Hope-Fear

 

Photo Credit: QuoteFancy | Pema Chodron

Hope-Fear

Hope and fear go hand in hand – where there is hope that something will happen, fear is not far behind – the fear that this same thing may not happen! When we hope and look forward to something happening, fear and frustration are just lurking behind in wait. One can also look at hope as an expectation. If a person does not have any hope, then such a person is truly blessed because he/she has no fear of failure. Such a person has absolutely no fear of missing out on something.

How can a person not live without hope? For most people life depends on hope – we one needs to do something, one goes out and does it with the hope and expectation that the results will be those which he desired. There is always a lurking fear that things may not happen as desired. We all act based on whatever we are told to do – at home the family tells us what to do-not do, at school it is the teachers, in office it is the seniors, maybe friends are the only ones who accept you for who you are and not what you are!

When hope pushes us, we have the expectation of joy and fulfillment on achieving desired results. We feel successful, and this feeling keeps us going. But we also carry the fear deep down that this success will be shattered. The nature of our spiritual practice too is a process of internal growth, but when it is based on hope that one day we will ‘see’ something, it has its limitation.

There is a story which is always narrated by spiritual Masters about a stupid servant. One day, the employer asked the servant to buy some flour and salt and told him to carry both separately and not mix them together. The servant went with one cloth bag and reached the flour shop and asked for flour and filled the bad with flour. He then proceeded to the grocery store and asked for salt. When the shopkeeper brought the salt, he remembered his employer’s instructions and inverted the bag as a result all the flour fell down. The shopkeeper then filled the bag with salt. When he returned home, his employer asked him about the flour he inverted the bag and the salt fell out – both hope and fear are like that.

When we start doing something with hope, whether it happens or not, both ways we lose because the fulfillment always falls short of what we hoped for. The dream and what happens in reality never match. The dream is always more colourful and vivid. It is minus all problems and the price we have to pay. We can just dream without paying the price, but when it gets fructifies, it comes with a price.