Faith is knowing with certainty, and perhaps sometimes with doubts, that something is as one believes it to be. Jesus is Christ, the human face of God among us, the Word made flesh, our saviour and our redeemer. Faith grows and can be shaken. Faith lets us sleep well at night and can be the reason we get up in the morning.
Hope is trickier, me thinks. Hope is desire, an illusion, a projected outcome: Buddhism does not stress hope as a quality to be nurtured. Why? Because it is a waste of energy. If one hopes for a sunny day, one may hope, but this will have little effect on the weather. I always had trouble with no hope. Without hope, how does faith then grow? We can hope for a lot of things that are futile, like having the winning numbers in a lottery or hoping that a child will grow up to be president. Useless.
However when an individual hopes for himself, and is willing to make an effort, then i see a valuable tool for motivation. Though i may have no control over the weather, i can, for example, hope that i stay dry and take the necessary actions to increase my chance: rain ware, umbrella. A Buddhist might still say, a waste of time! Thinking this way one is bound to be caught up in desires for one result and be disappointed if the result is not met. One might better accept that the weather shall be as the weather shall be and enjoy whatever the weather does. True. This makes sense to me.
Hope gets trickier when i see someone with a serious injury and i hope that all ends well. I hope this because i am clinging to a particular expectation, says the Buddhist. Ah, but if i help treat the injury, may i then not hope? No, says the Buddhist, one can do ones best, but one cannot determine the future; even though one has an umbrella, despite ones best efforts one can still get wet. Hoping that one stays dry will only increase ones disappointment, and like the injury, if the desired result is not reached then there still will be greater suffering.
It still didn't sit right.
And if i hope for something, i use my reason and compassion to personally try to increase the odds of my expectation (i use medical knowledge for the injury and am wholly present for the other, say holding his hand and giving him support and prayer), though i may be disappointed, i am taking action. Hope is active, not passive. Hope is an ingredient, like yeast in bread, small and unassuming, yet essential for growth, me thinks. Hope allows me to participate in life directly. Of course the Buddhist warnings make sense to me: hoping for a winning lottery number is a waste of energy. However, hoping for and working towards somethings are part of faith. Though my faith tells me i can count on God's mercy and grace, i cannot take it for granted and do nothing, but i can hope for mercy and grace and take action. Hope makes my motivations white as snow. Hope fills me with the courage to take another step into darkness and the unknown. Faith puts God at my back so i am never alone. And even in disappointment, hope softens the blow and prevents my surrender. Hope lies between reason and intuition. Together with faith, hope is the foundation of compassion or charity/caritas, or love. Brother Buddhist, may i recommend a clarification of 'hope'? Silly or wasteful hope i can do without. But the other, wise hope is as real and worthwhile as enlightenment itself, that which awaits us upon the other side of the stream.
Deo gratias.
Hope is trickier, me thinks. Hope is desire, an illusion, a projected outcome: Buddhism does not stress hope as a quality to be nurtured. Why? Because it is a waste of energy. If one hopes for a sunny day, one may hope, but this will have little effect on the weather. I always had trouble with no hope. Without hope, how does faith then grow? We can hope for a lot of things that are futile, like having the winning numbers in a lottery or hoping that a child will grow up to be president. Useless.
However when an individual hopes for himself, and is willing to make an effort, then i see a valuable tool for motivation. Though i may have no control over the weather, i can, for example, hope that i stay dry and take the necessary actions to increase my chance: rain ware, umbrella. A Buddhist might still say, a waste of time! Thinking this way one is bound to be caught up in desires for one result and be disappointed if the result is not met. One might better accept that the weather shall be as the weather shall be and enjoy whatever the weather does. True. This makes sense to me.
Hope gets trickier when i see someone with a serious injury and i hope that all ends well. I hope this because i am clinging to a particular expectation, says the Buddhist. Ah, but if i help treat the injury, may i then not hope? No, says the Buddhist, one can do ones best, but one cannot determine the future; even though one has an umbrella, despite ones best efforts one can still get wet. Hoping that one stays dry will only increase ones disappointment, and like the injury, if the desired result is not reached then there still will be greater suffering.
It still didn't sit right.
And if i hope for something, i use my reason and compassion to personally try to increase the odds of my expectation (i use medical knowledge for the injury and am wholly present for the other, say holding his hand and giving him support and prayer), though i may be disappointed, i am taking action. Hope is active, not passive. Hope is an ingredient, like yeast in bread, small and unassuming, yet essential for growth, me thinks. Hope allows me to participate in life directly. Of course the Buddhist warnings make sense to me: hoping for a winning lottery number is a waste of energy. However, hoping for and working towards somethings are part of faith. Though my faith tells me i can count on God's mercy and grace, i cannot take it for granted and do nothing, but i can hope for mercy and grace and take action. Hope makes my motivations white as snow. Hope fills me with the courage to take another step into darkness and the unknown. Faith puts God at my back so i am never alone. And even in disappointment, hope softens the blow and prevents my surrender. Hope lies between reason and intuition. Together with faith, hope is the foundation of compassion or charity/caritas, or love. Brother Buddhist, may i recommend a clarification of 'hope'? Silly or wasteful hope i can do without. But the other, wise hope is as real and worthwhile as enlightenment itself, that which awaits us upon the other side of the stream.
Deo gratias.
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