A wise man once told me there is no hope in the world. When I heard Dr. Kenneth Wapnick speak these word to me the first time my heart dropped with disappointment. I thought to myself what is he talking about? Isn’t hope a good thing to have? I asked him to explain this to me as I was in shock. How could something that most of us say quite frequently be null and void? “Dear little sister, you cannot have a world of separation and offer hope where there is none. The world was made as an external picture of an internal condition.”  Anyone who comes to this empty world must still have a lingering hope that the illusion will work. However, it has not worked for millenniums. Yet we still hope that somehow there is a chance our dream of something outside of who we are will bring us peace and happiness. This is because the world was not made to answer our questions and solve our problems those answers lie within each one of us, yet we refuse to go to that space within to look because we are afraid of what we will see. When you think of it that is a very odd way of looking at things because the world outside looks scary right now. The Course in Miracles states, “Learn now, without despair, there is not hope of answer in the world…All must reach this point and go beyond it.” The world we see outside of us offers no choice. The choice is within each one of us. The Mind that lies outside of the physical self we identify with is the only place of choice and solace. The Course teaches us that recognizing that the answers do not lie in the outside world opens the door to the internal world and the emergence of what is available. The only answers that will bring us peace and joy are the ones that lie within.

Hope is looking towards the future and wishing we could somehow change the unwanted circumstances of our life, whatever that might be.  Neither being in the past or forecasting the future will bring us the peace, equanimity, and joy we are all looking for.  Hope is inactive it merely reaches forward to change what is going on that is making us uncomfortable without changing our minds.  Hope is not a change agent. Mindfulness is the only thing that can bring about change.

According to Tich Nhat Hanh, “Hope is an obstacle to peace.” He contends that hope may help us to bear the present moment with a promise that tomorrow will bring us what we want and perhaps make the moment more tolerable. However, that is the most that it can offer. The Buddhist monk known by his students as Thay which means teacher in Vietnamese, sees hope as tragic. Some of you many feel that is a strong word and well you may be right but let’s look further at what Thay says. Human beings use hope to forecast something better coming into their life in the future or perhaps our hope will open the gates of heaven for us all one day. What Thay encourages us all do to is the same thing that my teacher Kenneth encouraged us to do and that is be present to our experience in the moment and go within and don’t be afraid to dig deeper our dive into who we are. When your think of it can it be scarier than what we see in the world today? Only when we can dive into ourselves can we really discover the joy and love that awaits us. The light in our world still shines brightly within us even when the world around us is working hard at hiding the light with darkness.

As I have said many times before, there is nothing in the external world that will bring us what we are looking for. Our joy and peace do not lie with someone or something else. Love, fame, status, money, and beauty are all part of the seduction of the illusion they hold no permanence. Hope flings us into the future and does not bring us to the importance of the present moment and the wellspring of who we really are. To feel fully alive, we must be willing to be in the present moment. We must be willing to feel our feelings and explore our thought distortions as well as the stories we make up in and believe.

The Course contends that there is light in each of us, but we cannot perceive it because we are blinded by what the world has to offer us. We believe that our eyes can see, and they report to us the truth. The Course would ask us not to depend on our bodily eyes to convey the truth to us. We must all use our spiritual eyes our hearts to see not our physical eyes. The light lies within each of us, and it was placed there so that we would look and find it within and know the truth about who we are. This bears saying again and again, Dr. Wapnick states, “The darkness we see around us, cruelty, viciousness, and duplicity; pain and suffering is but a projection of what is in everyone’s mind. Not just the mind of the “bad guys,” whom we accuse of bringing about the world’s pain and suffering. It is in the mind of everyone-victim and victimizer alike-albeit “blinded by the world.”

Why is this such a difficult concept for human beings to see? Why is it always someone else that we blame for our unhappiness or our inability to get what we want in the world? Why are we all so quick to point the finger at someone for our problems? Because it is easier to point the finger at someone else than to take responsibility. The problems we see in the world today are within each one of us. It is not the fault of the Democrats versus the Republicans or the Caucasians versus People of Color or those that want the vaccine and those that choose not to take the vaccine. We all want the same things we want to be happy, know love, feel safe, and live a life with peace and joy, right? Do we think that pointing the finger against each other and thinking that one group is better than the other is going to bring us what we want? I know the answer, do you? This type of one against the other has not ever worked and will never work. This has not worked since the beginning of time and it is certainly no different in the here and now. If we don’t learn to love and accept ourselves, we will not be able to do this in the world.

There is only one way to live in the world and that is to recognize that we are all interconnected, all sons of God or the Buddha. We are all the same, just like me you feel pain, just like me you have fears, just like me you want to feel safe and live a life of freedom and joy. We must be able to look at everyone and recognize the Buddha or the Christ within, this means smile more frequently because we do not take the world seriously. Nothing here has the power to take the peace of God or Buddha away from us except our own thoughts that speak to us of separation and fear instead of love and joy. Remember fear hides love and is buried deep within each of us. We all must be willing to take responsibility for changing our fears. Most of us do not know how to handle our fears which contribute to our suffering. When we suffer, we project that pain outward and want to punish the someone or a group that made us suffer. What’s more we think that aiming this arrow at someone else will help us to feel better and result in less suffering. Anyone want to let me know if this has ever worked for you?

The Buddha stated, “I have looked deeply into the state of mind of unhappy people and have seen hidden under their suffering a very sharp knife. Because they don’t see that sharp knife in themselves, it is difficult for them to deal with suffering.” That part deep within that the Buddha is talking about is covered with layers of defenses the biggest being denial and repression. The sharp knife is what keeps us stuck in our own mud of unhappiness while at the same time projecting unkindness on others in the world. We must recognize our original fear the knife or arrow in our heart if we want to change the picture we see in the world. Hatred, anger, fear is all the same and they lie within each of us. If we want to change that we can only do that through love, kindness, and compassion. This begins and ends with each of us.

In closing I would like to end with the five remembrances in Buddhism:

1. I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape growing old.
2. I am of the nature to have ill health. I cannot escape having ill health.
3. I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape death.
4. All that is dear to me, and everyone I love, are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
5. I inherit the results of my acts of body, speech, and mind. My actions are my continuation.

These remembrances are beautiful to remind ourselves of daily. This will help us to accept the things we cannot change and the only one we can change is number five our minds by implementing right speech, right actions, and right thoughts as this is our legacy and what we leave for our children, grandchildren, and all future generations. Breath and be mindful as it is the only part of us that continues after we are gone.