Be hope-less

What the Method Is

The core instruction for this method is: “As a hen mothers her chicks, mother particular knowings, particular doings, in reality.”. This means to disengage from and stop nourishing dreams and hopes, whether worldly or spiritual, as they represent a postponement of living in the present reality. It is a call to focus one’s energy on what is real and directly experienced, rather than what is imagined or desired for the future.

How It Is Done

To practise “Be hope-less,” follow these practical steps:

  • Withdraw from Dreaming and Hopes: Consciously stop giving energy to dreams and hopes. This includes any kind of hope, whether it is for material gains, future spiritual enlightenment, heaven, or nirvana after death.
  • Live in the Present Moment: Actively strive to live in the ‘here and now’. Do not allow your mind to drift into the past or project into the future.
  • Embrace Present Experience: If feelings such as subtle hopelessness, misery, or depression arise while staying in the present, do not attempt to move away from them or change them. Instead, remain fully present with the experience and endure it. This means allowing the experience to happen in its full intensity without analysis or attempts to alter it.
  • Mother ‘Particular Knowings’: Shift your focus from borrowed knowledge, scriptures, theories, or philosophies to your own direct, real, and fresh experiences or ‘knowings’. Base your life on these authentic insights, however trivial they may seem initially.
  • Trust Yourself Authentically: Cultivate self-trust and avoid forcing beliefs upon yourself, particularly if doubt is your inherent nature. Be authentic to your inner type.
Commentaries and Insights

Osho provides extensive commentaries on this method, highlighting its profound implications for achieving inner transformation:

  • Hope as Dreaming: Osho clarifies that man often lives in ‘hope’, which is synonymous with living in a ‘dream’ rather than in true life. This continuous projection into a future where desires are fulfilled prevents one from experiencing the present moment. Such a postponed life eventually leads to disillusionment and feeling cheated, even though one is the creator of this ‘mess’.
  • The Power of the Present: By remaining steadfastly in the present moment, the very source of these dreams and hopes is withdrawn, causing them to cease. This radical presence is the fundamental aim of all meditative techniques: to detach from the past and plunge into the ‘here and now’.
  • Authentic Knowing vs. Borrowed Knowledge: The instruction to “mother particular knowings” means to value and cultivate direct, personal experience over external information, doctrines, or scriptures. True knowledge cannot be borrowed or imitated; it must arise from one’s own authentic experience. Blind adherence to borrowed knowledge, even spiritual teachings, leads to delusion and hinders personal transformation.
  • Embracing Misery for Transcendence: A key Tantric principle is total acceptance and non-fighting with whatever is present. When misery, depression, or even a feeling of hopelessness arises, instead of fighting it, one must fully embrace it and remain a non-doing witness. By completely experiencing phenomena like misery without interference, their energy is paradoxically consumed or transformed. This “non-doing” allows the inherent impermanence of all things to unfold, leading to the natural dissolution of the experience. If one struggles, the energy is dissipated, creating suppressed complexes and preventing resolution.
  • The Unburdened State: When suffering is fully experienced and consumed, one becomes unburdened without having made any direct effort to change it. This understanding reveals that misery and bliss are both creations of the individual’s mind, and a truly liberated being ceases to ‘cause’ either, simply existing in a state beyond both. Buddha, for instance, chose to speak of the ultimate state as the ‘absence of misery’ rather than ‘bliss’, to prevent the mind from clinging to ‘bliss’ as another object of desire.
  • The Transitional Gap: As one sheds falsities and borrowed concepts, a period of dullness or a ‘gap’ may be experienced before the authentic self asserts itself. It is vital to allow this period without fear, as it is a natural part of the transformation process.
  • Tantra’s Positive Approach: While the term “hope-less” might seem negative, Osho’s Tantric teachings generally emphasize a positive approach to life. This means starting by transforming a negative mind into a positive one before moving towards a state of ‘choicelessness’. “Be hope-less” in this context is not about cultivating negativity, but about releasing the tension of future desire, thereby allowing the mind to settle in the unproblematic reality of the present. This aligns with the principle that an alert awareness reveals desire itself as the source of misery, leading to its natural disappearance.
  • Dangers of Impatience and Ego: The mind is ‘tricky’ and will often rationalise why a simple technique might not work, preferring arduous challenges to satisfy the ego. However, clinging to complexity or seeking a dramatic transformation can hinder the process. True transformation is a gradual readiness for a sudden, effortless happening.