Embracing the End of the World
And I feel fine
A couple of weeks ago, we had a small gas leak fixed in our heating and air unit and somehow, as I stood on the front porch with the service technician, we got into a conversation about the state of the world.
"My daddy is a preacher," he told me, "and my momma says we're living in the end times." I nodded sagely but stayed quiet. Who wants to get into an argument with a guy who's going to fix a leak that could kill you in your sleep?
Curiously, though, he wasn't the first person to recently remind me that the end times are upon us. In my day job, I curated and wrote a story recently about a new leadership book where the author posits that since all of our systems are irretrievably broken, we are at the point of the final decline and collapse of our entire civilization here in the US of A.
It got me to thinking about the end of the world and what occurred to me is this: The world is always ending. In this moment, the present is becoming the past, the future is becoming the present with a new future ahead. This world as we know it in this moment won't be the same in the next, or the next. The world ends moment by moment.
According to Buddhist teacher and monk Pema Chodron, this is good news, because she says, "every moment offers us a chance to awaken." That's really what the end of the world is for – a chance to awaken, to shake off this impermanence, to throw off the shackles of our dualistic thinking, heal the separation and realize who we truly are – all thoughts in the mind of God, unified in a field of Divinity out beyond this world of dualities.
Awakening brings about the apocalypse, but that word, as scary as it may seem doesn't mean that anything or anyone gets destroyed. It means "lifting the veil." When we embrace the end of the world, we see through this illusory world of impermanence. In every moment, we have a chance to end our grievances, to end our suffering and step into the world of unity.
What prevents us from recognizing the blessing of apocalypse in every moment of our lives, let alone embracing it and allowing it to end our world of fear? Anger. It seems to be the one emotion that is plentiful these days. There's plenty of anger on both sides of our political aisles. Some people are angry over some so-called cancel culture. They're angry about Dr. Seuss and election results. They're even criticizing one of the current president's dogs for being too old.
There's anger on the other side, too. Many believe that things aren't changing fast enough after the election – that the current government is grinding away too slowly at its job, not finding bipartisanship or being, in some ways, just like the guy we kicked out. There is, of course, understandable anger that the pandemic has dragged on, vaccines have been slow to roll out and, of course, we all think we know who is to blame – and we project our hatred upon them.
"When hatred rests upon a thing," says Lesson 161 from A Course in Miracles, "it calls for death. Fear is insatiable, consuming everything its eyes behold, seeing itself in everything, compelled to turn upon itself and to destroy. Who sees a [Holy sibling] as a body sees [them] as fear's symbol. And he will attack, because what he beholds is his own fear external to himself, poised to attack, and howling to unite with him again."
It's always the end of the world anytime we allow our fear to deepen the separation we are already feeling toward one another. We have built political and economic systems, bureaucracies and social media bubbles, all with the thought that perhaps they could keep us safe from the end of the world, even as we divide up into increasingly warring factions.
My HVAC guy, at the end of the conversation, smiled wistfully and said, "Momma says all we can do is pray for each other." His momma is right to some degree – but prayer is not all we have at our disposal. That leadership writer goes a step further than just prayer. She recommends instead of working to save the systems of this world we must become the kind of leaders, the kind of humans, who seek to restore sanity and dignity to everyone who is trapped in the system and is seeking a way out. That’s every single one of us. We’re all trapped in these systems and the only way out is in and through each other.
This is our function in this world, to clearly see the apocalyptic opportunity of each moment – to reach out our hand to one another – to heal and to be healed and bring about an end to this world by lifting the veil of fear, anger and suffering and obliterating the separation we feel once and for all.
Don't let anger jerk you around
I'm not sure where this business writer got her idea, but I think what she's talking about – abandoning the saving of our ego-based worldly systems for the dignity of the human spirit – is exactly what Jesus models for us in Mark 3:1-6. Before this episode in the temple, the Pharisees – who are plotting to have Jesus killed – criticized his disciples for "working" on the Sabbath when they plucked wheat from the fields as they passed to have for a little snack.
By the time Jesus gets to the temple, the scriptures tell us that he's angry and grieved over the hard-heartedness of these religious leaders. I'm sure none of us can identify with how Jesus is feeling in this moment. I mean, it's not like we're frustrated by a bunch of people we see as insensitive to the suffering of others and perpetuating lies that deepen our feelings of separation and division. None of us have ever been there, right?
Of course, we all have. If you're not angry about something right now, you're just not paying attention. Even if you're not angry, there are plenty of folks out there ready to generate some rage for you if you tune in to the right channel.
It's interesting that instead of ignoring the Pharisees and doing a modern-day version of just scrolling on by the posts that usually make you want to stop and argue – Jesus takes a moment to poke the bear and ask the Pharisees a question about Sabbath law. Taunting them just seemed to harden his anger and frustration with them.
I believe though, this is a pivotal teaching moment for Jesus – not as the teacher, mind you, but as the student. You see, we are all teachers and students in any given moment – maybe sometimes at the same moment. Jesus wanted to teach the Pharisees a lesson, but in their silence, I think they taught him a very valuable one.
In that moment, Jesus had to find a way to hold his seat – as Chodron talks about in this article. The teacher is always with us, she says – even when you're Jesus. They show us our old neurotic ways of reacting – they seek to pull us off of the center of our true, Divine Self, and these religious leaders almost did that to Jesus, but I think he was able to relax back into the truth about himself and release his anger.
That's the only way he could have healed the man with the withered hand. The Course tells us that we can have a grievance – we can be angry and full of hatred – or we can have a miracle – but we can't have both. Jesus, in this moment, opts for the miracle.
Let's be clear, though, about what exactly was healed in this moment – the man with the withered hand was restored to wholeness, but the irretrievably broken and oppressive religious system of the Pharisees was not. Jesus, I believe, saw the apocalyptic opportunity of this situation and he took it. He ended the world of separation and sickness for the man before him, who had been trapped in a worldly system that labeled him as worthless and separate.
Jesus, as Chodron says, got smart and held his seat by seeing what truly needed to be healed – the human spirit before him, not the system that held him in captivity. Why is that? Because all systems created in this world are imperfect and they are always susceptible to corruption, decline and ultimate failure. Systems built in this world of ego tend to corrupt those who lead them and harm those caught up within them.
It leads to a never-ending cycle of anger and grievance. We want to reform the system – to make it fairer and more just – but ego always creeps into the mix – leading to the breakdown of every system we create.
Instead of seeking to create new and better systems, Jesus shows us our real function in this world – to reach out our hands to one another – to heal and be healed – to teach and to learn that the most important thing is to remember who we all truly are. We are all innocent, already whole, divine spirits who have never left unity with our Creator.
Instead of using our anger to create new systems let us keep our seat within our own divinity and reach out our hands to one another – to awaken to the end of this world of egoic systems and enter our true home of wholeness and unity.
Becoming Shambhala workers
There is a prophecy from Tibetan Buddhism that when great barbaric forces have arisen with the power to destroy everything – the kingdom of Shambhala will appear. This is not a place out here, but a place that is within the hearts and minds of the Shambhala warrior – or worker, if you prefer non-military language.
They wear no special uniform, they hold no title or rank, and they don't even recognize each other on the street, so the story goes. Instead, while they look just like the barbarians on the outside, within they have the courage to go into the barbarian world and dismantle their weapons of destruction from the inside.
These Shambhala workers succeed because they know that the destructive weapons of the barbarians exist only in their minds – and since this is so, they can be uncreated or destroyed at that same level. These warriors – or workers – have only two weapons – or tools – at their disposal: compassion and insight.
When we have compassion, we are compelled to alleviate the suffering of the world – but it is insight that shows us that everything is connected – that we are one spirit – and that gives us the wisdom we need to act in ways that will ultimately liberate the human spirit from destructive systems.
The prophecy points to an "end times" scenario, but, like I've said, the end times are always upon us. So, this is our calling, to embrace our role as a Shambhala worker and use our tools of compassion and insight to bring about the end of the separation and restore us to the unity we've never truly left.
This is what Jesus was demonstrating in the synagogue when told the man to lift up his withered hand. The man had been withered by the systems, just as we all are. The Pharisees, who witnessed this healing, remained unhealed for the simple reason that they, like their modern-day counterparts, had no interest in leaving or changing a system that was working for them.
I've often wondered why Jesus didn't use his power to right all the systemic injustices of the world. Why didn't he create the perfect system that provided for everyone eliminated greed all together? I think he knew that's not how this world works. We're not here to redeem the powers and principalities. Those belong to this world. We, however, do not belong to this world. We are strangers in a strange land who have come here to remember who we are – perfect spirits safely asleep in the unity of God who uses the Holy Spirit to teach us how to wake up and embrace the end of this world.
Jesus knew, though, that we will never awaken as long as we remain in a state of anger with one another or at the state of the world. He invites us, like that man in the temple, to stretch out our hand and reach out to one another for the healing we need to both give and receive. We do that, the Course says, by no longer asking each other to symbolize our fear. That's what we do when we get all caught up in our tribes and factions – we become symbols of fear for one another.
Instead, we are called to use our compassion and our insight to stay centered in our true, Divine self so we can dismantle the weapons of separation in this world. As Pema Chodron says: "Right at the point when we are about to blow our top or withdraw into oblivion, we can remember this: we are warriors-in-training being taught how to sit with edginess and discomfort. We are being challenged to remain and to relax where we are."
Our teachers are always with us whether in-person or online, they challenge us to remember who we truly are – and to remember who they truly are. Are we willing to extend our hand in healing, to be the Shambhala workers who seek to reclaim the divine human spirit from the soul-crushing systems we have created in this world? Are we willing to end this world of fear and anger and enter into that unity where we all get to say: Oh, Yeah!"
Music for the Journey
“Ripple” by the Grateful Dead
About the Motley Mystic:
The Motley Mystic is a spot for people who realize that the truth speaks with many voices. There is no one religion, philosophy, institution or dogma that captures the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. No one needs to swear allegiance to one line of thought or belief to discern Truth, because Love is the only thing that’s real. That’s what we explore at the Motley Mystic - all the tools and strategies we need to remove our barriers to Love and live fully as our true, Divine Self.
Candace Chellew is the founder of Motley Mystic as well Jubilee! Circle, an interfaith spiritual community in Columbia, S.C. She is also the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians published in 2008 by Jossey-Bass. She is also a musician and avid beer drinker.