Greetings. Oct282011 Website (quite interesting)!

[zenmaster]

Nice quote ZM, thanks.

I would not invalidate hope however, as it is often the precursor to knowingness. An empowered state of being.

Hope > Belief > Faith > Trust > Knowingness

You don't 'invalidate hope'. A person has to start somewhere, with some unique disposition, perceiving something as-yet accepted, in some individual manner. To ultimately make things digestible, dressing them with some nebulous appeal makes them compelling - like a shiny stone to a child. From that perspective of disparity of being/not-being, there is often motivation, unless the hope (the underlying ideas) is sufficient in and of itself, which is often the case. When the hope itself suffices, you have the same effect as fear in preventing discovery of self. However, it is never the case that a hope or fear need suffice due to lack of opportunity for actual experience.