iamom | One from last week on letting go of hope

Appreciate life by having no hope. It sounds terrible, doesn't it? But a life without hope is peaceful, joyful, compassionate. Anyone who sits for any length of time sees that there is no past and no future except in our minds. There is nothing but Self, and Self always is here, present. It's not hidden. We're racing around like mad, trying to find Self, this mysterious, hidden Self, and Self is always here, present. Where is it hidden? We hope for something that is going to take care of our little self because we don't realize that already we "are" Self. There's nothing around us that is not Self. What are we looking for?

The paradox is that in totally owning the pain, the joy, the responsibility for experiencing our life - if we grasp this totally - we are free. We have no hope, no need for anything else. But when we live in dreams and hopes, the wonder of the man or woman sitting next to us escapes us. Hoping for something special, we fail to appreciate the miracle of life as it is."
--Charlotte Jo Beck