It is amazing how much one can glean from the titles of 'spiritual' books. Take for example Alan Watt's book: "The Wisdom of Insecurity". We don't need to read his book to guess the main point ... that trying to control everything and clinging to opinions about how things ought to be in the future is folly. Expectations and opinions are rarely in agreement with presently arising reality. Moreover, the only real security lies in knowing that there is none.
During meditation we ask the question "What is absolutely true right now" We turn our attention away from the past and the future". In the silence that presents itself during meditation we notice that we can't control anything that is happening. In that silence, we notice that we cannot predict which thought will pop into our heads next, or how we will feel in the next second, or what noise in the room might arise. We see that wishing for some better 'future' is to miss the wonder and mystery that is here and now. Is it not clear that our attempts to find security is what causes our feelings of insecurity and unhappiness?
I like the way Alan Watts states it:
"If happiness always depends on the future, we are chasing a will-o-the-wisp that ever eludes our grasp, until the future, and ourselves, vanish in the abyss of death."
What is your experience?
bob
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Bob,
ReplyDeleteWhat comes up for me when I read this is the tim during meditation that I became so impeccably still it startled me right out of it and back into the me I thought I was. It was too bright at the time. I noticed I was noticing and got the heck out! Ah, back into "control", and right smack into insecurity again. It was like letting go of God in that moment.
I think the best advice I ever got about security was, and I quote: "F**K Security."
They were right.
In peace,
April