Tilopas Song
TILOPAS SONG ENDS:
THE SUPREME UNDERSTANDING TRANSCENDS ALL THIS AND THAT. THE SUPREME ACTION EMBRACES GREAT RESOURCEFULNESS WITHOUT ATTACHMENT. THE SUPREME ACCOMPLISHMENT IS TO REALIZE IMMANENCE WITHOUT HOPE. AT FIRST A YOGI FEELS HIS MIND IS TUMBLING LIKE A WATERFALL; IN MID-COURSE, LIKE THE GANGES, IT FLOWS ON SLOW AND GENTLE; IN THE END IT IS A GREAT VAST OCEAN WHERE THE LIGHTS OF SON AND MOTHER MERGE IN ONE.

This is a very deep thing, very subtle and delicate.
THE SUPREME ACCOMPLISHMENT IS TO REALIZE IMMANENCE WITHOUT HOPE
Tilopa says, "What is the supreme accomplishment? It is to realize immanence without hope; that inside, the inner space is perfect, absolute -- without hope. Why does he bring this word "hope" in? -- because with the hope comes future, with the hope comes desire, with the hope comes the effort to improve, with the hope comes the greed for more, with the hope comes discontentment, and then, of course, frustration follows.
He is not saying be hopeless, because that too comes with hope. He is simply saying "no hope"; not hopeful, not hopeless -- because they both come with the hope. And this has become such a great problem for the West, because Buddha says the same, and then Western thinkers think that these people are pessimists. They are not. They are not pessimists, they are not optimists. And this is the meaning of "no hope."
If somebody hopes we call him an optimist. We say about him that he can see the silver lining in the darkest cloud, we say that he can see the morning following the darkest night: he is an optimist. And then there is the pessimist, just the opposite of it. Even in the brightest silver lining he will always see the darkest cloud there. If you talk about the morning he will say, "Every morning ends in the evening." But remember: they may be opposites but they are not really separate; their focus is different but their mind is the same. Whether you see the bright lining, the silver lining in the dark cloud, or you see the dark cloud in the silver lining, you always see the part. Your division is there; you choose, you never see the total.
Buddha, Tilopa, Lao Tzu, they are neither optimists nor pessimists -- they simply drop hope. With hope they come in -- both the optimist and the pessimist. They simply drop the coin of hope, and both the aspects are dropped with it. This is a totally new dimension, difficult to understand.
Tilopa sees the suchness of things; he is without choice. He sees both the morning and the evening together, he sees both the thorns and the flower together, he sees both the pain and the pleasure together, he sees both the birth and death together. He has no choice of his own. He is neither a pessimist nor an optimist -- he lives without hope. And that is a really wonderful dimension to live in: to live without hope. The very words "without hope" are used... simply inside you it feels it is something so pessimistic, but that is because of the language -- and what Tilopa is saying is beyond language. He says, THE SUPREME ACCOMPLISHMENT IS TO REALIZE IMMANENCE WITHOUT HOPE. You simply realize yourself as you are in your total suchness, and simply you are that. There is no need for any improvement, change, development, growth, no need. Nothing can be done about it. It is simply the case.