Abandon hope for results.

First part is the abandonment. The letting go of holding. Settling into the present, to what just is. Without extra. Or thought of any reward. Second, hope is wishful thinking and is an added layer on life. A sign of harboring impatience. The third part, don’t look for results, improvement or even enlightenment. As the Heart Sutra tells us that there is no wisdom to attain as attainment is empty.

Let go of the silly thought "I will not get better as a result of my study and practice". It is self-centered to want to get better. Hope that mind training will help you deal with your life is egoistic and needs to be let go of.

Life turns out how it does and not how we hope it does. Hoping and wishing doesn’t make it so. Seems more fruitful to focus on how life and practice are and less or not at all on how we hope (wish) life would be. This hope or wish is an acknowledgment that things are not as we want them. Our expectations don’t match reality. Somehow we feel our wants trump reality and try and operate from there.

Hope for success blinds us to the process of life. The moments of experience. Of joy and connection. Hoping is a wish for something else that is not present. It holds us back from working on what wants attention. 'Do what needs to be done now because it needs to be done now, not for the result it might bring.' The hope for success and the fear of failure and rejection. Abandon all hope of rewards.

This is a call to be your best in the present moment and go happily on.

Hope you have an awesome day!

This journal is meant as a reminder to encourage my future self. Where I work on my mental fitness and ‘adulting’. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.