Hope
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things."
— The Shawshank Redemption
Without hope, where would we be? Still, we need to recognize that there is a difference between hope and being lost in illusions, fantasies, or false expectations. Even so-called positive thinking can be misleading, or an indication of spiritual blindness. It may cause us to not look deeply enough into the nature of problems, or may simply support our illusions about life. And, illusions do not really solve our problems or save us from suffering, in any real way.
Do you think the world is just fine as it is? Do you think things are getting better, and just sit back complacently? Our problems keep getting worse the more we imagine that the most important things in life are taken care of for us by government, religion, science, industry, the legal system, insurance, and so on. In fact, each of these systems magnifies or exploits our problems; institutional problems and wrongs come full circle and become our personal and societal problems. If you do not seem to suffer much, or if you are unaware of the suffering of others, you could become apathetic or indifferent, or somehow accepting of wrong. Not acknowledging the evilness of life in this world is actually a form of spiritual denial.
How is it possible to be content or satisfied when millions of men, women, and children — the "less fortunate" — are living tortured lives of abuse, rape, drug addiction, alcoholism, unemployment, homelessness, starvation, disease, pain, and suffering? Do you imagine that government, religion, science, business, or some other institution is solving every problem? How is it possible to enjoy life as the earth itself is being destroyed by pollution, filth, and man's worst scientific nightmares come true? Only if you are truly unaware, or deny or are ignorant of our very real problems. How is it possible to have no problem with all of this, to sleep comfortably at night? Only if you have "elevated" yourself above it, by means of money, power, status, position, or authority. In which case you are part of the problem, not the solution.
As Illusion grows, True Reality fades from our existence.
If we are to have or sustain hope, our hope must be real. It must be the hope of a Greater Reality than we may presently be living in, which promotes peace, goodness, joy, love, wisdom, caring, and giving. It must not be a false hope based in illusions. read more ...
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