I want to talk about the very important subject of Hope. Because without hope, we really can’t have happiness.

I don’t mean wishful thinking: “Oh, if only…” This is not what hope is at all.

Hope is a very real and crucial ingredient for happiness. Hope – real hope – is not wishful thinking, because it’s based on something far more profound than “if only.”

If we’re not taking any sort of action to create a better future, naturally it’s very hard to have real, solid hope. And when we take those actions, it’s very important to have hope as their basis. Because if we’re doing things that would be good for our life but we don’t have a good reservoir of hope or optimism inside ourselves, we’re actually diminishing the positive effect of the actions that we take.

When we can take an action with the mental mindset that “this is something that is good for my life, this is something that is going to reap rewards in the future,” this is the kind of hope that I’m talking about.

But what if we have a tendency to become hopeless?

To feel hopeless – and I say this from experience – is a very, very unpleasant place to be. A very dark, very tiny, restricted, inner place. And actually, it’s an illusion, because in life there is always hope, even when you can’t see it or feel it or conceive of it.

I often use this metaphor: I live in Toronto, Canada. From here, I can’t see the beautiful city of Montreal 500+k away. But that doesn’t mean Montreal doesn’t exist, just because I can’t see it right now.

It does exist.

Hope’s the same. Just because you can’t see it right now, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist…

It’s up to us to have some kind of an opening, no matter how small, to let hope in. That we can at the very least express a desire that we’re willing to be able to see the possibility for hope. Because there are times when everything appears to be – and I stress appears to be – very dark, and we think there isn’t any hope.

However, that is not so. Here’s a perspective-changing quote from a wonderful woman called Claire Booth Luce, an American lady who lived in the 20th century. She came from a broken, impoverished home and rose to become a playwright, politician, editor, journalist, social activist and ambassador. She said:

There are no hopeless situations; there are only men (sic) who have grown hopeless about them.

There is no such thing as an entirely hopeless situation. Life, as a compassionate entity, has every desire for our happiness and well-being.

And when we open up to allow that to be, sometimes things change very quickly. Why? Because life has been wanting those things to happen for us for probably such a long time, but we ourselves were blocking it with our negative thoughts and words. This is why hope, optimism, is so important.

Again I must stress that this is not hope based on sitting around on the couch hoping that miraculously things are going to suddenly become better! When you are taking action for your life, when you are doing things that are positive for your life, absolutely have hope. Absolutely have a vision in your inner eye of how your life is going to be as a result of these changes that you’re making.

Or at least appreciate all the twists and turns that stretch you and help you grow!

This is real hope, and the kind of hope that leads to happiness before whatever we’re working towards comes to fruition.

Because it’s very important to be happy on the way, if you wish to be happy when you arrive. Otherwise you will achieve things, but you won’t reap full satisfaction, fulfillment or happiness from their achievement. Unless you are happy on the way. Unless you enjoy the journey.

I’m sure you’ve heard that before. And the reason you’ve heard it before is… it’s absolutely true!

Where there’s life, there’s hope. Hope only disappears when you decide something is hopeless.

SGI President Daisaku Ikeda

Photo by Harry Quan on Unsplash