Hope
I believe humanism offers sustaining hope to the person who chooses to practice it in daily life. As a humanist, I appreciate that I have only this one life to live with this brain in this body. So, any hope I derive from life is dependent of the proper development and maintenance of my mind within the body I have available to me. Distraction from this primary consideration leads to diminished happiness and diminished hope.
My greatest hope is that I can lead a life which, to its end, will be a contribution to the greater good in other lives. What could be a better human life? Being human entails having the consciousness of the unique experience of every other human life. Being human at its best entails having the consciousness that each individual life has equal value. Being human at its best entails having the consciousness that the whole planet is an amazingly rare phenomenon in a vast, cold Universe.
As a humanist, I do not garner hope from the promise of an imaginary afterlife. Those who spend their lives looking to an imaginary afterlife's bliss often overlook their own potential for creating daily bliss in their real lives. That daily bliss lies in the sense of wholeness and satisfaction that comes from doing the loving thing by people and the environment in each moment. This sustains hope by bringing with it the peace and love it inspires.
My daily struggle, my daily practice, is a struggle of creating peace and joy in a world of materialism and violence. This is what I call my humanist practice. It is indeed a struggle. In part, it is a struggle against my own personal history and early conditioning. In part, it is a struggle against the darkness in the lives around me. Shedding the light of my own truth is all I can do to combat that darkness when I encounter it. However, that process brings its own hope when the darkness abates and a human connection develops where potential conflict or alienation may have developed instead.
My greatest hope is that I can lead a life which, to its end, will be a contribution to the greater good in other lives. What could be a better human life? Being human entails having the consciousness of the unique experience of every other human life. Being human at its best entails having the consciousness that each individual life has equal value. Being human at its best entails having the consciousness that the whole planet is an amazingly rare phenomenon in a vast, cold Universe.As a humanist, I do not garner hope from the promise of an imaginary afterlife. Those who spend their lives looking to an imaginary afterlife's bliss often overlook their own potential for creating daily bliss in their real lives. That daily bliss lies in the sense of wholeness and satisfaction that comes from doing the loving thing by people and the environment in each moment. This sustains hope by bringing with it the peace and love it inspires.
My daily struggle, my daily practice, is a struggle of creating peace and joy in a world of materialism and violence. This is what I call my humanist practice. It is indeed a struggle. In part, it is a struggle against my own personal history and early conditioning. In part, it is a struggle against the darkness in the lives around me. Shedding the light of my own truth is all I can do to combat that darkness when I encounter it. However, that process brings its own hope when the darkness abates and a human connection develops where potential conflict or alienation may have developed instead.
Comments
Post a Comment