The value of hope or how to trust in life

There is words that make us feel good As soon as they are pronounced, words that reconcile us with the hidden truth of things: the calm that will follow the storm or the happiness that life offers us at every moment, even though we are too absorbed in our problems to realize it.

Hope is one of those words that we all secretly love, despite not fully understanding its meaning. we like to think that there will always be a door that will open at the last moment and will save us from pain or misfortune.

The despair, a distressing situation for those who suffer from it, it is simply lack of hopeas the name suggests.

Many thinkers have meditated on this subject. Aristotle defined hope as “the dream of the waking man”, in the sense of the longings towards which we run and that give meaning to our lives. The Latin poet Ovid points out for the part of him that we need hopethat this is an ontological necessity, inscribed in our being: “Hope makes the castaway wave his arms in the middle of the waters, even when he sees no land anywhere.”

Hope beyond its meaning

the word hope comes from waiting. As Giovanni Papini said, “human beings only live for what they expect”. Life is often a succession of waiting: mothers await the birth of their children, children yearn to grow up, young people find their place in life and the promises of love, mature people see their children or their projects grow. and the elderly a quiet life, a prelude to an afterlife.

There are two possible approaches to what hope means. One is rational, it is about a state of mind in which we see what we want as possible. That is to say, we make a calculation of probabilities and it seems plausible that we pass the exam for which we have prepared with great care, or that we will marry the couple who loves and understands us.

But on other occasionshope is a magical option. This is what happens when we think that we will hit the pool that will make us rich or we hope that some miracle will save the family member evicted by medicine. In any case, it is a social good, because as Ramón Llull recalls: “The poor man endowed with hope lives better than the rich man without it”.

A matter of confidence and optimism

Hope has to do with a act of trust or adherence to life. We trust that the sun will rise tomorrow, as it does every day, without worrying about the possibility that it might not. And when, as children, our father would suddenly put us on his shoulders, we were not afraid. From that almost vertiginous height we contemplated the world in admiration and amusement.

we usually say thatyou can’t live without hope because this is part of the process of reality, it is one of the energies that makes it possible. According to Julio Cortázar: “Hope belongs to life, it is life itself defending itself.”

We like to live hopefulbecause that way the good that happens to us acquires greater relevance, we taste it with greater relish thinking that it will never end, at the same time that we imagine that the bad will not last forever and will soon turn into something pleasant.

Hope is a good, since it allows us to live with joy and optimism while helping us to move forward despite moments of uncertainty and pain.

It also has to do with the capacity for optimism what we have. Although it is true that, depending on the character, some people are more open to hope than others. The pessimist thinks that the optimist exaggerates in his kind vision of the world, and the optimist believes that the pessimist only sees the dark side of things, believing himself to be well informed.

The best is cultivate moderate optimism but constant regarding appreciation for the world and its inhabitants. Or, if you prefer, a slight hopeful pessimism: things are not really as bad as they seem.

make things happen

A father of a family asked God for help in the following way: “Lord, you know that we are in need and we are experiencing hardships. Please, make me win the lottery”. But that did not happen, despite which the man did not stop imploring the coveted prize over and over again. Until one day, in the middle of his prayer, he heard a deep voice that told him: «” Please, buy some lottery number”.

There are times when one of our most intimate desires is mysteriously fulfilled, without us understanding why it was so easy. While other desires seem to never come true. According to Eastern thought, everything that happens basically depends on karma consistent with our previous actions. What is planted is collected. Buddha said: “If you want to know what your future life will be like, look at how you behave in this one, and if you want to know what your previous life was like, see its consequences in what happens to you now.”

Hope is somehow the intuition that there are many good possibilities that open before us at every moment and that we can update in our lives if we act with intelligence, sensitivity and goodwill.

But we also call hope the secret conviction that if we make a mistake in the choice or do not work hard enough to achieve our objective, all doors are not closed for that reason. the future may give usother opportunities and what seems like a failure is a necessary learning to later achieve something valuable, be it material or intangible.

The advantages of not clinging to hope

It is true that on certain occasions hope is related to an attempt to overcome fear that we all have in the face of possible suffering. In this sense, the philosopher Schopenhauer considered that “whoever has lost hope has also lost fear.”

This paradox can be understood as the possibility of placing oneself in a psychological state of equanimity, in which the person does not feel the need to pursue personal desires or to flee in fear. Without fear or hope is the motto of a form of wisdom –rooted in warrior virtues– that allows maintain serenity in all circumstances.

Such was the ideal of the Stoic philosophers, of the medieval knights, the Buddhist ascetics or the samurai with their code of behavior based on bushido: who expects nothing, fears nothing.

One possible application of this attitude involves reconsider what success means. Whoever can maintain a balanced attitude, both when he is happy for having obtained what he wanted and when he is sad for not having achieved it, then he will always be a winner.

There is not always a direct way to get what we want. Perhaps it is reasonably beyond our abilities or numerous obstacles arise. Sometimes it is wise to adopt a healthy distancing posture as advised by Leonard Cohen: “You don’t have to be pessimistic or have hope”.

In any case, it is often said that hope is the last thing to be lost. In the words of the philosopher Thales of Miletus: “Hope is the only good common to all men; those who have lost everything still possess it.”

Hope to lose the fear of death

But Can there be hope beyond hope? What attitude can one have, for example, before death?

Often we are stunned and scared by the idea of ​​death as the end of everything, thus forgetting that birth implies death, and vice versa. We might think that, just as we go to sleep confident in waking up again, the dream of what we call death will lead us to another dawn. It is possible to accept that the physical body can disappear, without thereby extinguishing our deep or spiritual being.

Vedanta states with stunning simplicity: “What does not change cannot be changed, what changes cannot be stopped.” That is, there is a material part of us subject to time, while another is immutable and free from temporality (Atman). If we look, the “I” does not really change in the various phases of life. If so, an old man would not be able to remember when he was a child.

In times of grave danger or even imminent death, it is good to invoke the presence in us of the spirit. Whatever our religion or the idea that we may have of that something sacred and luminous, it is good to believe in such a reality. Because in this way we can maintain a link, even if it is virtual, which will be favorable for us in critical situations.

Hope, a value for life

you have to trust and hope in infinite possibility. Who has not had one of those terrible dreams in which, for example, we fall from a great height and feel terrified that everything is going to end when we crash to the ground?

But before that happens, we wake up and notice with relief the warmth of the sheets on our bed. The dream seemed real while it was taking place in our mind, when in fact it did not. So also the existence in the waking state has a real part and an illusory part at the same time. Everything changes around us. Life is governed by opposing and complementary forces. We cannot make sure that all experiences are pleasant.

There is pleasure, but also pain, depending on the circumstances. Just like there is cold and heat. The fire that bothers us in summer is appreciated in winter. Everything is relative in this sense.

Hope is like a favorable wind that propels our ship. But there are times when that wind doesn’t blow and we can’t move forward. You have to know how to wait, it will come again. And if at another time a shipwreck occurs due to inclement weather, hope could also save us.

Living hopeful is a bliss in itself, the good that is longed for comforts us already before we reach it. As a Japanese proverb says: “Even better than arriving is traveling full of hope.”