The Dharma Of Insecurity - Robert Brumet

Robert Brumet discusses the dharma - the teaching - that insecurity has to offer us. This talk was given Jan. 1, 2021 at Temple Buddhist Center as the conclusion of a 4-day virtual retreat on this theme.

Transcript

Good morning and happy new year.

We've just finished a period of time where uncertainty and insecurity seem to be the bywords.

So today I want to talk about the Dharma of insecurity.

Because insecurity,

Uncertainty is something we typically don't like.

And to use uncertainty or insecurity as a practice seems rather strange.

Because the mind wants to go to a place that feels good,

Feels safe and secure.

And often times we can engage our spiritual practice,

Trying to be secure.

Rather than opening up to the reality of what does security really mean.

What does it mean to be secure?

What does it mean to be certain?

What does it mean to be safe?

Or unsafe or uncertain or insecure?

As we look at each one of these,

Security,

Insecurity,

So forth,

We see that we actually can't have insecurity without security.

And we can't have security without insecurity.

They're both two sides of the same coin.

So as long as insecurity exists,

Security will exist.

And as long as security exists,

Insecurity will exist.

But where do they exist?

We talk about security as if it's a thing to obtain,

To hold on to.

Really it's a feeling,

Isn't it?

I feel secure.

I'm secure because I feel secure.

And we can spend a lot of money trying to feel secure.

And we may or may not get there.

There's whole industries around security.

Homeland security,

Security,

Neighborhood security.

Securing your home,

Securing your financial investments,

Securing your property,

Securing your children,

Your pets,

And on and on.

And still,

As culture,

We typically don't feel secure,

No matter how much we invest in security.

We can't get enough guns,

We can't get enough weapons to feel secure.

Because insecurity is a feeling that we define in our own mind.

Kind of like the story of the master painter in India.

He's a man that lived in a hermit that lived in a cave.

He lived in a nice cave.

And he loved to paint murals on the wall of the cave.

One time he created a mural of a beautiful but very fierce looking tiger.

It was so realistic that he was afraid to come back home when he'd leave.

And here was this fierce tiger ready to jump at him.

That's kind of what we do.

We create these scenarios of fear,

Insecurity.

We create our catastrophic fantasies.

And then we do everything we can to run from them.

And like a dog trying to chase its own tail,

The faster we run,

The faster that tail runs.

So we try to overcome fear by manipulating the world around us.

The only problem is,

When I feel safe,

Maybe somebody else feels threatened.

When I feel secure,

Maybe that's at the price of the security of somebody else in their mind.

We live in a world of concepts.

And then we run from these concepts.

Or we crave these concepts,

You know,

The perfect love,

Perfect security,

Perfect happiness.

Or we create these catastrophes and try to run from them.

I was just thinking on my way in here this morning,

Driving down Ward Parkway,

Which is really quite a beautiful drive this morning,

And surreal.

That the only thing that we know for certain is that we will die.

But somehow that doesn't make us feel very secure.

In fact,

That makes us feel insecure.

So it's ironic,

Isn't it,

That the only thing that's certain is what scares us the most.

Kind of weird,

But that's the way it is with humans.

And so we do everything we can to run away from that fear.

You know,

You can even pay a hefty sum of money and get your body frozen.

So someday,

Supposedly,

Science will bring you back to life.

Or if you don't want to pay quite that much money,

You can just get your head frozen.

And your head will come back to life.

Somehow that doesn't feel very secure to me to come back as a head.

So it's really crazy what we do.

And each of us do it in our own way.

It's not pointing fingers at anybody.

Because whatever one of us does,

We all do in one way or another.

So in the Dharma practice,

We open up to everything.

We open up to what makes us feel safe.

We open up to what makes us feel unsafe.

We open up to what makes us feel secure,

What makes us feel insecure.

Now,

To be sure,

We need to take care of the body and we need to take care of our possessions.

So we use whatever we need to do from a here and now rational perspective.

And if we come from that place of being grounded,

Living in the present moment,

Then we'll do whatever we need to do to be secure.

We don't even have to think about it.

But if we live in the mind and the creations of the mind,

Then we'll never do enough to feel secure.

Because if we see security as something to be dealt with or to not be dealt with,

Then we'll do what we need to do.

But if we look at security as something we need to feel,

Then it seems like we can never do quite enough.

And that's the issue with living in the world of concepts rather than in the world of what's real.

And so we amass far more possessions than we need.

You know,

As a nation we use far more resources than just about any other nation per capita anyway.

And so this infringes upon the rights of other people because we feel insecure.

So we can say,

I feel insecure,

So I'm going to steal your wallet.

So now I feel secure.

But then that creates problems called karma in the Buddhist language,

Which is simply the law of cause and effect.

So we do need to act responsibly in the world.

But we can only do that when we're grounded in the present moment,

When we're present here and now.

Then we can deal,

We can work with what we need to work with here and now.

But if we're lost in the world of concepts,

Then we'll never get enough.

I remember when I was a child,

Very young,

Right after World War II.

And if I didn't finish my meal,

I was told,

Shame on you,

Think of all the starving children in Europe.

And there were starving children in Europe.

But somehow I couldn't eat enough cauliflower to keep the children in Europe from starving.

Maybe I could eat enough cauliflower to get my mother off my back.

Or to keep from feeling guilty because I had food in somebody else's den.

But in reality,

It didn't do a bit of good in the here and now of the situation.

And so that's typical of what happens when we feed our concepts.

When we try to grasp onto some perfect state.

We do this sometimes in our meditation practice.

People say,

Well,

I still don't feel that perfect peace.

And I keep grasping for that perfect peace.

And the more I grasp,

The more it eludes me.

Because grasping is just another way of pushing something away.

So with the Dharma practice,

We just open up to the present moment.

And let go of the concepts of good and bad,

Right and wrong,

Security,

Insecurity.

We let go of any idea of what should be or could be or ought to be.

And we rest in the presence of what is.

And when we see and know and sense the reality of what's here now,

We can feel a shift take place.

It's a very empowering shift.

And we discover the security is knowing that when I stay present in the moment,

I can do whatever I need to do to survive,

To take care of this body,

To take care of the people that I love.

So the great paradox is that by facing security and insecurity,

Recognizing that it's a construct of the mind and not a metaphysical reality,

Not an objective reality,

I realize that's really the true security.

The greatest security is just knowing that everything is okay.

Maybe nothing changed,

Maybe everything changed.

It doesn't matter.

It's okay.

In this present moment,

There's no loss,

There's no gain,

There's no life,

There's no death.

There's just this moment.

And this moment moves into the next moment,

And the next,

And the next.

But it's always now.

I remember when I was teaching in the seminary,

I kept talking about staying present in the now.

And at the end of the term,

The students presented me with a homemade clock.

I had two hands.

Now,

Now,

Now,

Now,

Now,

Now.

It's always now.

And in the presence of the now,

In the presence of the Dharma,

Dharma simply means truth,

Reality,

What is,

Among many other things.

And it also refers to the path of discovering what's true,

What's real.

And that indeed is the most secure path there can possibly be.

Not because it's something that we claim as being the best,

But simply it takes us home,

Whatever form the Dharma takes,

It takes us home to the reality of this moment,

Right here and right now.

So happy New Year.

Namaste.

Reviews

Good good message

Beautiful thoughts for consideration when insecurity challenges our path.

Excellent thank you 🙏🏻

Wonderful derma talk

Perfect. I’m a recent widower of a 31 year relationship. It can be scary being single after that long.
Thank you. Namaste.

Message at perfect time.

Very useful now. Thank you!