Aspire for Hope

(I Hope This Makes Sense)

When the new year arrives, we long for a sense of hope. On New Year’s Day 2025, we will hold on to that hope—a chance to begin, again, with a fresh start and a renewed approach. Many of us are distressed by geopolitical conflicts, global poverty, civil rights struggles, the impacts of capitalism and greed, and the worsening climate crisis. Many of these situations might be deemed hopeless. So, what does it mean to hope in a fragile and fraught world?

Hope has the power to encourage us to persevere through difficult challenges. It invites us to look forward with optimism and confidence, akin to faith. Yet, for some, hope can feel like an empty pursuit, an energy exerted without clear purpose, even though they are unwilling to surrender to hopelessness.

The Czech statesman Václav Havel said, “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

Today, I find myself reflecting on the purpose and function of hope, trying to make sense of it. For much of my life, I have turned to Eastern philosophy—particularly the teaching of the Buddha—for wisdom and guidance.

Generally speaking, Buddhist philosophy approaches hope with a certain lightness, perhaps even skepticism. Buddhists believe in impermanence, that everything is in constant change. They practice non-attachment, flowing with life as it is, and understand that clinging to experiences, circumstances, things, or people is a path to suffering. The symbolic figure of the Hungry Ghost illustrates this: the insatiable desire for more leaves one forever hungry. By cultivating a mindset of abundance, one begins to see they already have enough. 

From my understanding, the Buddhist aspiration is to accept the present, to find peace, contentment, joy and loving kindness in life as it is. So how does hope serve one beneficially and with meaning? It just doesn’t seem inherently Buddhist to hope.

Conventional hope is often bound by expectations—hoping for a particular outcome, with a fear hovering of not getting what we desire. This kind of hope can lead to delusion, clinging, and suffering.

In Buddhist teachings desire is a cause of suffering. Desire and hope are deeply intertwined, one does not hope for what is undesirable. One dharma teacher explained that there is a nuance to desire, making a distinction between aspiration and expectation.

Still, many would argue that without hope, we could become hopeless, fall into despair. Hope, they might say, is the light that keeps us thriving and propels us towards a better future.

While Buddhist traditions do not encourage hopelessness, which can lead to despair and futility, quite contrarily, they teach us to release ourselves from a life of suffering and to aspire toward enlightenment through acts of loving-kindness and compassion.  The bodhicitta mindset is one of compassion, a wish for the well-being of all living beings.

It might be helpful to distinguish between two words that some use interchangeably, yet have quite different connotations: hope and aspiration. Hope is typically a wish for something to happen, but without the expectation of personal responsibility for the outcome. Aspiration, on the other hand, carries with it a sense of agency, an understanding that it is something we can actively work toward. If we think of hope as an aspiration, it becomes an intention—a commitment to move forward in face of obstacles. Aspiration plays a critical role in the Buddhist teachings, whereas hope when not accompanied by appropriate action does not accomplish much of anything.

As I aspire to make sense of hope, I believe it is important to keep hope alive—not as an empty platitude or mere illusion of comfort in the face of the world’s cruelty and injustice, but as a way to cultivate positive change. In this sense, hope becomes an aspiration: a thoughtful, positive energy that strives for a better future, without attachment to any specific outcome. When we truly see the world as it is—understanding with a deep realization that nothing is inherently permanent or fixed—we come realize that we can never fully predict the outcome. Hope, then, becomes a motivation to aspire, free of desire and free from desire and attachment to result.

And so, I hope that this new year brings health, happiness, and peace to all. May we enter 2025 with the courage to dream and the intention to act.