The first kind of hope says, "I want to get something," while the second says, "I want to get rid of something." Most of us focus on the first kind, which keeps us dependent and afraid. The second kind urges us to shed everything and discover our true nature. If you must hope, hope for the second kind—hope to free yourself from societal bondage, fear, and all that’s accumulated. You are already perfect, like a diamond. What can a diamond want? What more can be added to it? Just remove the dirt. Hope to get rid of the dirt.
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Questioner: What is hope? Is hope good or bad? Why is the mind always full of hope?
Acharya Prashant: Hope is a movement away from what you think the present condition is. This is simple. You hope to be different. Whenever there is a hope, there is an expectation attached to it. Hope is always about the future and you want something to happen in the future. This is called hope. So, there is a present condition, there is a present image that you think exists. You want to go away from it and that you call as hope. ‘I am not good right now, I want to be good’; this is called hope. ‘I am not an achiever right now, I want to achieve’; this is hope. ‘I don’t have all these things, I want to get them’; hope. ‘I have these things, I don’t want to lose them’; hope. An image of the future; hope. And hope wants a change.
Now, hope can be of two types. Understand this clearly. First type of hope says, ‘I am not sufficient. There is something wrong with me. I am inadequate. There is something missing and I want to get something which will make me complete. I am missing a person in my life, I hope to get that person. I am not complete till I have a good job. I hope to get that job’. This is the first kind of hope. This type of hope says, ‘I want to gather more. I want to achieve. I want to accumulate’. This hope says,’ I want to get more’. Now, this getting will make you more dependent upon external forces. It will make you more dependent upon the world.
