When most people meet there is a tacit state of understanding about how we are living, we meet and hope that we are coping; we talk about this coping only when it is not happening. As our current way of life progresses this issue of coping becomes more significant with the increased poverty and mental illness arising in our system - this system zandtao calls the societal infrastructure or system-for-the-rich and postulated it as society's underlying infrastructure in an intro-vision of NO LINK YET. In our society small business people, professionals and poor are all concerned about the knife-edge of coping.
Coping means going from day-to-day performing what is expected of us hopefully without problematic dukkha. What is expected of us for most people is summed up with work and family. Do we earn enough money to bring up our families? Work and family give us another aspect of coping - meaning, if we have a job and can bring up our families then there is meaning in life for those parents. On top of that coping&meaning, for most there is the target of success that can be summed up as material success - material signs of some wealth that appear to be "better-than-coping". To help with coping there are forms of escapism that risk addiction, and zandtao fears there is increased addiction in the society of the system-for-the-rich.
Essential to all of these aspects of coping is unconscious delusion. Put simply, this delusion allows us to accept that everything is OK in society-at-large; all that matters is if we can cope. Every so often crises caused by the system-for-the-rich come along and shatter this delusion such as the genocide in Gaza, and this brings into question our coping. Within society each individual fits these crises into their coping strategy, and their lives continue - coping.
Coping starts with the upbringing of conditioning and conformity. Through our upbringing we learn to survive. On a personal level this surviving revolves around self-esteem which through conditioning and conformity enable us to find work and start a family beginning the coping for a new generation. There is not much consciousness in this process, new generations of people coping through work, family and accepted escapism - accepting conditioning and conformity with minimal consciousness. For most this coping is not questioned except when people have difficulty coping, usually a member of the family goes beyond the norm of coping, has difficulties and the family helps them get back to a state of coping. Sadly for some there are states of not-coping some that people and society can cope with and some they cannot; often these states involve addiction and problematic dukkha - forms of suffering. We could consider that coping with life requires sufficient self-esteem to avoid states involving addiction and problematic dukkha.
Above is the basic coping strategy for western life. However there are changes in the West, and now many are questioning whether society-at-large overall is acceptable; people are talking of breakdown and this makes people feel insecure even if they are managing to cope. This insecurity adds to difficulties in coping but does not alter the basic coping strategy of most people described above. Despite the appearance of this societal change there is no substantive change for wage-earners - the insecurity increases our fear and makes coping harder.
Let us examine a little these mechanisms of coping:-
Through the self-esteem that arises from our upbringing, we develop sufficient egoic strength to cope as an adult. We develop personable characteristics that enable us to interact with other people; s/he's a nice person, s/he's a laugh. s/he's fun to be with; these are characteristic egos that society finds acceptable. At the same time we have an ego such as ambition that enable us to get qualified (or otherwise) and find work. Our personable characteristics together with aspects of desire and romantic love bring us towards relationship and family. Whilst there are levels of consciousness in this it is mostly conditioned egos that create our self-esteem, or different egos lacking conditioning and conforming that contribute to an overall lack of self-esteem that could lead to not coping - having work and/or looking after a family. Even with the increased fear and insecurity, our coping as an adult is still based on whether there is sufficient self-esteem.
This aspect of ego can take up much of our life - how our egos cope with the egos of others! In this zandtao is talking of family and work. Families are very much concerned with ego, and on a daily basis coping with these egos can be very difficult to control; it sometimes feels as if life through family and work is determined to make coping with egos difficult. At the same time these egos can contribute heavily to Sacred Wounds. In work there is a hierarchy that promotes ego, and this can be very difficult to live with if our bosses are particularly egoic.
When it comes to ego these two areas of life lead to a need for coping - our upbringing and coping with egos arising from family and work.
Simply as part of living life - coping with life - we develop aspects of dukkha; zandtao uses the Pali word because there is no word in English that describes all these aspects. As zandtao has already mentioned the Pali word dukkha, let him also mention the first Noble Truth of Buddhism - dukkha ariya sacca - truth of suffering. But in Buddhism everything is considered causal - paticcasamuppada, so it is logical to ask what are the causes of dukkha. So we ask what is dukkha and its causes?
The 4 Noble Truths are central to Buddhism in all its different versions but outside of Buddhism society tends not to see the centrality of the existence of suffering. We tend to delude ourselves into seeing suffering as an unfortunate by-product of being alive, and we cope with this unfortunate by-product if it arises; outside Buddhism what we tend not to do is to cope with dukkha on a daily basis. Because we delude ourselves about this dukkha, then we see dukkha as trauma eg death of a loved one, life-threatening illness, a car crash etc. Whilst these traumatic events are events that do need coping with, trauma is not all that is dukkha.
The consequences of all events in life is some form of dukkha that variously impact us, because many don't see these dukkha-consequences arising from all events in daily life dukkha-accumulation can become traumatic and a problem. In family and work aspects of dukkha are continually arising - tension, stress. In some situations warnings are given for harmful events arising, these warnings can make you feel agitated or there could be "anxious" warnings, maybe what arose as survival warnings in earlier existence; such warnings are beneficial. zandtao talks of these gentler aspects of dukkha as useful but they can still leave a residue. Individually such residues have little impact but over time with accumulation can lead to physical suffering and mental illness.
In our daily lives we somehow cope with these collected residues. To cope with stress and tension we "escape" - for many with alcohol, others use less dangerous escapes; if we feel agitated we maybe take a quick drink or smoke a spliff. TV, cinema and vid-games can be escapisms that do not use drugs but we can become addicted to them. Sometimes such escapist mechanisms are not conscious yet for some maybe they are conscious - they "need a drink". As part of life we do need to cope with dukkha-residues but when we are coping we perhaps just cope unconsciously - maybe as a girls' night out or a night with the lads or some other mechanism that involves friendship but also coping.
zandtao has used the derogatory word - escapism. System apologists might care to delineate by using descriptions of entertainment and use escapism if drugs are involved. For entertainment we might enjoy tv, movies, sport and vid-games; society accepts these and even excesses of these are tolerated within coping because states of not-coping usually don't arise. But the risk of excess - clinging to too much entertainment - might affect the discipline required for work and family.
But there are forms of escapism - drug-escapism - that risk the coping of work and family; these revolve around potentials for damaging addiction - such as alcohol and addictive recreational drugs (zandtao has no idea what the current drugs people use but he means drugs like cocaine). People who are coping survive by having some kind of balance between work, family, entertainment and addiction, but there are plenty of people whose addiction means they do not cope - or rather they survive in a state of what society sees as not-coping dominated by an addiction for example.
Basically we learn addictive behaviours through coping at first, to begin with we might find that drinking copes with stress. But then we cling to this strategy too much without seeing the growing impact of this coping strategy, and we might suddenly find ourselves in addiction. Problematic addiction has many components, and this advice is not an attempt to subvert the professional capabilities of counsellors and medical people dealing with addiction and any other mental illness. What zandtao wants you to consider is that clinging to coping strategies can have severe consequences.
If our coping strategies start to fail then what happens can be what is termed illness or disease. So far the disease of addiction has been mentioned and this can be seen as arising out of a coping mechanism. In terms of dukkha anxiety and stress if not coped with can lead to depression that maybe we can cope with - or not. Once coping goes too far we deal with it as a non-coping strategy involving professional and medical help. Once our coping strategies start to fail we can experience many difficulties in life.
Society has recognised weaknesses in coping strategies, and to help with coping has come the wellness industry. Undoubtedly wellness has helped us cope with family and work, and zandtao does not belittle this.
One important strategy of the wellness industry is meditation, and a key figure in having meditation accepted by western society for "wellness" was Jon Kabatt-Zinn (J K-Z). He got mindfulness accepted academically as mbsr - mindfulness based stress relief. In the West this academic acceptance can maybe then be led to Google who can possibly be seen as forerunners in the wellness industry. This is a Google AI overview based on the search phrase "when did Google first start with mindfulness":-
This uses an interesting word - popularity, for zandtao this disguises genuine purpose. J K-Z learnt meditation as part of his personal journey on the path; the introduction of meditation into the mainstream through mbsr might be considered where his path took him but it was not what he originally learned meditation for. It is now common-place that meditation for coping is accepted. zandtao always feels that Google as a business has a bottom-line of profit, and in zandtao's view had the purpose of improving productivity as its strategy for introducing the mindfulness through SIY. Improving coping leads to success through improved productivity so it is mindfulness being used as a coping tool within the system-for-the-rich; whilst this can be beneficial it is worth questioning. Google's introduction of mindfulness for coping was part of a process of bringing meditation into the system-for-the-rich but this leads zandtao to the question that is central to this advice - is there more to life than coping?
Within the system-for-the-rich there have been significant changes but these changes are occurring within the system and not a change in the system itself. zandtao's view is that the change is looking to increasing the accumulation of the rich in the West, and this increasingly impacts on poorer people there. With these changes it is becoming more difficult for people with lower income to cope with family and work. Whilst zandtao feels increasing compassion for the numbers of people who are finding difficulty coping with the new societal changes, basically this advice is not changed by the social changes. The advice is concerned with the question - is there more to life than coping?, and zandtao suggests that by answering that question the increased difficulty of coping with societal change will be helped. We will consider that later.
With work and family it gets harder in the system-for-the-rich to find a life balance of "coping with family and work". This "coping with family and work" was the conformity that bill grew up with in his middle-class suburb. His parents as the rest of those in the West older than bill had just come through the war - grandiosely called the Second World War; understandably they wanted to cling to peace and live a life that would bring peace and coping to their children. To bill he grew up where people just wanted conformity - just the coping, any ambition for "more" was submerged by fear arising from WWII; the only path in bill's upbringing was the pavement. And to be fair it was mostly peaceable although the system-for-the-rich became more and more entrenched whilst families were conditioned and conformed. In other words coping led to the system-for-the-rich increasing their accumulation.
"Is there more to life than coping?" is not a question encouraged within the system-for-the-rich. But as WWII has distanced by time and as the war strategies of the system-for-the-rich are distanced geographically from western people, then the paths of western people are beginning to emerge - there is greater consciousness. This shows in path tools such as meditation being used in the mainstream wellness industry. But they are not asking "Is there more to life than coping?" Why? Because if the answer is yes, then it is possible that the answer would mean that people would not choose to focus on coping with being a wage-slave.
Accepting that there is more than coping basically ends prioritising wage-slavery, and this prioritising is a choice we all have - please note zandtao used the word prioritising. There is an awareness that comes from saying "I don't just want to live my life coping". And once that awareness arises there comes the potential for so much more joy and happiness.
With wellness we get a glimpse of what is beyond coping but the social context of wellness restricts to the objective of coping. But many teachers including J K-Z started beyond coping by learning meditation and other spiritual techniques in order to follow their paths. Teachers know that following the path brings joy, choice and so much more than just coping, but personally how can you know this? Sadly you can't, knowing only comes with experiencing - as with anything in life; the sadness is that the path or similar was never a part of your upbringing for most people. How can it be in a system-for-the-rich?
For many people, young people especially, there is a feeling there is more than just coping - more than just the conformity of their upbringing typically. And quite rightly this leads to travelling, hopefully travelling where the traveller can feel the benefits of being alone. This is not tourist-travelling but seeking, however young people's feeling - of more than coping - might not be conscious. With many young people travelling - gap years and so on - the seeking of more than coping might get lost.
Hopefully such a young person will meet people when travelling who will support their feelings that there is more than coping. Young bill was fortunate to live at a time when young people were freer and travelled, sadly bill's Sacred Wound meant that he did not travel until he was 40. But with travelling young people can meet freer spirits and perhaps be alone to learn that there is more than just coping.
Glimpses are experiences of the path like insights - ah-ha moments. For some travelling brings glimpses - as Eckhart says firstgrace. As with the path glimpses can come in diverse ways - compassion, creativity and spirituality. Having such glimpses makes it hard to go back to coping, but often the need for money does drag seekers back - ending path-connection. What such seekers have not learnt is the power of practice.
What practice does is remove the restrictions that prevent us from following our paths. And what are those restrictions? Basically the coping strategies above - coping with the restrictions of ego, dukkha and clinging. In the last advice zandtao focussed on recent [ersonal arising of dukkha and then broadened out to the arising of the 3 restrictions. He looked at these in terms of practice and honed that practise to these 2 components:-
From feeling there is more than coping, hopefully seekers somehow overcome the restrictions sufficiently to start practice. There are many teachers giving diverse ways to practice, all begin with an inner journey and describe how to practice so as they are free from restrictions. As zandtao's path took him beyond coping, his own inner journey eventually took him to learn about meditation using MwB - Anapanasati bhavana with Ajaan Buddhadasa. From MwB zandtao developed his own autonomous practice, and his autonomy has increasingly focussed only on the 2 components - releasing restrictions and holding space for consciousness.
We have already met meditation in the context of mbsr, Google's improved productivity and wellness; meditation can be used in many contexts including helping with coping. So meditation does not have to support the feeling there is more than coping, it can be taught in such a way that it just helps cope.
zandtao does not belittle coping; so many good people work and bring up families, and it is hard to cope. But this feeling that there is more than coping can open the door to so much more; practice - in zandtao's case meditation - can open the door to so much more than coping. But it has to have a context - not simply coping, nor meditation for meditation's sake, but a spiritual context of the path. For zandtao that context is consciousness, when the restrictions are released we hold space for consciousness.
Meditation-for-coping can speak of the restrictions of ego, dukkha and clinging such as mbsr reducing stress - part of dukkha. But what happens if there is no context? Maybe the meditation session releases the stress, but if the stress is released and nothing else replaces it the stress can come back the next day. Or some other aspect of the conditioning and conformity of the system-for-the-rich will take its place. This is why zandtao talks of the context - holding space for consciousness, eg release stress and bring in consciousness.
So for following the path zandtao has labelled the context in which meditation releases the restrictions as consciousness. But what is consciousness? That is a wonderful mystery of life - to become conscious of loving and evolving consciousness. But perhaps talking of mystery is not substantive enough for seekers here. zandtao offers guidance in terms of skills and directions of consciousness:-
Skills - mindfulness, focus and embodiment
Directions - love, wisdom, sila and truth
As already discussed we use mindfulness and focus to release restrictions, then we consciously hold the space for the directions of love, wisdom, sila and truth. And then importantly we find a way of consolidating our practice through embodiment in daily life.
On our inner journey we look inside. Maybe there is a pressing issue from daily life from ego, dukkha or clinging. For example we were maybe agitated by our boss. We look at what the boss did, see his/her ego at work, see how our own ego responded to the boss's action, accept that it was the boss's ego, and accept that we don't need to respond in this way. Perhaps see that discussion with the boss would be fruitful - or drastically maybe further evidence that a new job is needed. Having thus dealt with the restriction we then replace the agitation with an appropriate and useful direction of consciousness - bringing in love, wisdom, sila and/or truth. For zandtao this means releasing the restriction, and then consciously focussing on one of the directions - love, wisdom, sila and/or truth; whatever your practice is your conscious method.
This sounds a long process for every single ego, dukkha and clinging but it is not. Please understand that there is a lifetime of upbringing that has built up conditioning and conformity; we have already filled our inner spaces with all of those restrictions. Once we begin the process of replacing restrictions with consciousness, then there is less and less space for restrictions as consciousness directs our lives. Over time we will then reach a state in life where we are not simply coping - responding to events through conditioning and conformity. Through our practice we need to be circumspect towards society's restrictions of conditioning and conformity coming back, but consciousness chooses to follow paths that bring us purpose - to consciously love and evolve consciousness. With increasing consciousness comes the freedom that is beyond coping, and we then have the strength and conviction to give back through embodiment.
Maybe that embodiment is pathtivism?
A brief note concerning societal change. At this point we are focusing on the path and consciousness, for the seeker societal change is now relegated to part of the coping-restrictions. There is compassion for others and seekers will engage with that change through embodiment, but the path and consciousness is now happily the priority.
Finding this happy place can all start with deeply seeing that there is more to life than just coping.
NO LINK YET. In our society small business people, professionals and poor are all concerned about the knife-edge of coping. 
Books:-