Where do you find hope?

Philosophy Forums Religion and Spirituality
1

Where do you find hope in this world?

Where do you find a hope that endures, continues and lasts? Or do you have a renewable source of hope that you can go back to again and again when your hope gets low?

What gives you hope?
What restores your lost hope?
What renews your flagging hope?

2

xanderman,

I don’t mean to be obtuse, but please explain what you mean by hope. The term is usually tied to something specific as opposed to a general state of “hoping”. For instance, are you hoping for salvation? Do you hope you’ll score with the blonde at work? Do you hope to survive the rush hour traffic and actually get home in one piece?

It’s obvious you are using the term as a general state. Could you give us a clue?

JT

3

I mean hope as the generic belief that you will succeed in your endeavors.

You don’t just want to score with the blonde; you really believe that you WILL score with the blond.

You don’t just want salvation; you really believe that you WILL reach salvation.

You don’t just want to survive the rush hour traffic; you really believe that you WILL survive.

4

xanderman,

Given your explanation I guess I don’t have any hope. Your explanation implies more than a little determinism and expectations that are bound to be disappointed occasionally. (I do hope you make it with the blond :smiley: ) Perhaps we could ask, how do you maintain a positive attitude in the face of uncertainty? I can answer that.

I am reasonably certain, based on prior experience, that I am likely to experience both pleasure and pain, in no particular quantity of either, nor in any particular order. Up to a point, I will pursue pleasure and avoid pain where I can, but even in the midst of pleasure I know that it is temporary and that, at some point, I will experience pain. But that too is only temporary. So what is positive about that?

It is understanding that both pleasure and pain come from the same source. Consider: I love peaches with a little cream and I eat a bowl of them. Much pleasure. I eat 5 bowls of them seeking even more pleasure, and at the end, suffer in pain from over-indulgence. Moreover, chance score says that we will experience some pain no matter how diligently we try to avoid it. There are many things in life over which we have no control. Consider: the sudden death of a loved one. the pink slip you receive as your place of work “downsizes”.

The key is to live not in the past or the future, but in the present. We take what the day offers and make the best of it, knowing that both good and bad are only temporary. There’s an old saw that goes, “sometimes you’re the dog, sometimes you’re the hydrant.” Funny and exactly to the point.

If you can, avoid hope. It’s always in the future.

Hope some of this make’s sense.

JT

5

So do you mean to say that you have zero expectation of succeeding in any endeavor?

Or is it more like, you experience only a mild expectation of success.

I think that if anyone experienced absolutely zero expectation of succeeding in any endeavor for a prolonged period of time that would make life hellish. Dante showed keen psychological insight when he attributed impotent rage to his version of Satan.

So as I clarify my thinking and speaking I guess I consider hope as a relative. Ranging from High or Strong to Low or Weak.

So the question becomes how do you create, maintain or sustain high or strong hope?

What you said reminds me of the story of the Great Ruler and the Wise Ones. A Great Ruler of a land commissioned all of the Wisest of the Wise to compose the perfect piece of wisdom for him. He wants this wisdom to be there for him in time of grief, when things seem too terrible to bear. Yet he also wants this wisdom to help him when things are going great, so he doesn’t get too cocky and arrogant. Beyond that he also wants this wisdom to be brief, so it is easy to recall. After some thought the Wisest of the Wise decide on their wisdom and present it to the Great Ruler engraved on a ring. The Engraving said, “This too shall pass.”

If you put too much attention into planning for the future then you miss out on the present. Yet if you give too little attention to you future, then you have nowhere to go when it becomes the present.

Believe me, I am a champion navel-gazer. I can totally bliss out in the present. Its the planning for the future bit that gives me challenges. Often because I have little hope. I settle for easily attained joy. I keep my life small. I wonder what I might be giving up. To have anything you have to give up something else. You can’t have it all. (And if you did, where would you put it?)

6

Hi xanderman,

I think we’re on the same page but perhaps with different emphasis. Hope is always connected to something in the future. Gee, I hope…
To the best of my ability, I try to focus on the present and perform each activity of the day with as much diligence as I am able. Yes, I have confidence in my ability to perform what I already know, but I try to avoid having to hope things turn out well because that implies that I’m involved in something beyond my abilities. In that situation I have no choice but to hope.

I do understand that it is good to have hope for a better (whatever that means) future. I have that in some vague way. Given the state of world affairs, you’d want to hope for something better.

In Taoist literature it is said that the sage does nothing and yet nothing is left undone. My understanding of this apparent paradox is that the wise man approaches each day with no pre-conceived ideas and simply deals with each thing that requires his attention as best he can. At the end of the day he has completed eveything he can, and so nothing is left undone.

If we can hold this in our head and apply it daily to our living then we find peace and contentment. I don’t need hope when I’m doing the best I can.

I hope this is a bit clearer than my abbreviated first post.

JT

7

Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

-poe

8

“Where do you find hope?”

I think if you go looking for hope you will find it where ever faith is. It depends how strong your faith is in anything. If it’s really strong then life will have to adjust to it and your hope will be realized. But if your faith is weak then life may not adjust to it. I know that’s the way life works! And this does not mean that if you tell yourself that your faith is very strong then that will help you find hope or whatever you desire. No! Life has a way of figuring or knowing what’s deep in your heart, so if your faith is actually very strong, you’ll find hope otherwise not! That’s why they say, “faith can move mountains.”