On Hope: A Conversation with Jacob Needleman

"When we're in touch with another kind of consciousness, or level of understanding, that is what brings hope. It's not because it hopes for money or pleasure, or anything like that. Yes, that's a possible part of it. But it's the element--maybe even the most essential part of ourselves as human beings--it's this part that can be awakened by great ideas that speak about great questions of meaning, purpose, love...Again and again we are told, and again and again we forget. The task is change, change of being, not of doing. Change of not the outer, but the inner life. Change of attitudes and not of behavior alone, a letting go of, rather than getting or grasping. Before real work can begin, one must come back to one's own nothingness, let go of all illusions about one's self. To acquire a real self, the self that has seemed to be me, or mine, up to now must be seen clearly as it is." The renowned philosopher, author, and religious scholar Jacob Needleman passed away in November of this year. He shares more in this nourishing conversation with long-time friend Richard Whittaker.

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