A place more powerful than hope

Post-election day, I wrote about how Buddhist practice can help us tap into an indestructible sense of faith to build the world anew, even when it feels entirely hopeless. I want to share what I mean by indestructible faith, and how each of us can cultivate it. 

In her book When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron says: “The word in Tibetan for hope is rewa; the word for fear is dokpa. More commonly, the word re-dok is used, which combines the two. Hope and fear is a feeling with two sides. As long as there’s one, there’s always the other. This re-dok is the root of our pain. In the world of hope and fear, we always have to change the channel, change the temperature, change the music, because something is getting uneasy, something is getting restless, something is beginning to hurt, and we keep looking for alternatives.”

Why yes, this is indeed Pema with Oprah Winfrey

You might be screaming, but Adriana, what are you talking about? The world is clearly broken, things are messed up, and it does need to change, right? Yes, absolutely. Pema isn’t suggesting we shouldn’t try to improve the world. What she’s pointing out is that hope, because it carries an undercurrent of anxiety and attachment, can often add an extra layer of suffering.

We are so deeply conditioned by hope and fear that it’s hard to imagine life without them. But what happens if we let go of their grasping qualities? What stabilizes us when everything feels so overwhelming?

I’ve spent most of this year asking myself these questions, reflecting on Pema’s teaching on re-dok, and trying to reconnect with what lies beyond these extremes—something grounded in my inherent nature.

Here’s what I’ve discovered: When we let go of hope and fear, we can finally feel into the naked, wakeful quality of our basic sanity.

In Tibetan Buddhism, this space is represented by the garuda—a mythical bird-human creature that lives in vast spaciousness. The garuda flies freely in open awareness, never landing. It is free because it has no reference point, no attachment, nothing to cling to or fixate on.

Look how awesome and bad ass the garuda is!

The garuda represents a place within all of us that is ultimately indestructible, a home we can return to no matter how disastrous things get. It is an all-encompassing force that is not reliant on anything external. In these times of chaos and decay, I believe this is where we must draw our strength.

What feels most salient to me right now is the palpable sense of hopelessness so many people are experiencing—and how that despair might actually be a doorway to something deeper—a signal that we are ready to transform ourselves and society.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche taught that a true spiritual journey toward basic sanity begins with a recognition of hopelessness—the complete and utter acknowledgment of our current situation’s despair. 

Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche elaborates on this teaching saying, “One is required to undertake a major process of disillusionment in order to relinquish their belief in the existence of an external panacea that can eliminate their suffering and pain. We have to learn to live with our pain instead of hoping for something that will cause all of our hesitations, confusions, insanity, and pain to disappear.”

Woof, I mean, I can feel this pain quite acutely

For me, this speaks to feelings of disillusionment that have ricocheted throughout my life. And it makes wild sense to me. It is often when I’ve reached a rock bottom that I’ve had to draw strength from something within me that is more raw, more devastating to my ego than hope—I am drawing from trust in my basic sanity. It is only from this charnel ground of utter hopelessness that I am able to uncover a strength more honest because it isn’t reliant on any expectation.

What would be possible if we could all tap into this power, individually and collectively? I’m not naive to think we could solve all the world’s issues at once, let alone in our lifetime. And I believe it is possible for all of us to drop into this basic confidence and embody it.

I’ve found that the dharma offers a path for ordinary people to reconnect with their garuda-like strength. Buddhist training doesn’t just ask us to intellectually accept a teaching—it provides a path of practice that helps us integrate our understanding into our bodies.

To meet the world’s challenges, we must cultivate not just hope, but a deep, intimate familiarity with our basic sanity.

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