to emerge and help us. But there are restrictions that prevent that emergence of awareness. These restrictions come from our upbringings, our Sacred Wounds, and are usually “administered” by our parents.
zandtao is completely grateful to his parents because without them he would not have followed the path. He loved his mother and now is deeply grateful to his father, but it was not always that way. As it is personal for zandtao it belongs to personal teaching - using one’s own experience to help others grapple and follow their paths. Within certain circles parents are getting a bad rap, we suffer because parents wanted us by giving birth. Nature wants kids to propagate the species, and this drive is built into most people. There is a societal expectation of some form of marriage and procreation but there is also a natural drive for procreation. At some level procreation and propagation factor into relationships, factor into why your parents had you.
But procreation and propagation are not explanations for the way some parents bring up children. This upbringing intentionally or otherwise often wounds children, and for zandtao seekers carry these wounds as Sacred Wound throughout the seeker’s life helping them to learn. zandtao now is completely grateful for his Sacred Wound and it only adds to his love for consciousness.
But it took zandtao a long time to reach this understanding, and meanwhile his parents got it in the neck. Spiritually there is now a level of understanding of his Sacred Wound but throughout his life it has elicited various levels of emotion. Throughout zeer-consciousness, zandtao tries to help the seeker engage with this Sacred Wound to learn how to love themselves - develop spiritual love and purpose see Real Love.
In a sense parents become the personification of the upbringing of conditioning and conformity, and it is the interaction of upbringing that can lead to awareness. Upbringing or Sacred Wounds are restrictions to readiness, the process of conditioning and conformity suppresses the path. There is a state of readiness at the point where the emergence of the path overcomes the restrictions of upbringing and Sacred Wounds. Ironically what society would consider a good upbringing would be one where the young adult has self-esteem but self-esteem represses path because self-esteem is egoic.
So a state of readiness exists as a tipping point of path emergence and societal restrictions, it would help a seeker to understand that this tipping point exists, that there is a state of readiness that the seeker needs to reach - whatever the teachings. For some teachings this is understood and made available but not all.
How can embodiment help?
At present embodiment focuses on teachings. Depending on their quality these teachings encourage an individual seeker to follow a particular approach within the diversity. Teachings tend to work on a positive building of awareness - what makes a seeker aware. In that awareness process there might be recognition of restrictions such as attachments, suffering and clinging. Teachings recognise these restrictions arise from upbringing and even society - mainly through upbringing and parents. But these teachings tend to be addressed towards an individual understanding.
But what does this mean for embodiment? Does embodiment mean the propagation of the teachings or can it mean looking at where the restrictions arise? zandtao contends there are sufficient teachings and wishes to address the arising of restrictions.
Arising of Restrictions
Arising of Restrictions
From our society there is an ongoing milieu of causality that leads to the upbringings of conditioning and conformity; parents interact with this milieu (as well as their own upbringing) and pass on the conditioning and conformity through upbringing. As individual seekers become aware their natural embodiment impacts at some level to these restrictions, and it is generally accepted that increased awareness will gestalt this milieu of causality thus reducing the restrictions on the readiness to follow the path.
zandtao contends that this osmosis is far from working, and that the societal infrastructure is increasing these restrictions - not consciously but through the daily processes that are part of the system-for-the-rich. zandtao further contends that this is a spiritual question because the increasing restriction is lessening the possibilities for students to follow their path. Because of the way society is there is less readiness to follow the path. This leads zandtao to ask whether seekers increasing the bank of teachings is a sufficient strategy for spirituality, or is there a need for embodiment to address the source within the milieu of causality? How do restrictions arise and can embodiment address their arising?
zandtao contends that this spiritual question leads to questions concerning societal infrastructure. Is it enough to accept the societal infrastructure and work to change from within using the prevailing osmosis tactics of teaching? Or does embodiment start to question the infrastructure itself? zandtao calls for changing societal infrastructure back to a path infrastructure as nature intended, and to seek ways of embodying the path to address this change.
Promoting path infrastructure
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