Is there such a thing? I guess like most things it depends on your definition. But I'm going to take a few steps out the limb here and say in most cases, no. Security is an illusion.
I mean the sense of safety. That whatever comes we are set against it. But lets examine a few of those examples.
I heard of a guy who was afraid of hurricanes so he built a fortress of a house with half meter thick walls rebar tied 3 meters into the ground, etc. But if you cut the power long enough, he'll have to leave. And while it may stand to a hurricane, how well will it stand to the lack 9of food and services after? Or to looters or rioters, or war? Or the lurking illness that may spring up in his body at any moment.
Of course this requires lots of money to build anyway, right. So is money the security? I don't know because I've never had that much of it by my country's standards, but to many in the world, I would be rich simply because of the size and finish of my house, my reliable 2 cars, my healthcare, and enough food and money to last several months. I guess even in my own country there are many with less. But I don't at all feel secure. If I or my wife lost a job. If we got hurt seriously. If both cars were wrecked. Or if a hurricane took out our house, we'd be reduced to difficult straights instantly. So it stands to reason that just as many would dream of what I have, I dream that if only I had what my doctor friend has, or that TV host, who can pay cash for their house and still buy another. It stands to reason that those people probably don't feel any more secure.
So what then? Buddhism teaches that I should eliminate the desire. Tried, but can't. Can get so far, and then survival kicks in. Christianity and Islam teach I should rely on God. I get that. I love Jesus' style and hope that is true. I really do want to, choose to beleive it. I can even think up examples of unlikely provision, maybe even miraculous. But I can't prove it. For years I was afraid to admit that, subconsciously scared belief is what made it true, like some tinkerbell. But this is hardly a God worth the name, or the effort. So I haven't ever had food instantly appear or had someone instantly heal a briken bone or something. Even the kid with brain tumor that suddenly wasn't there when they did surgery could have been a medical glitch, misdiagnosis. Plus that wasn't me. I just heard it from the kid with the stitches in his scalp. Second hand is good but not direct.
So the nihilistic side of me (see other posts for the two possibilities: Good all powerful God or nothing) says that could all be wishful thinking and circumstance, and even if it isn't, it certainly isn't everyone's experience. Isn't even remotely common. This side finds hope in one thing: that it will all end, so why bother.
Strangely, this is a common conclusion true of all the philosophies I mentioned. Pursuing the illusion is pointless, stupid, insane. Chasing the shadows of fish (Angel's Egg, brilliant movie). So what then? Pursue pleasure? Only until the tolerance builds and I can't get the dopamine response. Play the game and become king of the fish bowl until I drop? Waste of time and souls crushing to boot. Like running a marathon up hill only to find the finish line is a gaping pit of emptiness.
I can only go back to what so many have said. Solomon said it best, I think: just be content in the toil, and find some hot and rest along the way. How can we find that contentment? I don't know. That's why I'm writing this.
But I have some glimpses, dreak flashes of where I think it lies. It's in the present. It's in the now. The infinitely small ever here but constantly changing moment that future, potential, possibility becomes past, memory. I can say with 100% certainty that nothing else exists. If there's a God, this is where he lives.
And just maybe I've experienced that.
Simething in my flesh and bones seems to think so. But I have to get my head out of the way to remember it.
