26. ‘Good’ Hopelessness and Spiritual Death

In spiritual literature we often find an odd positive spin on ‘hopelessness’ and ‘death’. Both are usually horrifying experiences and we would be mad to seek them out. But then those spiritual teachers seem to insist on their spiritual values. This can easily be misunderstood – if we went into these states of mind without good preparation they would indeed have a devastating effect. What they mean is something else: When they say ‘Hopelessness’ it means ‘taking responsibility for my life, and not hoping that someone or something else will come to my rescue’. And when they portray ‘death’ in a positive light then it means either to let go of old dysfunctional parts of myself, or to come to terms with the fundamental impermanence in our lives.

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