This zeersight was written within a much larger Journey through Tibetan as a response and to support the testimony of Sofia May (1 and 2 very interesting interviews) - at Association for Spiritual Integrity there is corroborative testimony from Ulrika Jaklin. As a consequence of her experience Sofia May legitimately used the term "Buddhaphobe", and as a practising Buddhist (not a toilet Buddhist, Sofia) zandtao felt emotion at this usage. As this is part of a pattern of abuse within Tibetan (abuse appears mainly in Tibetan but it is not the only Buddhism with abuse) and as zandtao has such great respect for the writings and wisdom of HHDL he began a journey. It was his own journey including his visit to Tibet and his understanding of changing hegemony, was never intended to be complete but in the end was emotional rather than in knowledge and experience, and could not be competed satisfactorily - so it is now an offline journal.
As a zeersight it is important to understand the difference between path and different parts of the spectrum of well-being and to understand the faith vacuum that is filled by cults.
 Path and Spectrum of Coping
The spiritual side of this zeersight is mostly covered in zeer-consciousness but it is worth reiterating; at the end this zeersight will discuss this understanding with relevance to some cultishness.
The title "Path and Coping" is in some way derogatory, and for some might be more comfortingly seen as "Path and Well-Being" or "Path and Self-Esteem" although zandtao will assert consideration of a spectrum of coping. In addition this is a contextual discussion of the Buddhist characteristic of anatta, this characteristic being seen as ego-restriction in zeer-consciousness; for zandtao practice is:-
Let us start with the distinction that the spiritual path is beyond self - beyond any collection of egos. When we are following our spiritual paths we are releasing egos - GENTLY (see later) - naturally, and bringing in Unity-consciousness - not stopping Unity-consciousness coming in with our restrictions.
At the stage where we have released sufficient restrictions and are sufficiently beyond self, we have limited attachment to egos - limited attachment to the khandhas of body, emotions, memories and perceptions, and mental operations. At this stage we could also describe this as being beyond conditioning and conformity - usually having released the egos we built up in our upbringings of conditioning and conformity.
For those following the path this distinction of consciousness being beyond is a clear description, however for those who have not released sufficient restrictions - what zandtao calls not being ready to follow their spiritual paths - this description is vague. And this lack of clarity might well arise when the individual is in a state of well-being - or full of self-esteem. If you have some vague notion that you should be on the path and yet are comfortable in well-being, this approach sounds completely derogatory - this seeing self-esteem as a form of coping. Typically such individuals have worked hard to reach the stage of self-esteem and well-being - they might even be societal successes, yet here is zandtao with his focus on the path minimising their achievements in self-esteem or well-being.
Conundrum of Well-Being
This is a huge conundrum, and is best to go back to upbringing to understand it. The priority of any upbringing is survival - a minimal level of coping. So when zandtao describes upbringing as conditioning and conformity, that upbringing is intended to give some level of coping for young adults. Through our love for parents we accept and imitate parental behaviour and advice, and in this way we listen and live attachments to this behaviour and advice - when we do what they say we attach as many egos as their different behaviours and advice require. By adulthood we have collected egos and this collection is referred to as self (by zandtao and by the doctrine of anatta); with this self the young adult is able to cope with society.
Spectrum of Coping
Now there is a spectrum of coping behaviours where the self ranges from escapism and addiction to substance through to self-esteem and well-being. If in early adulthood we were barely coping and have worked hard to reach self-esteem and well-being, there might be a triggering when zandtao describes this as a spectrum of coping and that the path is beyond this; some individuals might even say their societal success is path. In another way upbringing can lead to young people already having self-esteem and well-being - if they have come from a particular loving home, and they might compare themselves to the limited coping ability that others grow up with. These young adults with self-esteem and well-being too would have difficulty with an explanation of the path as being beyond.
Being Ready
This is why readiness is so important to zandtao's understanding of zeer-consciousness. It is often the case that teachings describe individual egoic detachment as gently letting go of attachment to a particular ego. When zandtao is describing following the path, this is a level of consciousness that is sufficiently free from restriction and so intuitively follows the path nature intended - being ready. This path can only really be known as path by the individual seeker, path cannot be observed nor can it be disputed as it cannot be known from the outside (there might be psychics who can observe like Teal but zandtao cannot know this). Transcending to the path means going beyond conditioning and conformity whether from upbringing or societal forces, and transcendence is known inside. But can it be observed? For zandtao this process of transcendence comes from releasing restrictions, "filling up" with Unity-consciousness, and at some stage within this process the seeker is ready and transcendence occurs. Whilst this is magical for the seeker, from the outside there is nothing to observe.
For zandtao transcendence occurs when we are ready - following a practice of releasing sufficient restrictions gently. zandtao has never had a state of self-esteem - in a state of alcohol addiction he was barely coping with young adulthood when firstgrace happened; any well-being has come from building his practice and then following his path. However he surmises the following. At some stage those with self-esteem and well-being begin to evaluate their societal success from within. Deep inside the path begins to question the value of their societal success and begins to ask if there is more. In this process of enquiry the egos that constitute their self-esteem begin to be seen with less importance until they are ready to let go - GENTLY. They release egoic restrictions - previously seen as self, and transcend to following their paths. This is why zandtao entitles this zeersight as "path and coping" because the path is beyond coping but also beyond self-esteem.
Faith Vacuum
Just prior to crossing the threshold of autonomy zandtao was working on Viveka-Zandtao, in the 2 sections of Exploring Quest leading to Investigating Faith he developed an understanding of faith vacuum. Where is the process of deep enquiry that pulls the seeker to their path? Where is the faith that through quest path can be found? Where is the Culture of Awakening that could fill this vacuum?That is the vacuum zandtao recognised in Viveka-Zandtao.
Zandtao investigated faith through a z-quest on Sharon Salzberg's book "Faith: Trusting your own deepest experience", and he began that investigation with this quote [SS p14 of 194] :-
“One day a friend called to ask if we could meet for tea. Knowing that I was writing a book on faith from the Buddhist perspective, she was confused and wanted to talk. “How can you possibly be writing a book on faith without focusing on God?” she demanded. “Isn’t that the whole point?” Her concern spoke to the common understanding we have of faith — that it is synonymous with religious adherence.
"But the tendency to equate faith with doctrine, and then argue about terminology and concepts, distracts us from what faith is actually about. In my understanding, whether faith is connected to a deity or not, its essence lies in trusting ourselves to discover the deepest truths on which we can rely”
This quote fully describes the vacuum of religious adherence, what is doctrine but a set of ideas (often called beliefs) that lacks the deep conviction of inner truth. And if quest takes us to institutions what do we often see - acceptance of vacuous doctrine lacking any depth of conviction or faith. Faith is a feeling of power and conviction that we are supposed to have that gets hidden in words and ceremony that many hide behind yet defend vehemently in case that hiding is exposed.
In this zandtaomed advice - faith and vihara, he described his feeling towards faith at the time he was studying it; now for zandtao faith in the path is just understood. In the advice he also comes to a realisation of this vacuum. What happens to seekers who see this vacuum? They quest elsewhere becoming vulnerable to cults.
If you wish to examine cults here are some links. Shelise coming from Mormons has her youtube channel, Cults to Consciousness including the testimony of Sofia May, that shows how people are exploited by cults - she does not explain these cults in terms of faith vacuum but exposes them more as a reaction to her Mormom upbringing. Out of Keith Ranieri's exploitation came A Little Bit Culty; you could also look at Not the Good Girl.
Hammering the ego - NXIUM
How much of what zandtao describes above Keith Ranieri accepted zandtao does not know, no person following their path would exploit women the way Keith did.
At one stage zandtao net-researched a lot on NXIUM. What he saw was Keith developing a process of what zandtao calls "hammering the ego". NXIUM followers who wanted to be close to Keith were subjected to long processes of "hammering the ego" - FORCING followers to let go of egoic attachment - FORCE not gently - not when they were READY. Because of this FORCE when the ego was sufficiently hammered he replaced the selfs of his followers with himself as guru. He demanded of these followers behaviour guided by his advice - no-self and no consciousness but guru-following, and then proceeded to exploit the followers especially abusing the women; there was no attempt at path or autonomy.
Tibetan Guru-devotion
In bill's early years many seekers filled their faith vacuums by going east. Some would go to India and Hinduism or Buddhism - perhaps copying The Beatles, some to Thailand and some to Tibet. Since that time there has been a reverse where those religions have sent teachers westward. Whilst there is abuse in the east, the problem appears worse in the West. For zandtao the essential problem is the faith vacuum but this zeersight arose from consideration of Sofia May; in her case she was escaping abuse, seeking retreat and from her testimony replaced the abuse from her upbringing with abuse from a lama of Tibetan Buddhism.
zandtao has never practiced Tibetan Buddhism so this is speculation based on net-research; it is also because of not using this Tibetan practice and his lack of personal experience he was only willing to go deeper in the journal. zandtao has no reason to dispute whether there can be a path-process of gently letting go of ego that arises from upbringing, and replacing those egos with Guru-devotion. But the path process cannot end there. Eventually guru-devotion hopefully leads to behaviour and practice where the seeker is ready and that readiness leads to transcendence, the seeker goes beyond conditioning and conformity, and the seeker begins to follow their autonomous path. Whilst in this path process there will be discipline in behaviour and practice the seeker accepts this discipline so there is no FORCE - no hammering of the ego.
The Vulnerability of Guru-Devotion - the big IFs
For zandtao, in Guru-devotion there are too many big IFs:-
 IF the individual is a seeker - not looking for refuge:-
IF the seeker is ready to accept the Guru-defined discipline:-
IF the seeker understands that ego can be released through the Guru-defined discipline without harm:-
IF the seeker can accept the state of Guru-devotion:-
IF the guru does not exploit nor abuse - no harm:-
When you put all these IFs together this process is vulnerable and open to abuse. If the guru is exploiting then the state of mind of the individual or seeker is open to abuse as that abuse would be perceived by the seeker as guru-direction since there is no ego nor enquiry. If the individual is not seeking then even if the actions of the guru were beneficial, the individual would see the Guru actions as abuse. ASI offers a paper with similar concerns about Guru devotion.
If such a process leading to abuse were happening in daily life there would be a potential outcry concerning illegality. When discussing Sogyal HHDL was very clear - there needs to be a spirit of enquiry as the Buddha taught; for zandtao that teaching was in the kalama sutta.
Enquiry and Kalyana Mitta
HHDL's advice concerning Sogyal was very clear, and he encouraged enquiry. Enquiry very much suits the approach of being ready; seeking is totally driven by the seeker, as the seeker is getting ready enquiry seeks sources. The Buddha also spoke of Kalyana Mitta - a spiritual friend offering advice - an approach that is again totally driven by the seeker. In the case of Keith Ranieri or inappropriate Guru Devotion, if enquiry were encouraged then exploitation would not have happened.
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