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I’ve been hearing a lot of late about the impending economic collapse. While some people insist it’s just hype, pointing out that we have an ‘end of the world’ looming every few years, others are sure that we’re about to see a total devastation of civilization as we know it. Lately, the ‘hype’ folks have been in the right, standing by and watching as millions of people jump on the ‘end times’ bandwagon and then suddenly go silent when their Judgment Day passes and the world keeps right on going like normal.

Of course, this time it might be different.

Perhaps the important question isn’t whether we’re about to face economic collapse or not – it’s why we have this strange fascination with ‘The End’. And if we look carefully, we’ll discover that this fascination has a lot to do with our perception of how the world works

Why the Fascination?

There are many theories regarding our fascination with The End. Perhaps the one that comes closest to truth is that most of us harbor a deep-set dissatisfaction with life. Even if we ‘have it all’, there is a secret longing in our heart that won’t quite go away. We don’t have a name for it, and have trouble finding its source when we go inside and look for it. It’s nameless, and lurking, and scary.

It fills us with questions we’d rather not think about. Is there really any meaning to all of this? What use is life if we all just die in the end? Does all this suffering and striving have a purpose?

To answer those questions, we make up all sorts of stories. We insist that there is a new and better life waiting after we die. We insist that there is a divine purpose to our presence here on Earth. We design stories to make us feel comforted in the face of our deep and subtle fears.

But we don’t need these stories. In fact, those stories can actually make our fears and suffering worse, because they serve to distract us from ever examining the true nature of our unsettled feelings.

We create these stories only because we haven’t looked deeply enough to see the source of the questions. And the real secret? The source isn’t actually lurking and secretive. Instead, it’s difficult to see because it’s right in front of us all the time! Like the hum of our computer, it escapes our attention because it’s always there.

It’s Always the End

The beauty of looking at life directly is that we discover a strange and lovely fact. It’s always the end. While our usual perception tells us that we are born, linger a while, and then die, our own clear vision is capable of seeing that our usual perception is a story we’ve written in our heads, and has nothing to do with the way things actually are. When we gaze uninterrupted at This Very Moment, we discover that we die and are reborn eternally and always. Nothing about you is the same as it was when you began reading this paragraph.

This is the doctrine of change. It teaches us that everything is in a state of flux – aging, transforming, mutating. But within the doctrine of change lies a deeper truth – the fact that change itself is an illusion. I realize that I’m speaking in paradox, and that there’s little value in words if they only confuse us, but for want of another article talking about the illusory nature of change, simply observe that change dominates our lives. We can fight it for a while, pretending that our life is a continual monotony of the same people, same job, same endless circles. But change, however slow it seems to unfold, will catch up with you, and your life will deliver change that can’t be missed, whether it is an accident, ripening to old age, the benefit of some great boon, or some other powerful transformation in your life.

When we see that we are always changing, and look at this observation carefully, we’ll find that we have nothing to cling to. Holding on only brings us suffering, because change is inevitable. At first, this seems terrifying (and we want to tell our stories to counter our fears), but if we walk into the fear we discover something beautiful – we can truly immerse ourselves in every moment, simply because we’re no longer trying to desperately grasp.

Back to the Economy

When we bring this full circle to the present circumstances, we discover something miraculous. Impending collapse or no, it doesn’t really matter. The fact is that every moment is a total collapse, and every moment is a complete rebirth, no matter what the ‘outside world’ is doing. When we see this, our fear evaporates, and we’re able to act with love and compassion, instead of fear and clinging.

If we truly wish to help the world, this is vital to understand. The most important thing we can attend to is our own awakening. Otherwise, our actions emerge only out of latent fear, and no matter how much we try to help, we’ll  only add to the culture of Duelism.

Let’s open up to our full awareness, and see what we are capable of when we realize that The End is right Now.