17. Expectation – Blessing, Curse, Or Both Of The Above? © 2016 – Matt Sharpe

 

  

ex·pec·ta·tion

 

ekspekˈtāSH(ə)n/

noun

plural noun: expectations

 

   1. – a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future.

 

   2. – a belief that someone will or should achieve something.

   3. archaic – one’s prospects of inheritance.

   synonyms : supposition, assumption, presumption, conjecture, surmise, calculation, prediction, hope.

 

“In the beginning, there was desire, which was the first seed of mind…”

                                                                                                            ―  Hymn of Creation, The Rig Veda

 

”Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; for it becomes your destiny.”

                                                                                                             ― Upanishads

“They that see the Real in the midst of the unreal,

They that behold Life in the midst of death,

They that know the One in all the changing

Manifestation of the Universe,

Unto them belongs eternal peace,

Unto none else, unto none else.”

                                                                                                              ― Upanishads

 

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”                             ― Buddha

“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.”― Buddha

   ” When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.”

                                                                                                                          ― the 14th Dalai Lama

”Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks, receives…”

                                                                                                              ― Matthew 7:7

“What you are comes to you.”

                                                                                                              ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

     “Listen closely to your invisible thoughts. What do you hear? What are your words implying? That is their potency. What do you want? Name it and rearrange the structure of your mind to imply you no longer desire it, because you already have it!” ―Neville Goddard

 

 

       “Put the past behind you. Do not look back and become like Lot’s wife who turned into a pillar of salt – which is a preservative. You always put what you want to preserve in brine. If you turn back and dwell upon the state you want to leave behind, you have placed it in brine and will become it once more.”

 

 

   “But if you will turn your back upon the past regardless of what you have or have not done, and stretch forward to what you want to be or do and remain faithful to your desire – nothing can stop you from achieving it.”                                   – Neville Goddard

 

       “In other words, I assume that I have wine and all that I desire. Then my dimensionally greater Self inspires in all, the thoughts and the actions which aid the embodiment of my assumption.”                                                  – Neville Goddard

 

    “Man, by assuming the feeling of his wish fulfilled, and then living and acting on this conviction, alters the future in harmony with his assumption. Assumptions awaken what they affirm. As soon as man assumes the feeling of his wish fulfilled, his fourth-dimensional Self finds ways for the attainment of this end, discovers methods for its realization.”                                                                                      – Neville Goddard

 

 

   “As you review your day, it is important to revise each negative reaction so that you can remember it as what you wished had happened rather than storing that memory as it did occur.”                                                                                         – Neville Goddard

 

“What you think of with feeling or emotion is an actual fact. That which you experience in the physical world is merely a shadow, reflecting the reality of your imaginal activity. Therefore, when you revise a conversation, an unhappy experience, or a quality about yourself, you are literally experiencing it in reality (your consciousness).” – Neville Goddard

 

 

   “The outer world is a delayed reflection of the inner and is confined to a dimension of space where events occur in a time sequence. Revision, then, literally changes the past. It replaces what occurred in the outer world with the revised version. The revised scene then gives off its effect by going forth to change future events.”  – Neville Goddard

 

 

 

 

   “Our thoughts have prepared us for the happiness or unhappiness we experience.”                                                            

                                                                                                                  – Hazrat Inayat Khan

 

 

   ” The present is the reflection of the past, and the future is the re-echo of the present.’ Destiny is not what is already made; destiny is what we are making. Very often fatalists think that we are in the hands of destiny, driven in whatever direction in life destiny wills; but in point of fact we are the masters of our destiny, especially from the moment we begin to realize this fact. … Man is responsible for his success and failure, for his rise and fall. And it is man who brings these about either knowingly or unknowingly.”

 

 

                                                                                                                 – Hazrat Inayat Khan

 

 

 

   The Holy Spirit will give us all that we need. First we must learn to expect the best in life, and be willing to plan and work for it. Second, we need a clear mental picture of what we desire. Third, this picture is to be maintained constantly, with the certainty that Divine Spirit will supply any rightful desire. Fourth, there must be gratitude for every good thing received.

 

                                                                          – Sri Harold Klemp, The Language of Soul

                                                                                                                

   Expectation. An idea with a number of meanings, effects, and practical usages, not all of those being good or desirable. Each of us has any number of them, whether we are aware of them or not. Their existence is well worth identifying and becoming aware of, as well as the various ways they can color our perceptions of various things and people effectively acting as a lense through which we see things. While varying colors can at times be enjoyed or appreciated, it is often far more revealing to view life through a clear lense. Often these colors filter our view of situations, and until one becomes aware that this is happening they are generally ignorant of it and the effects it can produce.

 

 

   This colored view I speak of can easily be exemplified by any case of prejudice. Its meaning is from the idea of a pre-judgment that is assumed and not based on fact. When perceiving something through a colored lense, one often utilizes a faulty scale of judgment, also based on non-factual assumption. It makes no difference whether the type of prejudice is racial or takes another form, they each share a basis in faulty assumption.

 

 

   As an individual travels along their path towards Self-Realization, it is impossible to fail to become aware of ever more incidences of one’s self seeing everything through a skewed sense of what is positive or negative, or is good or bad, or any other dichotomy in existence, and while some of these things are formed as the result of personal experiences that have happened, it is rare that that person makes clear and unfettered choices based on the actual truth or full view of all that was actually happening in each experience. Life on the Physical Plane being a school of hard knocks, tends to bring one through such lessons by grabbing the attention via a negative experience. Much of the time these experiences are chosen because of the way the individual is seeing everything.

 

 

   It is this sort of hard and direct experience that enables one to learn to discern what has actually been happening and why it happened. From such experiences one learns to recognize their own prejudices and false assumptions as well as to learn that they themselves have brought these negative experiences into their lives by their own choice. It certainly is also possible that such experiences can be brought to one because of choices another person they have an association with brought them. Situations that occur from outside of one’s self must also be discerned properly so as to identify what options the individual has available to them, as well as how the outcomes of the various choices might work for or against them.

 

 

   Expectations often create limitations, however, that statement is only partially correct. When one believes that they will fail, they tend to think through things with that point of view, and those thoughts will eventually become imagined conversations. If one begins to have inner thoughts and conversations in which they fail to accomplish the goal, and especially if they feel the result of that train of thought, they literally manifest that upon themselves. In this way expectation creates not only limitations, but also acts as a sort of self-inflicted curse. Many do this consistently without ever becoming aware of it. They literally choose and create their own failures in their thoughts and emotions before any physical action ever takes place.

 

 

   That being true also indicates that its opposite can just as easily be made true. By learning the rules of how this works, one can then utilize self-control over the mind and emotions and thereby guide themselves into better situations. Detachment also plays an important part in this. The individual must be detached from that state of being they want to be separated from, and must have a strong enough will to control their habitual thought patterns, otherwise they habitually trap themselves into that less desirable state. When one learns that this does indeed works and then implements the proper method to manifest a new state, they become the positive meaning to that previous statement, “Expectations create limitations.” By evolving into this other area, one finds that expectations can also pave the way for positive change, thereby freeing an individual from the former states. “Expectations create limitations, but, they can also create freedom.” That is a more full version of the statement.

 

 

   This idea has been spoken of by many in the new age ilk. The idea came long before a majority of the religions that exist today, and it is included in many of them. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all have it within their teachings. In Eckankar we call it the “As If Principle.” Neville Goddard called it the Law of Assumption. Many others have taken to calling it the Law of Attraction. It is meant to make clear the means by which Soul is able to manifest a thing out of the finished creation that we exist within. We do not actually create anything new, but rather we manifest into the outer reality a thing. Whether it is a desired thing or an undesired one depends on a person’s mental and emotional habits. In reality this principle has no preference, it simply goes in the direction it is made to go in.

 

 

   Many have heard of this idea, yet only a few have ever actually gained any experience in using it. This is because of the way their attention works more than anything else. A people who are virtually sleep walking do not realize how much of the trouble that appears in their lives is their own fault and of their own creation. Much of that is dependent on their habitual ways of thinking and perceiving. But that can be changed by any willing to do the work required. We know that Sugmad has finished creation. When one tries to see the whole of creation, it is realized that this is no small thing. There are any number of possibilities and potentials, and these span far beyond what might appear to be possible at any given moment in time. As the individual attention is made to expand greater than what appears possible to the average individual, they begin to know that the only limitation that actually exists, is that which has been self-appointed.

 

 

   One takes as being real, the physical world and the events in it that are recognized by the majority. But if one takes the time to make the effort to become aware of the more sublime levels of reality, they are never disappointed as these still extend far beyond what is easily apparent. The same is true concerning what is possible, and what can actually be made manifest in the worlds around and within us. What is can be activated by the attention, but that is not the whole of it. The more often the attention is placed on a thing, or an idea, or a state or situation, it proceeds towards manifestation. But there is another element that is required for this to take place. That is feeling. The type of feeling that is an emotion, however in this case is to be used creatively to manifest. The emotional states that come naturally in the situation where the goal is accomplished, is what acts as the key to bring life to that which the attention spends its time on.

 

 

   It has been said any number of ways in an equal number of places, and yet this one thing is most often overlooked by people who become enraptured in their desire. Many believe such a thing impossible as having any outward effect. This is untrue. Patience, persistence, repetition and the feeling of the goal already accomplished are what is required for Soul to bring the desire into manifestation, regardless of what it might be. It could be love and marriage. It can just as easily be a million dollars or pounds or rubles. It could be a fine lunch or dinner. It makes no difference how others might perceive it as being, worthy or unworthy, holy or evil. Everything in the lower planes exists in relation to its opposite. Soul knows this but renders no judgment, being completely detached and eternal. If the procedures are followed properly, then it can happen. The one thing that can change this is the karmic state of the individual.

 

 

   Karma is a law within the lower planes, but its reach cannot be avoided. If the desire a person attempts to manifest is one that their karma says cannot be, then the karmic state of the debt will win out. This will continue in such a situation until the individual has learned that lesson and has actively made changes to rectify that behavior, whether habitual or not. In a great many cases, these thought processes, emotions, words and actions are habitual, and at times even done unconsciously. Identifying these things as they take place, is the start of not only recognizing them and discerning the values or harms they produce, but is also the first step in assuming control of them. That is no small job. But it is one that can be done and it is also one that can be changed where necessary.

 

 

   Learning the things that we do in our minds adds to learning to not only exercise better self-control, but it also gives us an ever greater ability to take responsibility for  our thoughts, words and actions. The ECK Masters teach the methods of gaining this control, and this area of expectation is merely one avenue to gaining a greater understanding of one aspect that influences what occurs in our daily lives. Manifestation is a natural ability of Soul, and is one that we can learn to use in our daily lives even before reaching the fifth initiation. This is also ultimately a learning process that involves the consciousness in each and every new state that it expands into, enabling it to expand beyond its former limitations. This makes the subject and the techniques discussed here a valuable tool that everyone can use to better themselves and their situations.

 

 

   The predominant factor in manifestation is primarily the only ability of Soul that can be used by everyone in the human state, regardless of the degree of spiritual development at any given time. This factor is the imagination. One must realize that every time they use it they are in fact using the creative imagination, and this is exactly how we constantly create our situations in life as well as our future. Obviously this can easily work in a negative way rather than a positive one. This is why balance and the ability to rightly discern what thoughts, emotions and imaginings will stand in Soul’s way forward and which will help Its progress. This is also why if we become aware of our imaginary habits and ways of thinking, and change those where necessary to better ones, anyone can accurately predict their future because they are aware that they are constantly creating it.

 

 

   Ideally, one can rid themselves of the negative mental and emotional creative habits they fall so easily into by proactively changing them into positive creative imaginings. This is an area where detachment plays a very strong role, as one must be detached from their negative habits in order to change them to positive ones. Being truly detached means having the ability to drop the habitual behavior, which is generally no easy task. However it can be done in a very simple way. First, define the goal that is to become the new habit and reduce it to one or two sentences that can be easily remembered. Scientists have discovered how long it takes to form a habit, however, no two of them seem to agree on that time period, indicating that it can potentially be very different for everyone. One month to three months is the generally accepted range of time required, but it is up to the individual to put the method into practice faithfully and regularly.

 

 

   This notion of “faithfully and regularly” are extremely important because will power alone can never change much of anything. Attaining a greater level of advancement requires steadily working at it with self-discipline and mental and emotional fortitude to continue until the goal is accomplished. It is the very same principle that is applied to exercise and weight lifting. If you begin to work out a specific muscle more than you ever had before, and incrementally increase the weight, that muscle will hurt as it is torn apart and allowed to regrow itself stronger than it had been before. Weight lifting also requires a definitive time schedule to be most effective as if the muscle is worked again while it is torn down, it will have problems regrowing properly. A period of a day or days are spent waiting in between muscle groups so as to allow for that regrowth period. The mind and emotions are exactly the same in this way. An emotionally painful situation such as an infidelity tears the emotions apart and forces some degree of change to be developed, and there are good and bad choices available.

 

 

   The mind is very much the same way in a few different ways. That same emotionally painful situation will also cause mental changes in regards to the behavior and attitudes that each person had before and after whichever incident that caused it. That is the workout phase. The same is also true regarding habitual ways of perceiving, thinking, imagining, and speaking inwardly to one’s self. Becoming aware of what needs to be changed, and then taking steps to regularly do the mental exercise of changing it is also the workout phase. Hypnotherapists use this method in teaching patients to self-hypnotize to break habits, such as smoking for example. The patient is told to repeat a sentence every night about being a non-smoker silently within until they fall asleep, and then to repeat that every single night for thirty days which will create it as a new habit. If the patient misses even one night of doing this, they must start all over as that minimum of thirty days is required for it to work. A person may also find that they need to continue that process for longer to have it become an unconscious habitual way of thinking and a behavior, but that is fine, so long as it is done.

 

 

   In the very same way one can break other mental and emotional habits that they may have that are not helping them. Realizing that the consciousness does indeed directly affect the physical reality enables one the control to change their habits and is very freeing. It just comes down to knowing the steps that are necessary to accomplish the change. These are:

 

 

1.    Identify the problematic way of thinking, feeling and interpreting that needs to be changed.

 

 

2.    Encapsulate the desired state of being into one or two sentences so they can be easily remembered.

 

 

3.    Remember to repeat the encapsulated goal when you lie down to go to sleep, because the sub-conscious mind never sleeps. This ensures that it will continue repeating the goal to itself while you are off sleeping and dreaming.

 

 

4.    Do this nightly with no breaks. If it is forgotten one time, the count must be started all over again and must continue no less than thirty days. If more time is needed, then continue for sixty to ninety days. This will create a new habitual behavior that won’t need to be thought about constantly. The idea is to create positive habits that free us rather than limit us.

 

 

5.    Always think from the point of view of the goal already accomplished. Feel what you would feel if that were true, think as you would think also. In your inner conversations hear your friends congratulate you on having accomplished the goal, whatever it may be.

 

 

6.    Always imagine from the end, and use no other point in time. Do not waste time figuring out the details of how it could occur, simply believe and feel that it already has happened and condense it down to one point in the future where the goal had already been accomplished for years while seeing this through your own eyes. Do not watch a movie of it happening to you, view it always from within your own body and witness it happening to you in the here and now seeing through your own eyes.

 

 

7.    Change the past by imagining a revision of history or of events. This can be done while they are actually happening. Someone on the phone is angry with you and is arguing, simply revise what is happening in your mind and change it to a more positive outcome, then stick to that view and it will become reality despite what actually happened on the phone. You cannot prevent every bad thing from happening or being said, but you can choose how you will perceive each thing and you can choose to change the outcome.

 

 

8.    Never forget to create or revise from a place of impersonal detached love, and use that detachment equally against your usual patterns of habit and of thinking, allowing for the revisions to become reality instead, and always thinking of the greater good for all rather than being selfishly limited by what you want to happen.

 

 

9.    Never forget the inherent self-responsibility for what happens in your world and act accordingly and with humility. Make better choices, perceive honestly and realize that you alone are responsible for what you manifest from God’s finished creation. Creation is finished. Each and every possibility that could ever occur in any situation has already been created. For any of them to be activated and manifested into the physical reality it requires the action of consciousness. Beyond consciousness, the feeling of the event accomplished is the key that literally activates it. Repeat the thoughts and emotions daily while ignoring your mind and the senses that try to convince you that it has not been accomplished. Whichever thought/feeling combination takes up the majority of your time is the one that will be manifested into your life. Know this and choose to not spend your time and energy always imagining negative outcomes.

 

      

10.    Do not allow hubris to convince you that you possess a complete understanding of any situation nor that your interpretations of the factors therein are accurate enough to give you completion of understanding. Understanding will always expand into areas not considered beforehand. There is no end of the road. There is always more that can be learned, and that is an eternal factor, one that never reaches completion or an end.

 

   

   By following this method, anyone can literally become aware of and change for the better, their negative and unconscious habits. Having done so however does not remove the necessity of constant self-monitoring. Should there be a lapse in behavior, that would indicate that the habit was not truthfully broken and replaced and would require the process be repeated. I say this because everyone is human and being so are not perfect which leaves room for things to go wrong. This being true makes it clear that revision is one method that can work quite well, if one can only summon the self-control necessary to think and feel from the revised state consistently.

 

 

   Some have claimed that the imagination is God, however this is not true. I bring this up here because it is directly tied into the subject. It does have something to do with God and in a direct fashion. Some have touched this state and misunderstood it, believing that they had experienced God directly. What this association truly is about is true Self-Realization, becoming aware of life from the viewpoint of Soul. God speaks directly to Soul,  and uses Soul as ITS channel to enter into the mental, emotional and physical levels of reality. This is because if IT were to enter these lower realities to interact with us personally, the difference between the rate of vibration of physical creatures and the highest Divinity is such an extreme difference, that the force of that difference would literally destroy everything in this universe. For this reason, it is necessary that the human experience begins at the bottom, working its way up the spiritual ladder to learn each of the lessons that will bring It to an ever higher level.

 

 

   This culminates in It reaching Self-Realization, by which time It has learned that It has the ability to manifest anything from the finished creation of God, so long as It is willing to go about attaining them in the right way. This is why many of the lessons produce such strong growing pains that inevitably strengthen the lower states of awareness until that Soul reaches the first spiritual level of non-duality. It knows each lesson because it experienced every side of them while on Its way up the ladder. This implies that by the time one has gained mastery over the lower states, they will have also strengthened themselves enough to be capable of dealing with any experience that may arise, while also causing that one to realize that they themselves have always been in control of, and at fault for, the experiences they have drawn themselves into.

 

 

   This is a necessity that brings balance, a very important aspect that must become a real and daily thing before one can attain Jivan Mukti, or the freedom from Samsara, the constant karmas and rebirths into the lower planes. Therefore the attainment of the Soul Plane results in Sainthood, which in India is called becoming a Sant (the two words having differing origins etymologically speaking). While going to that length is a large part of the journey, it is not near the end of the road. This mastership I spoke of is relative, and does not make the individual a spiritual Master which is a state that is several steps beyond attaining the state of consciousness of nonduality. But it is the first level of the truly Divine reality that lies beyond. expectations can be a blessing or a curse, it depends on which you choose to make them.

 

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