What Is Security

Our title for this morning is What is Security?

And if you will notice, we placed the 14th Tarot Key here for you to look at from time to time as we talk about security. And those of you who have been studying the Tarot with us perhaps may be surprised at the choice of the Tarot Key for this particular sermon. Nevertheless we will see how very important it is to understand this principle if we are to attain to the measure of security which in esoteric occultism it is vital to attain to if we would also have the insights the expanded consciousness the freedom from the hurts and sorrows and fears and agonies of heart and soul which usually are the lot of all of us from time to time most human beings have the erroneous idea that security is involved somehow with having an adequate income that is economically financially well it's quite true we have to eat and if there absolutely no income we'll go hungry and it is also true we have to have shelter if we have no income we'll be exposed to the elements and we need clothing for the same reasons nevertheless that which we really need and require for security and that which we seem to think we ought to get in order to be secure are often very different things.

Basically, security, of course, involves an emotional attitude, and having the outer or economic wherewithal we all know very well does not bring security. I know a man who has many millions. He is one of the most insecure individuals I've ever known, and he walks in fear. He walks in fear regularly, tragically, and often hopelessly. Yet economically he is in extraordinarily good circumstances I know of another individual who often does not know what the income is going to be the next month this human being has everything he requires and it comes when he needs it not that there's anything wrong or evil about having money this is what's a little understood understood but what is not understood is that having rather a great deal of money is one of the most difficult tests a human being can meet in this world and why because generally speaking when we have a great deal of money and sometimes it needn't be such such a great deal, something, let us say, in the bank or in some kind of account, we are filled with fear lest we lose it.

And our whole emotional attitude towards security rests on that particular thing. I know of a woman who had had quite a poverty-stricken life and somewhere in about her middle to late 20s there were turns of events which made it possible for her to suddenly find herself with something close to $300 which she put in the bank this to her was a very great fortune now this particular woman who had had so much poverty had actually known hunger, had wondered whether she was going to have a roof over her head at times.

She discovered, when she had close to the $300 in the bank, that she was experiencing one of the most curious emotions, something that was absolutely strange to her. She'd never had it before. She found herself fearful lest she lose it.

She started to remember the times when the banks had closed down and small savings accounts had been lost and large ones also she remembered various things that have to do with losses for many numbers of people and she found herself in a state of great perturbation tremendous fear and also she found herself utterly unwilling to spend the money either in other words it's pretty much as though you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't the sum of money in the bank to her seemed like something that would give her security for the future and because she was banking on the actual money she was in an extraordinary state of shivers and shakes well this was a very wise woman and after analyzing her reactions she said to herself now I know what Jesus meant and I'm very grateful to have had this experience experience. Because when you remember it says, what will you lay up for yourself that dust and rust can corrupt? In other words, if you have a lot of money in the bank or a lot of possessions, when you die, and we all are going to leave this physical vehicle sooner sooner or later, we mustn't kid ourselves, we're going to, even the masters of wisdom do not hang on to their physical vehicles forever.

It's just that they are able to work and serve in the same vehicle for many hundreds of years, whereas ours happens to be a little more or less than three score years and ten. But the physical vehicle, sooner or later, must be dropped. With the dropping of this vehicle, Are we going to be able to take the television sets, the jewelry, the diamonds, the bank books? They're all pieces of paper and they're all things. Yet we have a tendency to feel that as long as we have these things, we'll be all right. Right. Well, as we said, it is quite true we require a certain amount of something in order to function. For some of us, our karma seems to be such that the something that we have to function by and through is apparently very modest. Some of us, it is apparently very large. Nevertheless, if we look at these people, modest or large, the one thing we will notice, you do not find more security, emotional security particularly, in the individuals who have than in the individuals who apparently have not.

They are very equally divided and indeed not even equally. More often than not, you will find that there happens to be a greater insecurity with people who have a little more of the wherewithal in accordance with the world standards than with those who haven't.

And then we start to wonder about these things. And then we wonder too whether it may not be that many human beings have given up their lives to a mess of pottage whether it might not be that security has to do with the matter of poverty or riches of spirit now what is the poverty of spirit what would the riches of spirit be certainly the one thing that we must recognize is this he who has the courage to live and to trust life is rich in spirit and he who has not got the courage to live and trust life is indeed poor in spirit and this is a poverty and a tragedy indeed so that whether this person may live in a mansion whether he may have servants, whether he may have amassed or inherited untold outer riches, this individual, if he does not love and trust life, this individual is poor and lives in greater poverty than one who perhaps wonders how he's going to eat tomorrow.

I know of a couple who felt so imprisoned by economic necessity and economic need that they more or less sold themselves in bondage to the parent of one of them working day and night and night and day not doing any living whatsoever that one could truly call living slaving and amassing enough money to have economic security they amassed quite a large sum and the depression came and wiped it out all they had when it was over were the wasted years of being enslaved to something which is not wholesome because because again when we look for our security to another individual when we sell ourselves down the river in bondage thinking that is where the security comes from and we speak of it at the moment in terms of outer security when we do this we have been killing the riches of the spirit and in this case with this particular couple perhaps they were far more fortunate than they know or realize because at least they were forced into seeking ways to live life in another manner rather than being in bondage to someone else how often do we feel we must appease another individual because through that individual we are going to receive whatever it is we think we require now this then is a relationship of fear and fear is poverty because fear is narrowing it is destructive there is no courage in it there is no real hope in it there is no love in it there is no living in it and yet the practical people will say and they are right to a degree but after all in this world you have to earn your living therefore you do have to work for someone quite true nevertheless there's such a thing as working with one's heart one's emotions having a certain attitude that is feeling somewhat like this I do not work for for anyone except God.

Whatever it is I do, it is God I work for. It is life I work for. Do I wash dishes because I'm a housewife?

I'm doing this for life, for my loved ones, for God. Do I work in an office?

This is my contribution to the total welfare of society. It is my part of the function, and that feeling, thank you God.

This is an emotional attitude and human beings, incidentally, who work and do what there is to be done with this emotional attitude usually find that their coffers are never completely empty.

But those who work with an emotional attitude of hate, of repulsion a feeling they are worthy of better things that they are not appreciated with bitterness this is what they reap and poverty of spirit is often there that is always there but even worse than that they narrow their capacity for livingness because they do not know how to feel secure in the deeper sense but then what is security just what is security well we can say it's an emotional thing but let's try to analyze what this emotional thing might be and find out if we can help ourselves to develop a little more of the emotional security and see what kind of miracles might start opening up in our lives as a result of this.

An emotional security, of course, as we've mentioned, involves trusting life.

Those of us who've had many sorrows or many frustrations sometimes feel that we aren't able to trust life. Some of us sometimes feel that life has handed us too many hard knocks.

I know a man who doesn't trust life, he thinks, and the result is that whenever he is in a down cycle, he suffers terrible emotional anguish. He goes through tremendous turmoil it reacts on him physically and his life is bitter as he says life is cruel life is harsh life cannot be trusted you have to slug you have to struggle and always there there's the fear of the failure this of course is not trusting life true sometimes we are betrayed by certain people nevertheless usually the betrayal not always ways there are the various karmic reasons the betrayals that come if we learn how to look into our own hearts we'll discover they have come because we did not really trust life we were putting our trust in things or we were putting our trust in illusions for example I know again of a woman who always said, I love humanity.

And then she went into a work which was supposed to be a service to humanity and brought her into contact with many human beings who wanted the service she had to give without giving anything back in return. So she suddenly had the impact of human being after human being wanting to get becoming enraged when it wasn't available turning on her betraying her and so she claimed well I loved and trusted humanity but my experience my practical experience taught me that you cannot trust people because look I did have the proper attitude she says I did have it and look what has happened and then she will give you case after case after case showing what human beings are like and they sound pretty dreadful we do admit very dreadful well what was wrong with that concept if we expect human beings to be what we want them to be in terms of our own ideals then we haven't been seeing truly we haven't been expecting truly and of course the impact or the reaction back to us will be in terms of disillusionment.

Therefore, it isn't that the people were exactly that horrible, though in this particular instance or in this case they acted that way in relation to her service.

It was the fact that she expected that which was not in accordance with reality.

And what happens here then and it has to do a great deal with security what happens in a case like this and we all have had at least minor and experiences of this sort of some of us more than others what happens here is that our ability and capacity to expand outward is interfered with and And we start shrinking back into ourselves spirit-wise.

We start distrusting people and distrusting life, feeling that we have ample reason to do so. And the result is that what was started due to illusion, inability to see clearly, becomes ever more intensified. And in the case of this woman, the fantastic but utterly fantastic experiences that kept piling up and becoming ever more enlarged the betrayals the hatreds that started washing towards her from others was beyond comprehension one would have to have seen it to believe it could be this extreme and almost so complete but you see trusting life does not mean that we close our eyes to what people are like that we close our eyes to the cycles that we close our eyes to the realities at all because we We are relying on people to be certain things, which we have no right to do, incidentally. We are relying on illusions, thinking that we are being idealistic, and this again is worshipping false idols.

Naturally, what will come back will be the poverty in relationship, the inability to develop a further richness in our outgoing nature which reflects back into our material circumstances. This is the point.

And of course, with occultists, it is true, we know, that these things occur far more often and far more rapidly. Because remember, an occultist has said in essence, I wish to expand my consciousness.

I wish to attain to union with God. I wish liberation, I wish illumination, whatever terms the occultist uses. And this automatically speeds up and intensifies the experiences in order to bring to that soul wisdom, insight, and understanding so that we can cope with the environment and grow with it and through it more rapidly. It is a motion that has become very much more rapid and that is why incidentally if you've ever wondered why it is that many people who seem to be such sincere aspirants seem also to have so many problems the reason for this is that they are merely speeding up their karmic evolution and that if they accept and understand this and see it as riches as riches coming to them in terms of experience they will go through the very unhappy phases of it much more rapidly and be able then much more quickly to cope with their environment with an innate peace but some people become quite frightened and drop occultism and then it it is really very much worse because once you've started on the path that which you have been speeding up is already going in the more rapid motion and the Higher Self our Holy Guardian Angel on this Tarot Key will drive us back because you don't go back on the evolutionary drive it is the Higher Soul that makes this dedicatory drive that develops it in and through us and in a way we often say well we're hooked but it is a wonderful feeling when we can learn to trust life and learning how to trust life involves so many subtle elements so many subtle aspects so many insights into the emotional values and changes in our emotional values for example now as we said there are human beings who have a great deal of the world's goods or more than as usual and these of course have a much harder task because it is easier to become dependent on things and money and also it is easier to become possessive and to identify ourselves with these things.

Now, I know a woman who has a great deal of economic security, not vast, of course, but quite large in comparison to most. And this human being, this woman, has exactly the attitude that every aspirant must learn to develop, whether they have little or much, and it is mainly this. We own nothing absolutely nothing we are stewards for the time that we are here there are certain things that we use have we bought a car it's not really ours it's in the world it's in the universe it's a part of life and we use it for a while sooner or later it will break down or become too old or whatnot and it won't be ours anymore it is only ours to use we are stewards and how we use what we have whether it be the car or the house or our income or our lovely things if we love lovely things there's nothing wrong with having lovely things it is whether we become slave to the things and therefore lose the spirit of livingness because then everything that is meaningful becomes meaningful only in terms of keeping this particular standard of living so to feel that one is a steward and not an owner is the first secret of attaining emotional security in other words we might say to accept the fact that nothing remains statically ours whether it be a relationship or a thing that nothing can be kept or held or hung on to this is the first step towards true security in other words again to decide that one is insecure might be the most potent step towards true security we might take if we accept this insecurity in terms of the sense of adventure in terms of the motion of life in terms of a willingness for things to come and go to ebb and flow and of course the most difficult place perhaps to develop this feeling is in our relationships and yet we all know that the people we cling to the most are the ones we make the most miserable because what we are doing in essence is broadcasting our insecurity our fear of loss and we lose even though sometimes we stay together physically because of certain circumstances we have lost these human beings as far as true relationship mental emotional sharing the aspects that make us feel the worthwhileness of life so we We clutch, we hang on to, and we cling to people, and we cling to things, and we fear our tomorrows because we have not yet developed within ourselves that feeling that this particular Tarot key portrays.

And we say, under the shadow of his wings, Jehovah, peace.

Now how does it feel to have the peace of abiding under the shadow of his wings this is an experience of security beyond comprehension it is livingness and it is beauty and it is attainable by every single one of us if we care enough to go after it how do we do it well it involves more than one thing of course as we mentioned first of all it involves giving up emotionally everything that we cling to to this higher self and by giving up emotionally you see the esoteric teaching does not mean that we give up the experience at all giving up the clinging to the old pattern which bespeaks our poverty's and fears being willing to say in our hearts something like this God Higher Self Self, Lord of the Universe, Thou.

This love I feel is your love loving through me.

This hate I feel, this of course lots of us don't like, this hate that I feel really happens to be your conditioning and processing of my vehicle. Do you notice in that angel the fire dropping on the symbol of water, which is the eagle, and the water pouring on the lion, which is the symbol of fire, making steam? This is the processing of the emotional nature, which is in charge of the Higher Self. Whether we know it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we recognize it or not, this the esoteric teachings tell us is the only reality he and he alone is doing the work he and he alone now then to acknowledge this or at least to act as if because at first we cannot feel it as reality we have to practice it so we must start giving up to this abiding presence we must start crediting that higher faster larger something with all the conditions in our environment with all our emotions those that bring us expansion we say thank you God and we feel the riches this is the point to feel the riches in our gratitude and those emotional experiences we have or reactions which seem to us adverse and they are after all immature children will do immature things clumsy infants will fall and be awkward and we should have enough humility to recognize this to take every reaction we have which is immature and hand it also to this abiding presence saying this is the shaping that you are doing this is the growing you are doing for this my vehicle this personality which is truly yours thine in this way you give up your personality you give up your emotions you give up your reactions to that and what happens you find that that is taking over more and more and helping you to catch the poverty-stricken emotions to become aware of the fear aspects almost as they're trying to come out of the nature and instead feel that expansive trust in this holy guardian angel if we train ourselves and you have to train yourself beloved ones it doesn't happen by itself it has to be worked on and it's worth the doing it's worth anything and everything there's no treasure on earth there are no riches anywhere which can repay the treasure which comes the pearl which can give the pearl a great price except training ourselves to give up to that presence anything and everything to think and feel in relation to ourselves as stewards for that one life in this way you see we open up the abundance of the one life because if we acknowledge ourselves as aspects and living aspects of the one vast universal self our relationships become universally rich when we start feeling and we do if we practice it when we start feeling the riches of that relationship and in loving and in giving say it is God giving through me God walks me God talks me God lives me this starts to expand the soul it starts to expand the consciousness it enhances the awarenesses so that we start feeling rich and wealthy because we have the great joy the great gift of sight with with which to see a blue sky and a bird on wing, with which to listen to a note and the thrill of the California nightingale at night, with which to feel the joy and the miracle of the sense of touch, the velvety smoothness and softness of a loved one's cheek with their fingertips.

Tips we start feeling rich as we start telling ourselves that god experiences this through me we develop such a wealth of emotional response to life that it is simply fantastic and then without giving thought for the moral we find miracles start happening economically not that that we become immensely rich economically, materially speaking if that is not our karma as a matter of fact it's a very unhappy state to be in you have that much more responsibility you have that much more for which you are a steward it ties you down more to certain rules and regulations within the spheres it's not such a wonderful thing to have that much extra responsibility in the worldly things, but if God gives it to us, we say thank you and we utilize it. The riches that come back haven't anything to do with that. What it has to do is with the basic needs and the feelings of richness and treasure. I have a very tiny little car which many people would consider a very poor car for a minister to be driving, but that would be their opinion. I feel greater riches and greater treasure in this my little car. I I love it not as a thing, but as an indication, as an example of God's love because of the treasure and the joy of having available a vehicle with which to attend to God's work more adequately.

If I had a Cadillac, which incidentally I do not like, to me they are, it's like pushing mountains around. See, I happen to love little light cars. But if I had a Cadillac, how many people would look at my car and think, oh, she's doing very well in the world. Look, she drives a Cadillac. This is very erroneous kind of evaluation.

The fact that we have a car should make us feel rich.

The fact that we have a roof over our heads should make us feel grateful to be one life beyond description the fact that we can eat should make our hearts sing with joy and should we be yearning for extra things when we have that yet when God is the one who lives through us, walks through us, sees through us, hears through us, every treasure that God has becomes ours in a measure beyond description. And perhaps the greatest security and the greatest treasure of all is that we are saved the necessity of having to spend too much time stewarding too many material things and giving these things the cares they need perhaps that is far more of a blessing than we know but security we cannot have basically without first recognizing that that everything and every outcome is in the hands of God.

There is no other security. No matter how much money we might have in the bank, we can lose it. No matter how beautiful a home we might have, we can lose it. No matter how many treasures, earthly treasures we have, we can lose them.

No one is free from that possibility.

This is not security these things can be lost but the treasure of knowing that God lives us this cannot be lost if we work at feeling it and as we said what happens and it happens is that we never know want like the lilies of the valley we never need to know lack of proper raiment we do not need to worry because even if we had only one penny in our pocket come the next meal time we would find ourselves eating properly delightfully and well This I know with a knowledge beyond anything that I can tell you. This is not a theory to me. This has been verified over and over and over again. And I know without any question whatsoever that the one great work, the one vital work, the one most important aspect of attainment is just in this particular principle.

Accepting life with its changes and continuously giving it to God, living God ever more fully, training ourselves to be grateful to life for the treasure of life and so the treasures of life will come in ever greater abundance when this becomes our true dedication in our tarot classes of course we go in for more of the details and techniques involved involved but here this morning what we say to you is when you walk out try to be this holy guardian angel with the personality seeing the personality as those little creatures below try to feel yourself as abiding under the shadow of his wings try to feel it try to see that angel as being your true self try to feel it try to think of this higher self this larger universal life as being the true liver within your beingness and And then see what happens when you look and listen and touch as you keep holding this attitude ever more profoundly and deeply.

Miracle upon miracle will occur in your relationships and in your environment.