Sunday, August 16, 2009

SECURITY

“It is a most natural desire of the human soul to seek for happiness and comfort. Man desires principles to guide his life, and he wishes for a moral standard to regulate the life of the community. He wishes for a balance of activity and repose; he desires union with the one whom he loves; he wishes for security of all that belongs to him, a settled reciprocity, a fixed give-and-take, and all things which bring about happiness and peace at home and in the nation.” Hazrat Inayat Khan


“Authority prevents the understanding of oneself, does it not? Under the shelter of an authority, a guide, you may have temporarily a sense of security, a sense of well-being, but that is not the understanding of the total process of oneself. Authority in its very nature prevents the full awareness of oneself and therefore ultimately destroys freedom; in freedom alone can there be creativeness. There can be creativeness only through self-knowledge. “ Jiddu Krishnamurti

"The word security is derived from the Ancient Greek "Se-Cura" and literally translates to "without fear". 'Security' is therefore the state of being secure, or the actions employed to achieve that state, i.e. to be secure is to be without fear of harm." Wikpedia

Imagine for a moment that it is possible to truly be secure. What do you suppose that would be like? When you imagine total security in body, mind and spirit do you find your mind drifting to all the ‘what ifs’? It seems to be a natural impulse to seek security while also being aware of the many things that can go wrong in one’s life. A significant portion of our modern culture is based on this impulse. There is a whole industry devoted to milking this impulse for corporate gain. I do not necessarily see anything wrong with this and I am not advocating anarchy: however I do wonder about some things.

As I have stated in the past, the spiritual life absolutely requires three things if there is to be any expectation of change; Patience, Discipline and Courage. It occurs to me that the last one can be very hindered by our need for security.

One of the things you learn when you take a lot of hypnosis training as I have is that one of the most basic needs of a human, perhaps the most basic is the need to feel safe. Our inner mind or sub-conscious has a lot of jobs but its main job is to protect us from danger, real or imagined. It does not matter whether or not the danger is real because the inner mind is very literal and accepts whatever you tell it. One of the dangers that the inner mind can perceive is change. I do not think that it will come as a surprise to any of my readers to note that change is always uncomfortable. We tend to want our changes to be easy, smooth, no real effort involved. In fact we would pretty much prefer that any such changes just kind of happen without our conscious knowledge. We want to be spiritually aware and to manifest all of the dormant qualities within us but we also want it to be fun with no associated anxiety. But, anyone who has made any kind of effort to expand their state of awareness will know that the above ain't gonna happen. Since this is the case we need to understand the process.

It has long been evident to me that most spiritual training ignores these most basic needs of a person to understand just what is happening to them. There is often this attitude from the teacher that somehow you should just accept and do what you are told. Even when they say that you need accept only what is comfortable, still the attitude is there. I suppose this is a holdover from the traditional way of doing things that held true for so many centuries. But, there is a huge difference in this age. In this age we no longer live in little villages where everyone knows everyone else and is totally supportive. We live in isolation from one another. And even if we are in some kind of village there is still an undercurrent of distrust. Why is this? Because we no longer feel safe. Our world has changed so very rapidly over the past 400 to 500 years that we are still catching up. This is especially true since WWII. Our psyches still are adapted to life in a small village. Almost every single person alive now, with very few exceptions is descended from peasant stock and the one true thing about peasants is that they live in constant fear of the Hun coming over the hill to rape and ravage so they have a very deep dependence on their neighbors. But now, in our modern culture where we are told constantly that trust is misplaced, we are even more fearful. Whew, so what to do?

I think the very first thing that a person should do is decide whether or not you are worth the trouble. Will your safety be increased by self-knowledge? Will you feel more secure by going within on a journey of self-discovery? You see the problem? This is something that you cannot know until you actually do it. So begin with the first one, are you worth it? I am not going to say the obvious because you are the one who must decide. If you look to someone else to reassure you that will only last for a short time as Krishnamurti says above. If you need someone, some authority figure, to maintain your self worth, then it will never ever been secured.

When I am working with a hypnosis client, what I will often do is help them create a safe place, a place in their mind that they can retreat to if the hypnotherapy becomes difficult, which it can at times. So here is a clue for you. You have the capacity to create a safe place in your inner mind that you can retreat to if things get too scary. And, from this safe place, you can venture forth into the unknown and truly discover the wonders of your hidden attributes. There is no need to do it all at once either. Little increments are best.

It is important that we feel safe. It is also important that we exhibit courage in our quest. So, as Pir O Murshid continually says, seek balance.

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

6 comments:

Maggie said...

Well done....

Love and Blessings,
Wahida

Susan said...

We always seek to be safe and know how difficult that can be sometimes. But life is a series of changes, some we can control and some we cannot. There is no reason to fear change, just to make it as comfortable as possible.

Susan

helenwisley said...

Everyone wanted to achieved the sense of security...what ever it is., financially, emotionally. sexually.. name it. Even we have achieved many things is our life, we sometimes feel that there is still lacking and we continue to search.. to find out what is in us which is lacking. Sense of security is a need we have to find and to work on and think of ways on how we can have it.

I agree with Susan when she said "there is no reason to fear change". change for the better.. We must work on change for the better. Change will never be uncomfortable. when we decided to embrace that change, we are very optimistic of the outcome, which is to make us improve.. which is to make us grow and and more developed.

The things that happened everyday is beyond our control and so we must be prepared always.

molly said...

My friend David and I were talking about security this weekend. His comment was the historically, women looked to men for security, i.e., safety, for survival of the species. Besides a basic survival instinct, security can be a crutch when we can see beyond the need for it, especially if it is fear-based (as in fear of death, fear of not having enough, etc.) Another comment was that, perhaps security gets in the way of expansion and creativity.

Musawwir said...

This was written to my private email by one of the people I guide. I asked her permission to post it.

Dear Musawwir,
I was especially struck by the topic of your blog this time because it really hit home. Over the last two years I have discovered so much about the concept of security and its presence or should I say domination in my life. Not only was it probably the main reason I married my husband all those years ago but it was probably the main reason I stayed with him so long. I continue to see the need for it pop up throughout my life. But what I noticed just in the last week or two was how most women are totally locked into this need for security and acceptance. Just in this last week or two I've been in stores 3 separate times and heard women saying "Do you think i should get this?" as I walked by an aisle. Each time I decided to casually turn around and go back and see who she was asking for approval, support, acceptance - what ever you want to call it - and each time it was a man. Each time the item was obviously for her but she needed a man - an authority figure - to tell her what to buy. Granted, not all women are like this but I have a feeling that many of us - both men and woman - are. Seems to me this directly reflects what Jiddu Krishnamurti was saying. That “Authority prevents the understanding of oneself". How can we learn to know ourselves, to stretch our wings, to take responsibility for ourselves, our actions, our thoughts if we can pass the responsibility for the decision to another.
In another example I was recently talking with an acquaintance and he was telling me about his girlfriend and how she needs him to call and check on her and check in with her and I understood again that it was all a matter of security - of her INsecurity in the relationship - so she constantly needed him to call or connect, to ask about her, etc. And I understood that this is probably a kind of warning sign if she is not secure enough in the relationship at this point that it may only get worse.
The point is - our need for security is so strong, so much a part of our lives. It truly dominates what we do and who we are if we allow it to. In fact it would be a great struggle to break away from this need for security at any level of our life as many of us have experienced. and who would ever think to teach such awareness and skills in school so kids - especially girls - learn NOT to rely on authority figures for security. (I know one little girl who will certainly/has certainly learned this lesson already, however thanks to her grandfather!)
I for one know I am worth the "trouble", the effort necessary to make this journey. I feel that my sense of security and trust in myself and ultimately in a greater power will be multiplied - a necessary step for moving along the path I am following.
Love, Jahanara

Andrea said...

Without a sense of security we would be lost in fear. But life is not an easy going, it is constant change and challenge even to the point that we are shaken up into the core of our very being.

Who knows? It may be the cracking of a seeds shell when it is sprouting.

Andrea