Mental Discipline -

from Mary Rose O'Reilley's book,  The Love of Impermanent Things:

    "Simone Weil, the great twentieth-century French philosopher and mystic, taught that, given any statement, we should go through the following mental process: "Suppose this is not true:  list the consequences."  All French school children cut their teeth on this Cartesian methodology.  But Weil went a step further: "Suppose this is true; list the consequences."  Such good mental discipline."


    Can we do it?   Do we want to?  

    I read of the unhappiness of so many of our children, especially in affluent areas.   How do we lead them into areas of weeds and unpruned trees?