Bearing Witness to Collapse

[GliderGuider]

This is a recent article that started life as a reply on another DU board.

Bearing Witness to Collapse

Once I understood and accepted that the disintegration of our civilization is already underway, I spent a number of years trying to get people to change their beliefs and their behaviour. I felt that if they made the changes I was proposing they could make a “good” outcome more likely. I was disappointed when my exhortations and hectoring fell on mostly deaf ears – whenever I wasn’t just preaching to the choir, that is. It was Cassandra’s dilemma too.

The more I tried to promote change, however, the more I suffered. But the suffering didn’t spring simply from the pain of disappointment. It went much deeper than that, and eventually precipitated my Dark Night of the Soul. The Buddha was right when he taught that all suffering springs from attachment. In my case the attachment was to a particular outcome – my vision of a sustainable, just, ecologically conscious society that made room for all living things on the planet, not just our relatives and friends. When that outcome was thwarted through public indifference and even hostility, I suffered mightily.

Fortunately, I went through a transformation about three years ago. The shift was complete enough that it enabled me to detach from outcomes while still remaining committed to the awareness of what’s going on. At the same time I adopted the position that this reality is co-created by all its participants, and that at some level the nature of reality and our individual roles in it have been consciously chosen by us all. At that point, I realized that I had been working at cross purposes to the reality that was unfolding. The ongoing transformation, even if it becomes a collapse of civilization, is not meant to be stopped. Rather, it is the vessel within which our conscious awareness is being nurtured, developed and annealed. This leads to the rather uncomfortable conclusion that the collapse is not to be lamented or prevented, but rather to be celebrated and engaged. It will come as no surprise to those on similar journeys that when I surrendered to this understanding, my suffering ceased.

From that perspective, I decided that the most useful thing I can do – something that is aligned with the point of the exercise rather than in opposition to it – is simply to contribute my little bits of awareness to the field. I try to do it without expectation or attachment, without trying to elicit a particular response or outcome. Just put the awareness out there. Those who aren’t ready for it yet will ignore or reject it, those who don’t yet see it but are ready may awaken a bit more, those who are already aware may find some fresh nuance to play with. Whatever role my observations and discussions play in the unfoldment is the part they are meant to play. This is what I call “vocal witnessing”.

I still care very deeply about what’s happening, but I now remain relatively unattached to how it might unfold in the future. As a result I avoid talking about solutions as much as possible, largely because I don’t think there are any – at least at the level most people think of “solutions” (like new policies or new technologies) The point of all this apparently catastrophic unfoldment is not for us to “solve the problem”, but for for us to wake up.

I agree completely with the writer Charles Eisenstein (“The Ascent of Humanity”) and other observers – we do not have a soluble problem, we have an insoluble predicament. Because of that, our most useful response will be at right angles to the problem space. That means that the door out of this mess isn’t going to be opened by a new version of our old ways (new legislation, clean energy and more recycling) although that will play a role. The real doorway out will be found by shifting into a completely new way of being – the revolution of consciousness that so many of us know in our bones is just around the corner.

These days I’m putting all my chips on abetting that r/evolution of human consciousness, by acting as a vocal witness to the unfolding collapse.

Within the community of the environmentally and ecologically aware, this is an uncommon position, although perhaps less so among those who have chosen a spiritual response to their apprehension of collapse. Within the mainstream of activist thought it is still viewed as fatalism and defeatism.

How does thinking about this perspective make you feel? Do you think it is a useful point of view or not? Is it helpful or dangerous? Is it an approach you have taken, or could see yourself taking? Or does it feel like sophistry – simply a tricky justification for fiddling while Rome burns?

[bvar22]

1. Your POV is extremely helpful to your personal sanity and wellbeing.

...that is one of the few real choices we have.

Peace.

[zazen]

2. I was having this conversation with a close friend yesterday

She's a major food scientist and administrator who grew up in poverty in Latin America and is one of the few university leaders I know who will admit this is going on. And we talked about the issues of integrating spiritual practice and perspective as we feel like screaming as we watch these monumental processes unfold and people keep going on about their business as if it's not happening.

I've always said dissociation and detachment may look identical on the outside, but they're diametrically opposed. Detachment entails being in it and then somehow coming to watch your attachment (by relinquishing to the degrees you can aspects of your ego). Dissociation is not even admitting it in the first place.

In keeping with Greer's essay this week (on examples of bad faith on the environmental left), I think I sometimes continue to dissociate by being aware of the conceptual "predicament" we're in but not living in my space with a daily, proactive awareness of it (and everything around me now, in the present). That's abetted by a culture in complete denial, of course. But do I see patterns in my daily life that are indicators, besides my conceptual awareness of it? Yes, if I'm quiet enough. I will see them.

When I sit in the present here at the laptop and breathe in our fresh NC air next to my purring amazing kitty, disaster is not looming. If in that present I take my conceptual awareness and take small acts, like working on a new garden bed in the backyard with my 10-year-old for 30 minutes this afternoon and better insulating my house next month and purposefully talking to my neighbor at the mailbox in the process of starting to build a community, that's operating from a much more aligned place (and one in which I hope I can breathe and allow a larger consciousness to work through me.) And if pattern signals emerge, I'll respond to them from the power of the present.

If I stay in a state of paralyzed, enraged panic, I'm no use to anyone.

Thanks for the topic.

[robinlynne]

9. I tend to stay in that place of enraged panic you describe. It is very difficult to

change. it is exhausting, really.

[Terry in Austin]

3. It's the sane point of view, ultimately

It's realistic about our power to affect large-scale phenomena.

It's also a very courageous position, given the vulnerability to accusations of fatalism and defeatism that you note.

But the serenity gained, I believe, does free one up to make the most useful contributions to this collective "teaching moment," and in this I'd say you've truly come to the heart of the matter.

[Yooperman]

4. Yes.... I completely agree....

I have been a passionate man my entire life and once read a book that changed my perspective on life and how we should live it. I was so enthusiastic about it, I was ready to buy dozens of this book and give them to my friends and family.

I was stunned when others that I had encouraged to read the book, didn't have the same feelings as I did.

The realization came to me that everyone is on their own path and their own journey. Although we all end up in the same place at some point in time, we all arrive there through countless lifetimes of experiences.

Your perspective certainly shows a similar type of understanding.

I still am very passionate about issues that I find relevant, however I don't expect others to be just as passionate nor understand completely my point of view. I can only affect my immediate environment and I have zero say in how people will conduct their own lives.

Live each day the best you can with what you understand. Then you die. Hopefully you leave the world a better place than when you came.

That is my goal. That way when I come back again... maybe the world will be a be better place the next time around.

Peace

YM

[Gregorian]

5. Lilies of the field.

My father helped start Applied Materials. As we watched the development of the computer, and I mean we were there. The Homebrew Computer club with Wozniak. That little tiny office on an obscure street. As we talked about designing the controls for vapor deposition. The hydrofluoric acid, and toxic wastes that were just being vented into the bay. As we started seeing trillions of integrated chips being manufactured, my father and I discussed that it was like fighting fire with fire. The massive toxic mess that was going to perform a vital function of connecting every human mind on the planet. It seems like this is an analogy to the post.

I look at the exponential curve, and have wanted so badly to be on the horizontal part of the curve, knowing the vertical part is unsustainable growth. The post is helpful, but I still have attachments. And I also have a fear that the ultimate destination is nowhere. It's a place with nothing. A wreck. But then, that's tomorrow. And I don't know what tomorrow brings. I believe in magic. And that is what makes life worth living. I was just out doing some work, and happened to look up at the right time to see an osprey chasing a golden eagle. How many people have ever seen that. I'll always remember it, because that is the magic of planet earth. Fear of losing that is an attachment. My personal interest in having privacy and silence is an attachment.

Who knows? I try. But the post is helpful.

[GliderGuider]

6. This is the world we have when virtually everyone is asleep.

However, every person who wakes up makes the situation a tiny bit better. My awakening may do very little good for a peasant in Sri Lanka, but it does a huge amount for those closest to me. Its effects spread out like a diminishing ripple that intersects with other spreading ripples of awakening out there. The more of us there are rippling the water the more alive the world becomes.

I was captured by this phrase in your post: "the ultimate destination is nowhere." I know how you meant that phrase, but it's possible to turn it on its head to become a very profound realization.

"The ultimate destination is Nowhere" is an awareness that is at the heart of many Eastern traditions like Advaita, Taoism and various schools of Buddhism, and is also the core of the mystical experience regardless of spiritual affiliation. It begins with the understanding that there is no Self in any tangible way. What we take to be our Self is an emergent property of a loosely connected basket of thoughts and experiences, open to radical change at any moment while somehow still managing to appear continuous, thanks to memory. Arising from that is the experience of Nirvana or the Void, the experience of the Nowhere in which the Noself abides. Out of that in turn arises the yin-yang balance of the sense of Oneness, the feeling that all that exists is fundamentally connected, and in some sense made of the same stuff - like separate waves arising out of a single ocean.

Buddhism's unique ability to foster that sense of interconnection is one reason it's such a common path in the environmental community. However, the awareness that the "Self is nothing" and the "the ultimate destination is nowhere" that arises from the momentary loosening of the ego's grip, is the step that brings peace of mind even in the face of calamity, whether personal or planetary.

Out here on the intertubes, the people I've encountered who have adopted this path in one form or another are fully, even acutely aware of what's going down, but are no longer suffering as much because of it.
Something to think about. Or not ;-)

[Barrett808]

7. You'll fit right in at Desdemona:

Desdemona Despair: Blogging the End of the World™

The real enemy is delusional hope, and Desdemona is in the vanguard.

[bloom]

8. I don't think that it can be celebrated - perhaps engaged

I agree that one can't become attached to the idea of changing the outcome. I like your idea of vocal witnessing.

I have chosen the role of visual witnessing - as an artist.

But I think that it is all terribly sad. The inevitable outcome as I see it is that the world with become more and more polluted with all of this toxic stuff that people are creating. Which we will not be able to stop - but which will stop only when it is not possible for people to continue making. People will become increasingly sick from cancers and such. More birth defects. Less and less food. More wars.

So yes - I recycle, I drive a Prius - but I feel like I am watching a slow train wreck (that I will not see the end of) - a disaster of mythic proportions.

One can celebrate the success of the jellyfish - and those creatures that manage to thrive under the circumstances - for now.

I am very aware of the level of self-delusion and intentional ignorance that many have imposed on themselves. My siblings are in that category - one thinking the world is 6000 years old and that nearly all scientists have everything wrong. Another that there is no population problem, that the worst problem the world suffers from is all the abortions that are performed. And of course - 'God' does them favors for praying and for living "right".

I see people creating diversions to think about - who can't or won't care for the earth.

Sometimes it seems the best that one can do is to meditate and clear ones head. And then paint, or write, and/or find people who care.

[alterfurz]

10. Give up both the hope that something is going to change and the fear that it isn't. -- Pema Chödrön

Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity. -- Lao Tzu

[napoleon_in_rags]

11. Wow, just freaking excellent post.

I myself prefer a slightly middle road... I'm at the point, watching the latest round of Kabuki theater about oil prices, where I realize no solution to lessen dependency on these fuels is coming out of the government at all, no real environmental solutions are coming from power. The old saying "when the people lead the leaders will follow" comes into play. Essentially, the transformation must come from the people, it must come from people demanding control over the means of their own survival: food, water, and energy production.

So I am on the same page as far as wear the solutions are coming from, but the change of consciousness stuff? Not just out of nothing will our thinking change. There is a lot of brick and mortar work. I don't think this is contrary to what you are saying, I guess my focus is a little more on asking "how" at this point.

Thanks for sharing that, BTW.