What is Collapse Acceptance?

Acceptance is like enlightenment: everything changes, yet it’s all the same. You see the same things, but you see them differently. It’s like you have been looking at the world with only one eye open, and then you open the other eye. Suddenly, things have depth.

Things and events that previously seemed like nothing more than transitory pieces of an onrushing narrative suddenly bloom into full, significant moments of their own. You can see that everyday life is a miracle. What you used to take for granted as just “part of the world,” you now recognize as manifestations of a glorious and holy underlying power. The world has not changed, but your view of it has become utterly different.

Why would onrushing collapse cause this shift in perspective? What is it about the end of the world that sparks a spiritual change?

The death of everything presents to your imagination a story where the world does not last forever. You are confronted with the impermanence of everything that is. The future vanishes, lost in a chaos of mysterious dissolution, and you are left standing naked in the here and now.

This can be a rude shock. Most of us spend a lot of time imagining the future, and to have it suddenly stripped away feels like death. It is a death! It’s the death of the fictional person that we expect to be. We feel the loss of our future self, and we grieve for that person as we would grieve for any person dear to us.

But our loss is also our liberation. 

Our future self is an illusion, a construction of our thinking mind. It is attached to the narrative of civilization which paints pictures of “progress” and “development.” Because it is a creature of thought, it appears to have an end. Our future self is an isolated thing, conjured from nothing in an indifferent universe, doomed to vanish after a set span of days. 

But the happy secret is that each of our individual lives is like a water lily floating on the surface of a pond. On the surface we are separate, but underneath we are all rooted in the same ground. Take a dive off your lily-pad and you’ll find yourself in the water with everyone else. 

Collapse acceptance is letting go of your future self and the world that self is supposed to live in. This transformation is an ordeal but it’s also a relief. It’s like putting down a boulder you are carrying and opening your empty hands.

It takes some getting used to. There is a time of confusion, anxiety, and fear. You are entering territory that is unfamiliar. Your path is unique; no one has been this way before you. It is up to you to learn the landscape and make the path. This is your contribution, your participation, your responsibility.

Let go of yourself and you will find courage. Open yourself and there will be others to help you. Lay down your burden, and you can move the Earth.

---