Exploring Expectations

We often dream up negative experiences in our mind to protect our ourselves from being disappointed. Is this a point of stability or an abuse of our imagination? Perhaps, we are barring ourselves from true mastery?
[This article was originally written as a post to a Facebook group]

I am exploring the idea of having ‘no expectations’.

It makes a lot of sense and has been an idea that has been expressed in many ways since ancient philosophy.

The basic principle is that if you expect nothing from your actions, then you will never be disappointed by the result, and can than have the energy for more creative or positive actions.

However, right now I am creating a new video game, only because I have expectations that it will do well. As in, I desire it (or expect it) to be some kind of ‘cultural bomb’ of a video game that teaches about the “greater reality”, compassion/non-violent principles (something that is lacking in all our entertainment mediums), while also being really exciting, attractive, and something that is seen as valuable by others (something I obviously have to learn how to do better). Additionally, this positive expectation of huge popularity would provide me the abundance I need to travel around the world, and help finance housing and food for the best eco-villages (which I also desire to do in the future).

This mindset is the only thing that is making me want to create it. Yet, it also sets me up for a higher probability of disappointment and loathing if it turns out to not meet my general expectations.

Some proponents of new thought or law of attraction would go further than “no expectations”, and say that maintaining only positive expectations will always edge you towards that reality (which I assume is the idea of ‘what you put out is what you get back’), though I have experimented with this, I don’t quite know to what degree it can externally influence my life, because I have not been able to prevent all negative thought from entering my consciousness. I still see some negativity as useful in ushering in a greater positivity (but that is a post for a different time).

[One spiritual proponent for Law of Attraction] has always said “Expect the best”, which differs from “Expect your positive thought” and probably makes more sense than “No expectations” because then whatever negative result you happen to dream up (and whatever negative result therefore manifests), is for the highest good of the soul.

Having a popular game, for example, very well might be detrimental for the soul, such as how the billionaire creator of Minecraft has stated how his life became more lonely as a result of his lofty lifestyle. Or scientific studies that show how ‘having more money’ actually causes a small amount of brain damage and a lack of empathy.

The only solution to this (that I can see for myself) is to further experiment with having only 100% positive expectations for the future. If I can somehow maintain such a rare state, then according to LoA, those realities would be obliged to manifest. If I allow a single negative thought, then the idea of “no expectations” or “expect the best” is adequate enough of a fallback point for my state of being because I know exactly why my preferred reality did not manifest.

Though, [some say] the point of physical reality is apparently only to feel good no matter what happens, which makes “no expectations” the easy task to accomplish. It is much more challenging to obtain mastery that is beyond that, as well, since if one is already feeling good, what would be the point in going beyond that idea?

All of this, also can lead me to believe, that possibly, my positive expectations could be too narrow. Why expect a reality where I create a great game, when I could be positively expecting a reality of unity consciousness, free energy, free housing and free organic food and open contact for all? I happen to still expect this (but my belief in that immediate possibility has often wavered when I research about our politics) Hmmm. This also puts another lemon twist onto the idea of expectations. But, it seems easy to expect more than one thing to occur in our reality. It is only challenging when we see that the external reality does not match up to our expectations at all, and has never once matched up with our past. What we are doing here on Earth must be very significant!

[Dear reader] Please input any thoughts you may have about this.