The scariest thing in Pandora's Box is "Hope"?
The story of Pandora's box Everyone knows that when Pandora opened the box, all the disasters and pains flew to the human world, and when the panicked Pandora reacted and closed the lid, only the "hope" was left in the box, so all along, everyone believed that it was good that the "hope" was left to the world, and we could overcome those sufferings and misfortunes and live with good expectations.
But in fact, this is a big fallacy. In Pandora's box, what brings people the most pain is precisely "hope".
To explain this question, let's first review the story of Pandora's Box.
In ancient Greek legend, Prometheus's introduction of fire to the human world annoyed the Greek god king Zeus, so Zeus ordered the gods to create a perfect human woman, named Pandora, and gave it to Prometheus's brother Epimetheus.
Epimetheus did not resist the temptation and accepted Pandora. At the wedding, Zeus ordered the gods to prepare gifts to place in a box for Pandora. Pandora was extremely curious, and although Epimetheus reminded her not to open the box, because she did not know whether the contents of the box were good or bad, pandora was driven by natural curiosity, and Pandora opened the box, so greed, hypocrisy, slander, jealousy, pain and many other evil things flew to the world.
Before that, the world was clear and harmonious, there was no disaster, and after that, people were destined to struggle in pain.
But the magic box was finally closed, leaving the last "hope". In the version we have heard, it has always been said that "it is good that hope is left, even if it is difficult, we can still keep hope", which is similar to the experience of people in reality, so it has been explained in this way, but in fact, this logic does not make sense - first of all, "hope" is locked in the box, not flying to the world, there is no "leave hope for people". Second, the Greek elpis is translated as "hope," which is what we call hope, but the Greek elpis is not something that the English hop can express, and it has a much larger meaning and contains "unrealistic desire."
In some versions of the Pandora's Box story, the box is quietly closed by Athena out of kindness—hope, one of the most terrible of the many evil forces in Pandora's Box, and it is a good thing for people to be left inside the box.
Many people may not understand, how can "hope" be a bad thing? Aren't people all supported by hope? But the truth and imagination are quite different, hope although to bring people expectations, guide people to persevere, with a bright heart, but in reality, hope has another look, it makes people immersed in unrealistic expectations can not extricate themselves, the light should not give up, obsessive, hurt themselves, heavy loss of life.
In the movie "Forbidden Island", the male protagonist played by Xiao Lizi escapes the past that cannot be looked back, and fantasizes about another "truth" that he can accept, but when the facts are placed in front of his eyes, he is still unwilling to return to reality, and has always placed his expectations on the lighthouse in the film.
But when he walked into the lighthouse and uncovered the truth, all his fantasies suddenly vanished, and he could not accept such a reality, and chose to be surgically removed from the white matter of the anterior brain lobe, giving up the reality of a sober life.
This is a typical example of "expectations are shattered and the pursuit of life is also shattered".
Christopher Meng, a famous Canadian psychotherapist, repeatedly emphasized in his book "Intimate Relationships": "Expectation is the road to hell". Christopher Meng has shown over the years that in intimate relationships, only we can meet our own needs, but many people are accustomed to asking others for these needs that should be in their hearts.
But the truth is, no one can perfectly satisfy our own wishes. When both partners come together with the expectation of being satisfied from each other, disappointment arises and is the inevitable result. Many couples are trapped in marriage, complaining that the other party can't think of what they want, using their own way to meet their own needs to be loved, but not taking the initiative to communicate, and finally accumulating too much resentment, so that to the end of the marriage, are due to excessive expectations. This is exactly what a French proverb says— "The roads of hell are paved with good wishes." "
Not long ago, a friend fell out of love and told me about her entangled relationship. From the beginning of high school to the end of graduate school, she liked each other for seven years. The boy and she were high school classmates, there was a period of ambiguity, the two sides seemed to match, both are academic bullies, talent and appearance can be. She and the other party confessed, but the other party wanted to concentrate on their studies as a reason to drag, but there was no real refusal, the two sides are in a different place to study graduate school, but have always maintained contact, sometimes will send each other a gift, the holiday will also say hello to each other, but never really together.
It is not that she has not thought about breaking this liking, but she always thinks that the other party has not refused, and seems to care about her, thinking that there will always be results in waiting, and slowly liking him seems to have become a habit of her own. So when her friends advised her to find a new relationship, she persistently waited for this "seven-year relationship" to blossom and bear fruit, but eventually waited for the other party's circle of friends to officially announce marriage.
After a big cry, she finally deleted all the contact information of the other party, but it was too late to repent, how many years of youth were buried here, she suffered from traumatic depression, and it took a full two years to heal afterwards.
Echoing an old Chinese adage: "When the judgment is continuous, it is chaotic." In "The Art of Giving Up", the author mentioned that people are obsessed with certain things, and even know that they should give up but still are not willing to give up, because they see "expectations", this "expectation" is very terrible, it will defeat people's reason, even if the expectation is only one point, people may also fight for the sword and the sea of fire, but the results are often not satisfactory.
Some studies have found that in the Nazi concentration camps of World War II, many people will die at Christmas, the reason is that the people in the concentration camps have always endured daily inhuman torture with good expectations, and some people firmly believe that when Christmas comes, they can be saved, so when that day comes, the expectations are broken, and the things that support him to live will no longer exist, so some people will choose to commit suicide and give up their lives at Christmas.
This is also a typical example of "expectation is the way to hell".
Many people may see this and ask: Since even hope cannot save us, how can we survive all kinds of suffering in life?
Here we will mention the famous "meaning therapy" in psychology.
The famous psychologist Frankl, who was imprisoned in concentration camps for jewishness during the Nazi period, was his special experience that prompted him to create psychological meaning therapy, to find for people what supports us to go on, not unrealistic hope, but the meaning of life. Replacing "unrealistic expectations" with "meaning" is the best way to get us to focus on the present, to taste happiness, and to live out the meaning of life.
He recounts his experiences in concentration camps, where most of the inmates who, like himself, eventually survived and were free, did not persist with so-called expectations, but were constantly experiencing the meaning of life. Life in concentration camps has cruelty and pain that we cannot imagine, but it also has joys that we cannot imagine. There is even scientific controversy here, and people take advantage of the gap to hold various activities to enrich the spiritual life. Many of the inmates have artistic beliefs, and although they are physically trapped, it does not prevent them from pursuing spiritual freedom.
The so-called "greatest freedom in life is always the right to choose", even in a place like a concentration camp, people can choose to live in pain every day, and they can choose to have "small luck" every day.
In the harsh living environment at that time, people could still pursue scientific freedom, hold activities that made everyone excited to participate, and use a humorous attitude to look at what happened to them, even if it was unfortunate for ordinary people.
It is said that the most popular joke told at that time was to assume that after the future freedom, the people who stayed in these concentration camps still retained the habits of living in the concentration camps. For example, imagine participating in a party after you have gained your freedom, and when you divide the soup, you habitually say to each other: "Scoop a spoonful from under the pot!" "Because in concentration camps people often don't have enough to eat, and scooping from the bottom of the pot means that there may be more meals."
The idea is turned, so that every day is meaningful, and life is not supported by expectations, but by meaning. For the people in the concentration camp, the pain of the present can be used as a joke in the future, and for Frankl, it is the life experience in the concentration camp that has become the precious wealth of his life, from which he realized the importance of "meaning" in life, thus creating the "meaning" therapy, helping many people to find the meaning of life.
Even in the present, although people do not experience the suffering of concentration camps, but the unsatisfactory things in life, pain and trouble can come at any time, and this kind of meaning therapy makes us pay more attention to the present than the vague expectation of recourse.
Illness itself is painful, but immersion in pain means nothing to us, but the lesions of bodily functions reflect the excessive pressure of our own existence, and the body is already reminding us to put down our work, pay attention to ourselves, and adjust the body in time so as not to cause greater evil consequences, which is the meaning of illness.
Even if it is a loss of love and unemployment, from a long-term point of view, it is also an experience for oneself, which contains the opportunity to grow up - everything in life can be experienced from it, which actually has a lot in common with the Buddha's "mindfulness".
Even if life is full of uncertainty, we can still choose love and freedom. Focus on the present, experience joy and pain, think about the meaning of what is happening today from the perspective of the future, and appreciate the happiness of each day.