Spiritual aspirants have many expectations and assumptions that must be counteracted on entering spiritual life. First of all, you must clarify—if you haven’t already done so—what your expectations are, and you must keep clarifying them. I suggest that people examine their expectations of spiritual life as often as once a year. Reflect on them for however many days or weeks are necessary. Ask yourself: “How reasonable are my expectations? Are they within the reach of what I am bringing to my spiritual life?” You may have a lot of things to clear away before you can have expectations about seeing the Light, or having insights or spiritual experiences. You do not get something for nothing. Even your body is not your own. It was built from the body of your mother.
It is difficult to do spiritual practice without assuming that at some time you will get something in return. You should not suppress such assumptions or expectations, but you should not be unrealistic about them. To have realistic expectations, you need some idea of the karma you have accumulated in this life up to the time you started on your spiritual path. You need to know also if there is any good reason to assume that some of it has been cleared away. When a large portion has been cleared—a little more than half—then perhaps the Divine will give you some signals that tell you to keep going.
Many people make assumptions about where they are or where somebody else is on the spiritual path. Assumptions are very easy to come by for everyone, but such assumptions are not good. All you can assume is that the way to the Most High is open and available to you at all times. But you cannot assume you are already there.
Some expectations or assumptions are good to have. For example, it can be helpful to assume that you can and will clear your karma. But then you must put great intensity into the effort to do so. You must also keep your reflections going, because your efforts and your reflections have to go hand in hand. You have to acknowledge what you are and what you are doing. You have to acknowledge your mistakes (at least to yourself), and then you have to correct them. If you do all this, you can have some hope that the Divine will say, “I am here. I am standing behind you. I am walking at your side.”
You have to understand that the power of choice is yours. You have to understand, also, that there is tremendous power in choice, whether you make the right choice or the wrong choice, so be careful.
From Time to Be Holy
Swami Radha - Timeless Books
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