Making Conscious Choices
I’m walking down the streets of Melbourne one day, and I see this 19- year old guy sitting slumped against the wall. As I pass by he looks at me and asks, “Hey, have you got some spare change?” I look at him, and he looks like he’s been freezing in the cold. I wonder what life trauma could have forced him to put himself into this situation — freezing and begging in the cold?
This young man was still able-bodied and fit. He should have managed to find a job and secure a comfortable shelter somewhere. I sometimes fear that there are evil spirits who are upset with us, that cause us to suffer by controlling our human minds through ghost possession. The evil spirits make us make Hell choices rather than Heaven choices.
That young man had given up hope. The thought that runs through his mind is, “It’s no use, what I do doesn’t make a difference. There’s nothing to look forward to. So why bother even trying?” If you ever catch yourself thinking like that, realize that you’re losing hope. And you’ve reached a point in life where you can choose to make it go uphill or downhill. I believe if someone has two hands through which they can labour for their earnings then they should not lay still to beg, but believe in themselves — stand up and be strong — take action. For your decision to fight for your life is the key to succeeding.
To some people, life seems unfair. Like they’re struck with bad luck, and every day is a torturous day to survive and drag themselves through. They act in reckless ways because they seek instant gratification – they want an escape from the pain of their reality. They want to get rich now, so they gamble and then lose it all. They want to forget their worries, so they drink, get drunk, and get nowhere. They need a high, so they inject drugs, buy sex, and commit crimes, which lead to drug addiction, HIV, and imprisonment. So you can be broke, you can be drunk; you can lose your sanity, your health, and your freedom. All you have to do is make the choice. And how can you tell the difference between a good choice and a bad choice, especially when bad choices can seem so tempting and ‘filled with goodness’?
In life, good and evil can sometimes be contrasts created by our conscious judgment. Depending on which perspective you’re looking from, the boundaries between what is good and what is evil will blur. One country gladly sends its soldiers to war, ‘for the good of the nation’. But you witness the death, destruction, and suffering… and you can see the evil this ‘good’ causes. Ask a pimp, and he will tell you his work is an art form, passed from generation to generation. The women are happy to earn, and the men are happy customers. He argues that he is just supplying what the market demands. It’s what people will do naturally because it is human nature. And if abstinence were such a desired quality, then why were we made the way we are? Plus some of his sex workers need to support families and children back home and are only doing this because society has not given them a better way to earn as much money. So in his eyes, he probably sees his business as benefiting the general community.
What we label as right and wrong; good or bad depends on which side of the coin you’re looking from. Which environment are you in? Whose sides are you naturally forced to take because you are a part of that community – e.g. the US or Iraq; police or pimp? Even attackers think they’re attacking to defend the world from a greater evil. What we need to be aware of is that our point of view is strongly influenced by where we are brought up, our nationalistic loyalties, and the messages we receive. In some countries, sex is everywhere; in others, the place is so clean, it is taboo to even mention the word. But in both cases, the people living in either country will think that their way is the best way. People living in a sex-laden free society will think that the clean country is stuck up. While people living in the clean society will think the other is culturally infected and morally confused.
We would do better to make judgments based on independent observation rather than regurgitating what we are culturally or religiously told to think — judge for yourself, don’t just believe hearsay. There is a lot of lying in this world.
The secret to making positive choices is in knowing what’s good and what’s bad for you. Not what is right and wrong in the world, but what affects you positively or negatively over the long term. Will your choice help you to become the person you want to be? Or will it take you further away from that? You know yourself best; you know your strengths and weaknesses. We can judge our actions by their results; our choices by their consequences. Therefore always think through to the end result – the ultimate outcome when you make a decision. It’s easy to get lost in impulse when you lack the self-control to say, “Wait… where will this path lead me?” There are good and bad paths in life… they lead you to different places. Some people can enjoy heaven; others believed hell would satisfy them.
You have a choice. A choice to choose the path you will walk through life. Choose the Dark Path, and you end up on the dark side (for all you Star Wars fans). Choose the Light Path – the path of self-control, discipline, and delayed gratification – and you end up on the light side. Despite your preferences, it’s better to be in Heaven than in Hell. What’s important is that you know where the good places are and where the disaster situations are located, then make the correct decisions to get to the good places and the good life; avoid the bad places and the bad life.
In life, if you don’t play your cards right, you will end up in disaster. Everyone has a set amount of resources they start out in life with. You must make the most of what you have. It’s your choices that decide whether you succeed or you run out of resources or you run into trouble. The choices you make every day shape the outcomes of your life. Choose to get to Heaven and avoid falling into the traps of Hell. The good paths are not as wild and exciting as the bad paths. But if you are a good person, you will enjoy the long walk to Heaven.