Apocalypticism – A Glimpse of Death?
Or a beautiful death? Can death be beautiful? Or is it dying and dead bodies we make a big ‘to do’ about, because we are emotionally attached to living?
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A new word for me, apocalypticism, came across my field of view. It basically means, to me, the propensity of people to project their cultural and personal fear of death as images of future events. And since every-body fears death that means every-body does it at some time. The most vocal, heard above the din, are usually anyone who has touched the coat-tails of death. So much has been written about this, as if it were unusual, that is just another form of projection – taking it all so seriously.
Let’s look at the fact of things. Everybody dies, everybody knows it, and few realise it. The few who realise it, before they actually die, ‘often’ come back from the realisation with passionately imaginative stories of Man’s future life, or death, on or off the earth. And that’s all it is, imagination, fuelled by fear momentarily elevated to a passion, or released by a temporary detachment, that one may hold to as some kind of universal truth. This is just nonsense, in my experience, self delusion – if taken too seriously, as if it really matters.
It’s the non-sense of the self’s imaginings of its own death, since it dies with the body – as it grew with it, released from the burden and fear of it, for a while. People who are ‘actually’ dying don’t have these imaginings, though they may have culturally colourful visions of the psyche released from the weight of existence.
Their attention is too focused on the reality of dying. Dying is sensational, if you are rightly prepared for it, or emotionally painful. The still delusional go on deluding regardless, and it will end in its time, no problem.
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On the other hand, since everybody/thing must die, and it occurs in degrees as everything in existence does, it has its place. Apocalypticism is as natural and ‘unreal’ as existence itself. It’s like saying ‘that flower is going to die’. Of course it is, ‘of course’ – by the simple way of things it will mature, wither and die. So it is, in another degree, with civilisations or even species and races. There is every degree or measure of death. Big deal?
I don’t think so, without death nothing new could be. It’s our system of being, this then not that. But it does have an entertainment value every now and then. :)
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The real import is in what cannot be imagined, cannot be written or spoken. Because it is beyond existence or the forms of it, be they you or me. That is reality. What is? Have I gone beyond your capacity to follow yet? Because from here there is nothing there, though a few can see and articulate the simplest view without having to run off … into … imagining.
The more words = images, the less reality. The image is not the thing imaged.
That means everything that is said, written, done, thought, imagined, felt is not the reality, though it is all necessary to the reality being realised. And that’s its purpose, elimination of the false by involving yourself in it until you become so Jaded of the ‘same old’ excitement that you give it up. Until the end …death … endlessly.
That’s self mastery and that’s all that really matters, to me.
What is? :)
Amen! :)
Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture to enlarge in a new tab
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Nature's Place 
Very interesting commentary on apocalypticism… I understood your description as various people fearing death at once and thus creating a self-fulfilling prophesy according to their religion. I think you’re right about life being about self-mastery, however, we cannot deny our interdependent reality. Anything I do affects another person and my whole existence (my ability to create, to consume, to wear clothing, to eat) depends on the existence of others and their abilities. This is why Jesus said to “love one another, as I have loved you” and to “encourage one another daily” so that no one is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin… he understood our interdependent reality… no man is an island… but I do agree with you that self-control and reaction is really the only power we hold. All other control is an illusion. Love what I am seeing in your blog. Check mine out if you so wish!
Well, I haven’t a clue what a man called Jesus said. Really! And I’m not sure what your point is without going over a past post which I am loathe to do. The post is this one now.
I get the sense you are confusing realisation with living. Living is relative, as you say, we all depend on some one or thing to live. But I say there is no other life here, no so-called spiritual life except the one you live. And the realisation I refer to is of being, being beyond relationship. It’s a state of being not a condition of mind or relativity. That is why a wise man once said : ‘I am in this world but not of it.’ :)
Now I wonder who that was, but it doesn’t matter, truth is truth whoever speaks it, and it only appears to be relative because we must use language to convey it. Which is truly inadequate to the task. But the truth is the truth must be divined, sensed behind the word that points to it, and from here that is almost nothing.
Every island is an ecosystem, but with a unique character of its own.
I understand what you are saying. This is a nature blog and nature is all about being. The very nature of something means how it “is” not how it thinks. Perhaps I rode a tangent into realization, but that would be my bias as I write about the mind/brain and perception, so please excuse. My fiance is actually a wildlife biologist, which makes for related discussions! Anyway, great blog. Thanks.
That’s it, being and thinking. Two completely different worlds. One being further from truth than the other. And there’s an understandable, logical way or method to being.
Your photographs are fantastic. These insects are beautiful – though I would not like to be their size!
If you were their size you would have to be one of them and they just don’t think that way. Living their life, and death, to the full no matter what.
Amazing photos.. How you do that?
I spend the time in nature enough to notice what’s there. These are two or three bees that apparently died a natural death, probably because there was so much rain they couldn’t take off to find food.
What exactly? See here for the rundown on the what and how, and why … : https://beingmark.com/macro-illustrated/
Hmm. Straying away from religious interpretations of what an apocalypse is, I am inclined to think of it as the end of a civilization and a die-off of the former population. With no civilization to pass on the story of their people, time does seem to come to an end. With this understanding of apocalypse, I would argue that such an event has already happened, and probably many times over. Further, I would suggest that apocalypticism doesn’t rise from fear of death on a personal level per se, but instead from a fear that the life of your people/culture will come to an end. Especially when you consider all the cultures where there is some degree of ancestor worship/reverance. In such a society it is hard to imagine a worse outcome than your lineage coming to an end.
There is only truth or ignorance, of truth. Nothing else matters, to me.
Spiritual is the relentless impulse to find the truth of being in existence. Religion is something else entirely, the exploitation of this impulse by pretenders to the spiritual, priests and others who would put themselves between you and the truth. In a word, ignorance – the way we are – that can only exist in ignorance – of the truth, what else.
Nobody has fear for anybody but themselves, fear is the self. Self, as it is, is an aberration of the intelligence attached to some thing, aberration because every thing dies, so intelligence is degraded by attachment, wasted, spent. An unintelligent thing for intelligence to do.
If I say or think I have fear for some thing else that is just attachment (to the thing or body) speaking. Fear of death is personal, it is only the person that dies – with the body, you can’t have impersonal fear. No person is impersonal, it’s an absurdity that doesn’t exist.
Intelligence can be, but that’s a different matter. Or is it? Apocalypse is just the death of self, imagined to be something else. And when it dies what is left?
You can see this in your experience. What is there when self is not? Do you glimpse the truth, of death? Death is now, not a lot to say about it is there? :)
It’s really very simple. But of course the subject can be opened up to intelligent attention, as a flower to the sun – no self involved, unless you are still involved in self.
And nobody is entirely free here, or are they?
very touching…
… touched …