Universe: Good day, dear one. We see you deep in thought. May we ask what preoccupies you?

Alexandra (Me): Good day, dear Universe! Of course you may. Do you recall I told you about attending a dynamic Buddhist meeting recently?

U: We do.

A: Well a young man there shared his life experience about the difficulty of finding work in his chosen field. He used the expression “the temptation of despair.” And I thought: “That’s it! He’s nailed it!” Because, speaking as one who has had that particular monkey on her back since childhood, despair is indeed a form of temptation. It’s seductive. “Give in to me and your struggles will be over. You’ll never have to make any more painstaking effort.”

It’s as if despair is like a chill winter wind blustering through my heart to freeze it shut. It tempts me — to give up, to stop believing in myself and my dreams, or that my chanting or effort makes any difference at all. Despair dresses itself up as realism and taunts, “Don’t bother.” It’s horrible!

Despair is not a truth, but a trick

U: Ah. A persuasive adversary.

A: Exactly. It pretends to be logical and reasonable, when really it’s a charlatan, a fraud, disguising the fact that it only offers dead ends. And although it never made me stop practising Buddhism, it did make me believe that I absolutely could not achieve what I wanted for my life.

U: What does your Buddhism say about this tempter, despair?

A: I looked it up. And it’s big.

Nichiren Buddhism teaches that despair is one of the most cunning obstacles to enlightenment — a force that tries to make us doubt our Buddha nature. Nichiren Daishonin called such forces “functions of the devil king of the sixth heaven” — in other words, energies that seek to obstruct our happiness by making us feel powerless.

U: So despair is not a truth, but a trick.

A: Oh you put that so well! Yes! That’s it exactly!

U: And what do you do when you feel despair enter your heart?

A: To be truthful, and I’m not happy to say this, in the past I’ve given in to it most of the time. But now my relationship with my mentor (Daisaku Ikeda ) is much stronger, I am resolved to chant and challenge the devil of despair. Whether through tears, gritted teeth or even without clear prayers. I can let the sound of “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” carry what I can’t yet articulate to the Gohonzon.

U: That is courage — continuing even when your soul is weary. That is practising faith as an act of rebellion against despair.

A: I love that! I feel better about myself already! Thank you!

I read once in Buddhism Day by Day, Daisaku Ikeda wrote:

“When we fall into despair, we close off the possibility for growth. But when we challenge our circumstances with faith, we transform poison into medicine.”

So it’s not about waiting for the sun to shine — it’s about lighting a flame inside myself, even in the darkest night.

U: Just so, dear one! Despair is not your enemy — it’s your reminder to return to hope. Despair tempts you, it’s true. But it also points to where you stopped believing in your own infinite capacity and potential. In your Buddhahood.

Practising faith as an act of rebellion against despair.

A: So if I look at it like that, instead of giving in to despair as I used to, I can use the situation to transform poison into medicine. I can practise that rebellion you spoke of, and decide on hope.

 U: Yes. You turn the darkest moments into the ground for your transformation when you choose to generate hope.

A: Through faith, through chanting, through refusing to give up.

U: Exactly. To live as a Buddha means to keep deciding — again and again — to hope. Hope is not passive, it’s an active choice.

A: Thank you, dear Universe. I’ll keep chanting — and keep choosing hope, over and over again.

“The times when we experience the most intense suffering, unbearable agony and seemingly insurmountable deadlock are actually brilliant opportunities for doing our human revolution.” ~ Daisaku Ikeda

Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash