where is hope in buddhism?

AMH

I am wondering about hope. There are clear ideas of hope in Christianity. Whether or not you get a 'reward' on earth it will surely be waiting and there will be justice in heaven.

I don't believe in that but I also believe that our actions have effect. Like ThailandTom said we are more often focused on the negative and so often we look at our actions as negative. We see negative things and then it is pretty easy under any belief system to blame ourselves. But what I always think of is that we do not know how much worse a situation could be if we had done something crappy.

Buddhism is challenging, we have assurance that tomorrow there will be life and beauty and experience. We also have assurance that something crappy will happen to someone. None of that, including hope, are here and now. Really getting into right here and right now appears to relate to hope, because hope is future and future is not now.

And sometimes I think humans really need hope,

vinlyn

I wonder if we don't see hope as much in Buddhism because we focus so much on being "mindful", which to me, is somewhat along the lines of seeing things as they are?

etherea

Living life in the best way we can, following the noble eightfold path is the best we can do. Being mindful in everything is hard I know but I believe it is the true path to joy, hope, contentment etc.

etherea

oops vinlyn, obviously both posting at the same time

AMH

I can see that, I find when I am better at mindfullness I am not needing hope so much. Then there are times like not when seeing things as they are kinda stink and I would like hope.

I do see hope as 'whatever it is, it won't last forever' whether it is mood or circumstance.

weighted

I agree with @vinlyn and @etherea. Maybe it's because our practice of being mindful roots us in the present. Hope is located somewhere in the future, so if we practice mindfulness we're anchored firmly in the present, seeing things as they are.

person

The Buddha can be seen as like a doctor and the dharma his medicine. If a medical doctor tells you you have cancer and your focus is on having cancer there isn't much hope in that. If your focus is on the treatment which the doctor tells you is %100 curable with the right effort on your part then there is much hope.

I think in coming to Buddhism its common to get fixated on the diagnosis (suffering) because its different from anything else we usually hear and can lose sight of the cure, especially because its so removed from our experience.

AMH

I am thinking that hope is like goals. We hear people have questions about having goals with non-attachment. So I could see hope as that. We have reasonable hope that our cancer can be cured with treatment, but there is a point where we cannot cling to that.

I like the idea of being fixated on the suffering and losing sight of what mindfullness can do.

ThailandTom

IMO buddhism is filled with hope, for a start there is a path, a truth that somebody has followed and realized that relieves all suffering in our life. If that is not hope then what is?There are many places to find hope within buddhism, just because somebody says that something is negative does not mean to say it is negative for ever or even for a long period of time, the same can be said for something positive, that will not last forever or for a long period of time. That is not being pesamistic, but realistic and middle wayed (if that is a phrase lol).

AMH

My counselor tells me everything happens for a reason, I am hanging onto that. I see some things that I thought were so negative and needed to happen.

ThailandTom

Everything does happen for a reason, simple cause and effect. There is a cause or causes and then the effect or effects. But if you want to look into it deeper that may help you to hold on to. The only reason I am where I am now with a certain degree of happiness and peace is because of being in such a negative place several times. Maybe that is what it takes, to go down low and come back up higher than before.. I wish you all the best, I hope you can see the colour and beauty of life @AHeerdt

genkaku

When I asked him, my Zen teacher once told me, "For the first four or five years (of Zen practice), hope and belief are necessary. After that, they are not so necessary."

Necessary as encouragement for practice. Not so necessary because experience trumps hope and belief.

weighted

@ThailandTom I agree: the path toward the cessation of suffering is one that is littered with hope. But it can often be hard to see the hope, or even that one is moving forward; sometimes Buddhist practice makes us address horrible actions and behaviors - both of our own doing and others' doing - that it can be hard to see that the path we're on is indeed a hopeful one, toward liberation and enlightenment.

Thanks for this reminder.

Lady_Alison

Thich nhat Hanh, you are here.

"Breathing in, I know I am breathing in "

"Breathing out, I know I am breathing out."

Not sure if the next inhale will come, seems too much to ask for considering how fragile life is. But I hope it does, and I'm pleased when it comes.

searchingone

buddhism is seeing things as they are

hope can lead to delusion.

while hope is important, it should not become delusional. Like the saying 'everything in moderation'

seeker242

Faith is the first of the 5 Elements of Effort (padhāniyanga):

Faith is main factor of the 4 Streams of Merit (puññā-dhārā):

1: Unshakable faith in the Buddha,
2: Unshakable faith in the Dhamma,
3: Unshakable faith in the Sangha,
4: Quite Perfected Morality.

Faith is the first of the 7 Treasures (dhana):

"Faith is seed, the entrance, the initiator, the ticket, the beginning.
Understanding is the highest, the goal, the diamond-cutter, the end.
Both are Floods of Advantage, Fabulous Fruits, Leading to Happiness!"

If you define hope as "the emotional state, the opposite of which is despair, which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life", then faith provides this hope.

person

@seeker242 You're absolutly right. Its important to remember how faith is defined in Buddhism. Its more akin to understanding than blind trust.

Dakini

Isn't the very foundation of Buddhism hope? There's an end to suffering, and here's the path to it?

"...we look at our actions as negative"? We do? Who does? Why? I'm not getting this OP.

@AHeerdt Are you beating yourself up over something? That will get you nowhere, let it go. Each day is the first day of the rest of your life. Each day you get a fresh start. When I think about it, your situation is about a lot more than mindfulness or lack thereof. I think you're chronically stressed. You have enough on your plate to keep several people busy full-time. Pat yourself on the back for managing all that at all. Build de-stressing measures into your day or week. (MASSAGE, girl!) Look for sources of help and support. (I know you're already doing that, and certain people don't step up to the plate very well...) Accept the fact that you can't be perfect, no one can, especially someone handling a houseful of special needs kids on half-a-shoestring budget, plus job issues and one's own health and meds. Oh, and did I leave out that you're working on a Master's degree in the midst of all this? Instead of beating yourself up, you deserve a medal. Focus on that for awhile, as an exciting change-of-pace.

AMH

Thank you Dakini, not really beating myself up. Had a little bit of pity party for a moment. I actually finished the Masters a few years ago, sometimes I just want to go back to school because that was an area that made sense.

This is more about when we accept that there is no magic moment where we get it all right then how does this all look?

seeker242

Thank you Dakini, not really beating myself up. Had a little bit of pity party for a moment. I actually finished the Masters a few years ago, sometimes I just want to go back to school because that was an area that made sense.

This is more about when we accept that there is no magic moment where we get it all right then how does this all look?

But there is a magic moment where we get it all right, it's called enlightenment.

shanyin

@Bothi good answer.

I suppose there would have to be a point where you should acknowledge dis-ease or dukkha.

Perhaps also there is hope in having faith in the third noble truth, and doing what's right.

ThailandTom

@Bothi good answer.

I suppose there would have to be a point where you should acknowledge dis-ease or dukkha.

Perhaps also there is hope in having faith in the third noble truth, and doing what's right.

That is one of the first steps one must make and realize IMO, dukkha. The buddha had to understand this first, that there is a universal fundamental problem, we all suffer be it mental, physical or both. If you do not acknowledge suffering properly, you will not wish to be cured of it and the ignorance it stems from.