I sat at a meditation retreat with a Buddhist monk recently and during his dharma talk, he said that 'hope' is not a useful concept in Buddhist teaching. The reason: it dismantles any sense of living in the present moment and cultivates and attachment to a belief that the future will somehow become miraculously better. Eliminating the word hope from a Buddhist vocabulary does not mean Buddhism is pessimistic. Rather it reinforces that Buddhism is highly realistic and optimistic about opportunities available in the present moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh explains the shortcoming of hope this way. Calling hope an obstacle, he writes: "When I think deeply about the nature of hope, I see something tragic. Sine we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment. We use hope to believe that something better will happen in the future, that we will arrive are peace or the Kingdom of God. Hope becomes a kind of obstacle. If you can refrain from hoping, you can bring yourself entirely into the present moment and discover the joy that is already here."
Thich Nhat Hanh explains the shortcoming of hope this way. Calling hope an obstacle, he writes: "When I think deeply about the nature of hope, I see something tragic. Sine we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment. We use hope to believe that something better will happen in the future, that we will arrive are peace or the Kingdom of God. Hope becomes a kind of obstacle. If you can refrain from hoping, you can bring yourself entirely into the present moment and discover the joy that is already here."
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