I recently read a post by Andrew Cohen (Evolutionary Enlightenment.com) about expectations. If I understood him correctly, he said expectation needs to be dropped at all levels—conscious and unconscious—gross and subtle. To me, a traditional spiritual approach to expectation.

On the other side of the coin, John Assaraf of ‘The Secret’ fame (book and movie) purports that expectation, through continued imagination of the desired goal, is the key to successful manifestation and bringing your dreams alive.

Two Confusing Guidelines?

These two guidelines create confusion for anyone who wants both wealth on the material plane and freedom on the spiritual plane. You can’t follow both guidelines at the same time because they require opposite actions and relationships to expectation.

It would seem the only way to resolve the dilemma is to choose either one approach or the other. But this leaves you feeling unsatisfied and wondering what to do with the unfulfilled longing you didn’t choose.

And more importantly, if you’re not careful, you find yourself polarizing and perceiving the option you left behind as the enemy. You’ll find it hiding out in all kinds of places, just waiting to catch you off guard.

The goal? To finally grab your attention away from what you’ve determined as the right avenue to follow.

Marketplace Mystics usually want both material freedom and spiritual freedom. And they aren’t too willing to give up either.

Allowing Clarity To Emerge

But how do you come by both with these confusing directions? I’d say you really can’t—unless you know how to embrace this dilemma as a paradox.

Embracing the dilemma as a paradox means allowing both seemingly antagonistic options
to co-exist as one seamless, organic whole.

When you can embrace this kind of paradoxical dilemma, you can relax with both desires and walk down both paths at the same time.

Doesn’t make sense logically, does it? And that’s because it’s a paradox.

The trick is remembering that life isn’t logical.  All kinds of illogical things can and do occur. After all, isn’t that what magic is all about—the impossible becoming possible right before your eyes?

This is a mighty good reason to learn how to embrace paradox. In my experience, it makes the predicaments in life much easier to embrace and then navigate with ease and success. What do you think?

From my heart to yours,

Ragini