The fruit of hope fulfilled is bliss ... How differs loss of hope from this?

Essays
1

“Hope” is a word I hear a lot nowadays. After the initial shock and devastation that many people in the world felt after the US Elections, “hope” is the new keyword. Hope is something to cling on to. Hope that it all won’t be so bad. Hope is what drives away that feeling of despair and uncertainty.

As a monastic, I live on the basic requisites of almsfood, robes, dwelling-place and medication, given to me by kind donors.
I need daily medication for my survival and I realized today that if I had been a US citizen, I would most likely have been dead by now. I would have been one of those 1 million US citizens who have died because they could not afford the basic healthcare they needed. I’m very lucky to live in a country with a good social healthcare system, and I have never appreciated that enough.
But it also made me realize that I have taken this for granted. Basic healthcare has been within my reach all my life, and I never stopped to think that this might not always be there. Until today.

The US Elections have sent a shockwave through the world. It has been a wake-up call. Suddenly everything we always took for granted is not so certain any more. Nobody knows where this will go. We never knew anyway, but we just did not like to think about that.

Looking at it realistically, I can see that I took something for granted that might not always be there for me. This social healthcare system is something that most citizens in the world never had. It only ever existed for a very small part of the world population. And I have been extremely lucky to be born in that part of the world. I feel immensely grateful to all those people who set up this system and who have kept it going all these years. But how realistic is it to assume that it will keep on existing forever? Even the next decade, the next year?

There comes a great sense of freedom with the realization that I will die. Without a future, without any perception of certainty, there is only the present moment. Every day is a gift. And whatever I can do in that day to help other people only brings more joy.

Maybe this sounds a bit over-dramatic and maybe I am a bit emotional at the moment. But the only certainty in life we have is death, in whatever form that will come. It is never sure when or how we will die. But realizing this gives a great sense of freedom. Death is our greatest teacher.

“Hope” then gets a new meaning: it is the freedom of not asking of the world what it cannot give, of having no expectations but only gratitude and joy for what is given.

The fruit of hope fulfilled is bliss;
How differs loss of hope from this?
Though dull despair her hope destroys,
Lo! Pingala calm sleep enjoys .
Ja 330

13 Likes
2

Thank you, this deeply resonates :pray:

2 Likes
3

Yes, because normally there is a tension in hope that feels like vital, but inevitably fears disappointment, or crushes under the weight of reality. And thank you so much for posting those beautiful verses from Ja, I did not know them.
As a person with a chronic illness who is kept alive through the generosity and honesty of those fellow Italians who pay their taxes , I can completly relate to the feelings of gratitude and compassion you describe. :anjal:

3 Likes
4

After the initial shock and devastation that many people in the world felt after the US Elections, “hope” is the new keyword.

The US Elections have sent a shockwave through the world. It has been a wake-up call. Suddenly everything we always took for granted is not so certain any more. Nobody knows where this will go. We never knew anyway, but we just did not like to think about that.

I have something to give some hope regarding this: the recent ellections in Romania. Less than 1 month after the election, the newly elected socialist passed a law legalizing corruption. This is not some kind of joke, google “romania legalized corruption”. There were protests but they dismissed them. Eventually the protests became huge, with 280.000 people (out of 2 mil city population) in Bucharest been in the streets late at night in winter. They eventually removed the law but still, it’s quite incredible how they tried to legalize corruption like that. And if you think these guys were bad, those in Rep. Moldova are 10 times worse. To say nothing about countries that do not even have a democracy.

I watched the US elections because of the hype on buddhist forums and could not be less interested. Both parties are angels in terms of corruptions compared to Ro, both parties are right-wing economically so everything is as fine as they get. There are just different discourses that they give people to hype them up to vote one or another while in reality both are identical and both are very good. This is what happens when there is nothing more to fight for in a country, where all that needed to be done was done. All that is left is finding trivialities and pretending they are a matter of life and death so that people get hyped up and vote your party.

Really there is nothing to be upset about. All that needed to be done was done already in your countries. Elections are now like a football game not something important like in other countries. I remember one time before having a clue about western politics that I asked myself how are things going politically in these countries where all that needed to be done was done already, what do people debate about ? How will things go when you reach a point where there is nothing more to do ? Well, there will always be a transgender bathroom war to fight and to pretend that is what really matters in this world and that is a matter of life and death for the country.

I hope this information about romania LEGALIZING CORRUPTION (just stop a moment to really think about this) will put things in perspective and give some hope to people feeling things are going bad in their country.

Also worth noting: USA has 4% of the world population, not 99%.

5

Sadhu! :pray: Very, very well said

With all due respect, Ayya, could we finally leave the US elections behind? I mean, I see where you are coming from and what happened after the elections made me pretty anxious too, even though not necessarily in the same way as you, and I respect your opinion and appreciate your willingness to share it with us :anjal: However, I am also pretty anxious about the refugee crisis in Europe (more specifically, about lack of state control and all those pseudo-refugees coming from peaceful countries), I am very anxious about how Russia is portrayed in the Western media since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, I am extremely anxious about how the Western countries are portrayed in the Russian media, I am anxious about the spread of Islamist ideas among the Muslim teenagers here in Europe, I am worried about many political events and topics, but I don’t feel like talking about these issues here or even constantly would be a great idea. I think if the entire controversy of the last couple of weeks taught us anything it’s that getting political isn’t really the best option most of the time.

Just to be clear, I really appreciate your post and think your words are so wonderful, and as @Cara said, they are deeply resonating with me, I just wish (and this is nothing but my personal wish, of course) we didn’t talk about politics for a while, no matter which part of the political spectrum your opinion belong to :anjal:

P.S.: Sorry if I sound rude or something, I really like your post, Ayya :slight_smile:

6

Note that this post was written just after the elections in November, not recently :slight_smile:

1 Like
7

Sorry, Ayya, my bad :anjal:

Still, the message of your post is still true and will remain true until we are liberated :pray:

1 Like