No Shopping Carts at the Door of the Heart: Practicing Intention Without Expectation

In Pause, Breathe, Smile, Gary Gach challenges us with a radical invitation: to live with pure intention, without bargaining for results. He asks, “How can we protect our seed intention of awakening from being tainted by our inclination of predicting profit, calculating our gains?” The imagery is vivid — the moment we act with expectation, we place shopping carts by the entrance to our heart. Our intentions become transactional, and our spiritual path becomes a marketplace of hidden desires.

This is so deeply countercultural. We live in a world built on outcomes. Schooling is for grades, jobs are for promotions, even good deeds can sometimes come with a hope for recognition. And even when we try to meditate or pray, the temptation arises to ask, “What’s in it for me?”

But Gach reminds us: no expectation. Just do it to do it. Not for approval, not for success, not even for peace. This is not apathy—it is sacred detachment. We’re entitled to the work, not the fruits. In Buddhist and Christian spiritual traditions alike, this echoes an ancient wisdom: that we are called to live and serve in love, not to grasp for rewards.

And here is the paradox: when we drop expectations, we are freed from the very things that poison our lives—anger, anxiety, confusion, distress, envy, fear. These burdens cling to us because of our attachments, especially our attachment to how life “should” go. When we release the illusion of control, when we act not to gain but to be, we are no longer slaves to our own expectations. We discover peace not as a goal, but as a byproduct of presence.

So today, I ask myself, can I serve someone without calculating if it will be appreciated? Can I write, speak, act, give, love—without slipping into the trap of measuring impact? Can I live with a heart that is open, not transactional?

As Gach puts it so beautifully, when we let go of what we think we must gain, we may be surprised by what we are invited to lose.

And what a holy loss that could be.