Magic 101: Resistance to Lessons

Sometimes the things that are merciful can be difficult to distinguish from cruelty—at least when you’re experiencing them. When emotion and ego are leading your head, anything that denies you what you want, what you think you need, is cruelty. Of course, ego does not make decisions which help you. Ego and emotion will never lead you anywhere that is intended to make your life better, nor will they lead you to learning, understanding, or elevation.

If you’re thinking of the situation in front of you as a win/lose game, ego is definitely making your decisions. When you are weak, ego will always make your decisions. You are not strong enough to do your own thinking, but ego will definitely tell you that you are strong for letting it tell you what to do and how to feel. Resistance to lessons, to what we’re being given to learn, is always weakness at work.

Mercy is the effort your spirits go to, to help you learn. Mercy is the negative consequences that accompany resistance to learning. Mercy is the fact that they even bother.

It is mercy because it keeps the lesson fresh in your mind, because it puts pressure on learning. It is mercy because it cuts through confusion and distraction. It is merciful of your spirits to bother, to spend energy on making sure you understand that you cannot avoid the lesson.

It is mercy because it makes the trial or lesson shorter.

The only person trying to make the trial or lesson longer is the person trying to resist a lesson—if that’s you, you are also the only person suffering from it, the only person who can suffer. Take care that ego does not entertain itself by wrecking you repeatedly on negative consequences.

You can spend a whole life that way.