2 WAYS OF LEARNING LESSONS -- CONSEQUENCES AND CONSCIOUSNESS

For every choice, decision and action there are consequences.

By this Law of Life, existence balances itself and sees to it that we get the opportunity to learn, whether we want that chance or not.

But there is a gentler way than learning from the aftermath of our mistakes. Thanks to our ability to predict possible outcomes, we can voluntarily hone our perceptions, tap into our conscious awareness and design methods for more desirable outcomes. With awareness, we can plan to act in our own best interests.

To put it succinctly:

• We can learn from Consequences; and
• We can learn from Consciousness.

After 70-odd years of making mistakes, there still isn't time, and never will be, to make them all and learn the lessons I came for. Fortunately, though, I was led to an easier, quicker way -- curious, analytical awareness.

Consciousness, I find, is a gentler and more enlightening teacher than Consequences. But to access  learning by awareness, we have to give up being "right" about a lot of things we hang onto, which is probably why most people insist on doing it the hard way and childishly trying to manipulate the consequences.

Me? I'm devoutly lazy -- Easy is Good. I don't care whether the pedestrian crossing light is green or not: if there's a 2-tonne bus bearing down on me at full tilt, I'll take the messages of Awareness over the lessons of Consequences any day (except, maybe, sometimes).

I've done more than my share of lying in emotional and psychological traction and splints, wailing for sympathy over the rotten deal I got. I'm not doing suffering any more. The payoffs are lousy, and "damaged and powerless" is not how I want to spend my last days...

Don't you think?