the ending of hope

Enlightenment is the ending of hope

Usually, if we talk about enlightenment, the message that is conveyed is a very positive one: of blissfulness, peacefulness, great tranquility. That's the positive side of enlightenment. 

One could equally well make very negative messages about enlightenment, because it's the ending of something. And that something that ends with enlightenment has aspects which we are very fond of. And one of the things that ends with enlightenment is hope. Most people have a positive association with the word hope. Hope for a better future. In a way it's the opposite of fear. We fear something terrible is going to happen, or we hope that something beautiful will happen, and most people are living this way in hope or in fear. and in fact the two go together.

We may try to focus on one. Our conscious awareness might rest more in hope or more in fear. But the opposite polarity is there within us too. It's just been pushed into the unconscious part of the mind. When we are afraid that something bad is going to happen, somewhere there's a part of us that's hoping that it won't. And vice versa, when we are hoping for something good to happen, a part of us is fearing that it will not. And this is the way most people live out their days, with this mixture of hope and fear running through them, all the time.

Enlightenment comes when hope stops. And with the ending of hope there is also the ending of fear. We can accept that easily, though. Fear is rather unpleasant, so we like the idea of fear ending. That's why here I wanted to focus on the more challenging side of that, which is the ending of hope.

Hope and fear both relate to the future, and whilst we are dwelling, in our mind, in the future, hope and fear are inevitable. That is the very texture, the material, from which our mind creates the future. When hope ends, we find ourself in the present moment, exactly as it is. The hope that has gone also includes all our wishes and desires. All of that is included in this word hope.

So when hope ends, the future becomes so insignificant that we can say it has ceased to exist for us. We are, in that moment, thrust back into the present moment, here, now, with everything as it is. So this is the challenging aspect of enlightenment. Can we live without hope? Can we live with what is? Can we simply be?