hope
genkaku
Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
Hope is an interesting commodity. One the one hand, it can inspire wonderful efforts. On the other hand, it can divert attention from nourishing goals. And probably there are a lot of other facets as well.
But one of the things that has to be conceded about hope is that it always relates to some other time or place or circumstance -- something not yet in hand. Buddhism, by contrast, encourages a present-moment-ness, something that is not other.
As far as I can see, all this puts hope and Buddhism on a collision course that is more likely to produce confusion than peace.
My own take is to hope when I need to -- enough to get my energies in gear -- but to try to keep a sharp eye out for what is bound to create more, rather than fewer, confusions. It's not much of an approach, perhaps, but it's what I can come up with.
What's your take on hope?
Comments
I pay little attention fostering either hopefulness or hopelessness. Each moment is difficult enough to be experienced for what it is without developing additional levels of conditioning to wade through in meeting it.
But.....
If depression was something that burdened me, I'd probably change my tune.
I have come to learn, experience and accept that all hope contains is a big fat zero and that it's just two characters removed from 'hype'.
U & I.
So 'you and I' need to rely less on hope and more on acceptance and detachment.
I feel much better since I gave up hope.
Hope can be an attitude to react to whatever happens with faith that good seeds produce good results.
TNH has a quote extolling hope.
let's have it then...
Hope comes with doubt and doubt disrupts the peace. You can plan for better but you have to be willing to accept any result before doing so.
Is 'hope' the same as 'faith'?
@federica -- I think not. I don't hope I can ride a bicycle, but, based on experience, I do have faith I can.
Hope is for the future and faith is timeless confidence.
Was at work. Here's the quote.
“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
That leads to disappointment when we put up such expectations. I completely disagree with what you quoted because it simply shifts the problem into the future instead of learning to accept the situation.
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The Buddhist definition of 'faith' would indeed be Confidence. Because what we are taught CAN be verified. If we are unable to verify it, nothing compels us to either accept it or believe it. We are not obliged to take anything 'as read' at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Hope as you define it is a Theistic definition of Faith.
A heartfelt desire that one day they may be proved right.
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...Which smacks too much of Theistic Faith to me.
He's an exceptional man but I don't agree with every PoV he expounds.
I tend to accept things acceptably true with verification until adequate evidence decides otherwise. The balance is that we have to have some faith in what decide or we can never decide anything. I only would not define my faith as seeking for something to end up being true as I would prefer to seek the truth in all things and let the truth reveal itself.
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That 'faith' is more often than not grounded in past experience or sensible appraisal.
One may require a modicum of faith but it is always accompanied by discernment.
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Great in theory but possibly a little naïve in practice.
I would hate to simply take someone's word that they would promise to pay back the £500 I lend them on that basis. I would definitely want some type of promise to back it up, myself...
Seems like a bit of optimism but I don't see where any belief in a God or Gods are needed for that. Bob
It's a well-known fact that TNH embraces Christianity to the point of quasi-devotion....
Great in theory but possibly a little naïve in practice. I would hate to simply take someone's word that they would promise to pay back the £500 I lend them on that basis. I would definitely want some type of promise to back it up, myself...
There is a greater complexity to what it is I am proposing. Seeking a specific truth would be "Is he going to pay me back? Is he not going to pay me back?". I say that is invalid reasoning. To seek all truths is to ask "How far will he go to pay me back in various situations and does that fit with my expectations?". Of course you can never know the answer to this but you can make an educated guess.
Using faith in that decision a truth will reveal itself when a specific situation arises to pronounce the results of that specific truth. What was more valuable than payingg me back and paying me back ended up being more valuable than what? The other truths have yet to reveal themselves as you have yet to determine if his staring children are less valuable than paying you back or his new boat.
I'm on my phone as I do not possess a computer so giving you a comprehensive response is awkward and too long-winded but I will merely opine that you drastically over-think things and give yourself far too much to ponder when in fact Buddhism focuses on simplifying Views.
The roadmap is quite dazzling in how simple things are; however that is not to say it's easy. But nothing is as hard as you are making it for yourself.....
BTW- I quoted TNH. I'm not saying I agree with him or disagree with him.
I never took it that you did, either way. :0)
It is what it is. I don't need my views simplified and to lose sight of accepting the way things are.
Buddhism is not about simplifying the world but of simplifying the self. In my question posed "How far will he go to pay me back in various situations and does that fit with my expectations?" On the left resides the complex world but on the right lays your own "expectations". What would the expectations be of an enlightened Buddhist? If expectations are derived through equanimity then there are in effect little to none. The answer becomes, "It doesnt matter what situation or that he would pay me back at all but perhaps there is something to be observed in this."
Ive been told expectations are unfulfilled resentments. lol!
@federica, I don't believe in God, either. But I find that when we're immersed in moments of affliction, the hope that things will eventually look up sometime, somehow, as they usually do (time heals everything, things eventually turn into its opposite, etc) renders the process of acceptance easier to embrace. And this hope has no theistic underpinning to it. It's a basic optimistic feeling that keeps us going instead of giving in to despair.
Making good karma is by transforming drama into dharma. We need to cheer up to have right effort. Hope can be a passing radiant feeling that we use as a tool to cheer up and lighten up.
Hope; that event or thing that is always on the far horizon, having to continuously strive for a certain future we neglect now, that when we reach the end of this existence we ask where it went. To quote Schopenhauer; taken from "On the Vanity of Existence":
"The scenes of our life resemble pictures in rough mosaic; they are ineffective from close up, and have to be viewed from a distance if they are to seem beautiful. This is why to attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and why, though we live all of our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving as the road to our goal. This is why most men discover when they look back upon their life that they have the whole time been living ad interim, and are surprised to see that which they let go by so unregarded and unenjoyed was precisely their life, was precisely that in expectation of which they lived."
-Arthur Schopenhauer Essays and Aphorisms p.53
Hope is a desire for something other than what is.
Faith is a belief without certitude.
No need for it. I am a Gnostic Buddhist. Hopefully what we know is more than sufficient. If not there is always hope . . . one of the reasons I plant seeds . . .
Interestingly, I was doing some reading this afternoon and thought of this post when I read,
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That's just it. I do not assess situations as either good or bad, positive or negative, optimistic or pessimistic.
To me, they are what they are. I carry on regardless and merely go through the experience.
Joy does not last. Then again, neither does sorrow.
Every day is an opportunity once I realise my eyes have opened. Another day is a chance to do better and try to get it right.
So it's one step at a time with an inner expression of serenity.
Well, that's the theory anyway...!
^^ That's totally me you have just described. Still, in very painful moments in my life, hope in a positive connotation of hope, kept me going till the situation changed yet again.
I'm not crazy about the word. .....As someone said above...it strikes me as wishing something was different than it is/was .......or it can be a prime dish of setting up expectations. I try not to use it. I also try to stop it when my lips are breaking to say it...
" Aghhh.....I hope Abeena is home on her curfew".
"I hope I don't have to choke the guy that drops her off" .... hahahaha