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Faith, Hope and the Kingdom of God
The motto of my high school in Hong Kong, a well-known Anglican school, is Faith, Hope and Love. It is derived from a passage from one of Saint Paul’s letters, 1 Corinthians 13. Hope is very significant in Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality is forward-looking. The Britannica has this to say about hope:
Hope, in Christian thought, is one of the three theological virtues, the others being faith and charity (love). It is distinct from the latter two because it is directed exclusively toward the future, as fervent desire and confident expectation.
In our popular culture, hope tends to be considered as a good thing. One caveat, however, is that hope is one of the troubles from the Pandora’s Box.
It is notable that Buddhism does not talk about hope. While Christianity emphasizes hope, Buddhism emphasizes hopelessness. Tibetan Buddhist master, Choyam Trungpa, once made a shocking statement that the beginning of a spiritual journey is to become hopeless. The student practitioner has to essentially abandon all hope. This is an important step because one cannot move forward and make spiritual progress unless one can accept what IS. Contrary to what many people may think, the Buddhist notion of hopelessness is not negative or pessimistic. In fact, it is liberating and it is part of the “beginner’s mind.” We can understand this from…
