There are three conditions required to keep facing whatever life throws at you:
– Purpose
– Hope
– Vision
The purpose is your “Why”. Some years ago I faced mortality on a cold steel hospital table and found that more than fearing death, I feared not having a strong enough reason to want to live. I was in the middle of a “dark night of the soul” and returning home from the hospital was not something I looked forward to.
I managed to mentally go beyond the separate identity of a finite self and promised myself that if I get out of that situation in one piece, I’ll turn my suffering into a resource to help others overcome theirs. That kept me out of the hospital, out of bed each morning, and carrying on with life.
Hope
Hope is a glimpse of what is possible. The opposite of hope is despair – the place where all doors seem shut. Despair emerges from a sense of futility and impossibility. The mind sees no open doors, no light at the end of the tunnel. A troubled mind can do that. When the intellect is seen as the supreme source of information, and the intellect sees no possibility of movement or improvement for any given situation, all hope is lost. Nihilistic views lead to chronic despair.
Hope requires some odds for success and accomplishment. Slim odds are better than no odds. If you knew with certainty that you would lose the fight, you’d stop fighting, would you not? I stopped long ago trying to be a ballerina (or a circus acrobat, or Queen of England). Nobody in their right mind tries at a lost cause (Don Quixote fighting windmills maybe?). We only try at something that we have some chance of succeeding. That is hope.
To me, Hope comes by turning the attention to Spirit – the Ground of Being and ultimate source of Wisdom. When the mind doesn’t see what’s possible, open it up to curiosity by asking “What is possible?” Lift your eyes up to the vast sky to evoke vast possibility and reflect on the question. That’s been my practice for getting unstuck from despair.
Vision is where the imagination goes to depict a desirable journey or outcome for the future. Critical thinking and vision are in constant tension: critical thinking points towards what was, is, and could go wrong; vision points towards what could be right. Everything ever built, invented or otherwise created, started out with a vision in someone’s imagination. The marble block became the statue beginning with the sculptor’s mind’s eye. That’s why I like artists so much: artists are humanity’s visionaries. Peace won’t come from politicians but from artists.
Purpose gives you the “why”. Hope makes your efforts worthwhile. Vision gives you direction. The rest is “how”.
– Purpose
– Hope
– Vision
The purpose is your “Why”. Some years ago I faced mortality on a cold steel hospital table and found that more than fearing death, I feared not having a strong enough reason to want to live. I was in the middle of a “dark night of the soul” and returning home from the hospital was not something I looked forward to.
I managed to mentally go beyond the separate identity of a finite self and promised myself that if I get out of that situation in one piece, I’ll turn my suffering into a resource to help others overcome theirs. That kept me out of the hospital, out of bed each morning, and carrying on with life.
Hope is a glimpse of what is possible. The opposite of hope is despair – the place where all doors seem shut. Despair emerges from a sense of futility and impossibility. The mind sees no open doors, no light at the end of the tunnel. A troubled mind can do that. When the intellect is seen as the supreme source of information, and the intellect sees no possibility of movement or improvement for any given situation, all hope is lost. Nihilistic views lead to chronic despair.
Hope requires some odds for success and accomplishment. Slim odds are better than no odds. If you knew with certainty that you would lose the fight, you’d stop fighting, would you not? I stopped long ago trying to be a ballerina (or a circus acrobat, or Queen of England). Nobody in their right mind tries at a lost cause (Don Quixote fighting windmills maybe?). We only try at something that we have some chance of succeeding. That is hope.
To me, Hope comes by turning the attention to Spirit – the Ground of Being and ultimate source of Wisdom. When the mind doesn’t see what’s possible, open it up to curiosity by asking “What is possible?” Lift your eyes up to the vast sky to evoke vast possibility and reflect on the question. That’s been my practice for getting unstuck from despair.
Vision is where the imagination goes to depict a desirable journey or outcome for the future. Critical thinking and vision are in constant tension: critical thinking points towards what was, is, and could go wrong; vision points towards what could be right. Everything ever built, invented or otherwise created, started out with a vision in someone’s imagination. The marble block became the statue beginning with the sculptor’s mind’s eye. That’s why I like artists so much: artists are humanity’s visionaries. Peace won’t come from politicians but from artists.
Purpose gives you the “why”. Hope makes your efforts worthwhile. Vision gives you direction. The rest is “how”.
