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Living Off Hope
Not wishful thinking
Is there a difference between having hope and wishful thinking? I keep asking myself that question as I deal with my fears about global warming.
Science presents us with frightening data about the reality of our situation here on planet Earth. Denying the science is simply ignorant. We can’t simply wish that things will get better.
Some are saying that we are already doomed. That our attempts to affect real change are too little, too late. That holding onto hope for our future is living in denial. That having hope is simply wishful thinking.
I can understand those feelings of despair. What I can’t abide is showing that sense of despair to the children in my life. I don’t want to hide from them my true concerns about the ravages of climate change, but I want them to have some hope, or why would they choose to keep on living? A generation of depressed young people is not what we need during these dire times.
We need what Buddhists call “right action.”
Unlike Christianity, Buddhism is not about praying to a God. Buddhism is all about accepting “not knowing” and taking “right action” with indifference to the outcome.
So “Right Action” is about “right” morality — translated as samyak or samma —…
