Expectation, Aspiration and Hope
Original source: satipanya.org.uk
In this thoughtful essay, Bhante Bodhidhamma examines three distinct mental attitudes we hold toward the future and our spiritual practice. He begins by exploring expectation as a manifestation of the ego's need for control and security, showing how it inevitably leads to disappointment when reality fails to match our projections. Drawing on the example of the Bodhisatta's own struggles before his awakening, Bhante illustrates how even spiritual expectations can become sources of suffering.
The essay then turns to aspiration, which Bhante describes as having an 'ethereal' quality - a humble movement toward wise and beautiful goals without the presumption of guaranteed success. Unlike expectation, aspiration embraces uncertainty and sees setbacks as clarification rather than failure. This attitude allows for genuine spiritual progress without the burden of prideful attachment to outcomes.
Finally, Bhante introduces a special understanding of hope as 'Dhamma joy' - the mudita that arises from virtuous living and deepens as one progresses along the Path. He traces this hope through different stages of practice, from initial intellectual conviction through direct experience of the Path, culminating in the unshakeable hope of the Stream-enterer who has tasted nibbāna. This teaching offers practical wisdom for approaching both meditation practice and daily life with greater freedom from the suffering inherent in expectation.
Expectation, Aspiration and Hope.
Expectation what suffering there is in that! The self likes to be in control. It likes to
know whats going to happen. It needs to feel safe, secure. And there, of course, lies its
underbelly of weakness. We expect the summers to be sunny. We expect a pay rise.
We expect to go on holiday. We expect friends to help us. Mothers expect babies. And
we expect spiritual progress from our practice. The list is forever. Expectation assumes,
presumes, takes for granted. Its a manifestation of arrogance.
Expectation is bound to fail us one way or another for it projects an ideal, a concrete goal
on the future whose parameters we dont know. We simply dont know what is going to
happen. So when our expectation fails to materialise we are disappointed, depressed by it.
Suddenly my jobs gone. Did I really expect it to last for the whole of my life especially these
days? Did I really expect not to fall ill? Did I really expect this relationship to last for ever?
Unfortunately, if our expectation does come mainly to manifest, then, of course, weI told
you so! I knew it was going to happen! But that just increases our sense of being in control,
being able to predict. More pride, more hubris and then the fall. Consider the dictators of
the last century. The tragic-comic figure of Saddam Hussein. A life that rests on expectation
is forever falling into ditches.
The Bodhisatta also sat dejected by the road. All the practice, all the mortifications he had
done, all had been of no avail. Then on the seat of his awakening beneath the Bodhi tree,
the arrogance manifested. Mara comes with his hoards. Who was he to sit there and find
the end of suffering? Only by virtue of his generosity, that he was doing it also for the
benefit of others, was the Great Doubt dispelled. Lucky for us!
Consider how many times weve been disappointed in our lives. Such is the measure of
expectation. Enough of expectation, then!
Aspiration is a lovely word. Its root is the same as respiration. s ethereal. Aspiration does
not expect, assume, presume. It does not have a success time or finishing date. Yet it
espouses beautiful aims and objectives. It has a nobility, a dignity about it. One aspires
to produce art, to assist others, to shape the future. An artist, a nurse, a politician (no
cynicism please!). And of course one aspires to be liberated, to be awakened.
Aspiration does not presume fulfilment, does not presume on others. It is simply a
movement in the mind, a desire for the wise, the beautiful and the virtuous. An inclination
towards a goal. And thats how the Buddha expressed it. We should . And so aspiration
gathers all the necessary qualities and support to move in that direction.
Aspiration is humble. Not the false humility of a prideful self. A cover to prevent the
humiliation of failure in others eyes. Genuine humility is that groundedness that comes with
seeing life not as success and failure, but as trial and error. If things dont work out, well, at
least I know what is not for me. It clarifies future action. Many westerners join the Sangha
with great commitment and faith, only to find it is not the right lifestyle for them. Their time
in the order will not have been wasted.
Hope, I am using here in a special way. It is usually a humbler word than expectation.
It expresses an uncertainty, a hesitation. It is often a well-wishing, a prayer. But here I
am pointing to something more certain. To a Dhamma joy. It is a quality of mudita often
translated as sympathetic joy, but this misses the point of joy in oneself, such as the joy
that comes from knowing we live virtuous lives.
Here hope is the joy of knowing there is a future arrival, a completion, as when the doctor
tells us that the illness will pass. This hope in future liberation comes even when we become
intellectually convinced of the Path. Everything seems to make sense. Life is profoundly
meaningful. There will be a fulfilment. But this hope is poor hope compared to the joyful
hope that arises in someone who, through the practice, begins to experience the path and
sees clearly how it leads out of delusion into the light of wisdom, out of the quagmire of
suffering and dissatisfaction into the meadows of happiness and contentment. How deeper
then is the soft joy of hope in someone who has entered the Path, the Stream-enterer, the
One Who Knows by direct experience the bliss of Nibbana! Such hope of future liberation
is unwavering, undilutable. They know that some day they will join the legion of arahants.
There hope will meld into the contentment and happiness of one who has lived the Holy Life
and reached the true gaol.