Episode 40 – Atmosphere of Discipline

Discipline is what grounds meditation and study and connects them with our activities in the world • the Buddha said discipline should be like tuning a stringed instrument: if you wind a string too tightly you might break it, but if the string is too loose it will be off key • finding that right balance between too tight and too loose is something we work with all along as practitioners of the dharma • discipline as a practice is much more subtle and interesting than simply following some set of rules • in meditation practice, when we notice our mind is wandering and we bring it back, that’s an example of discipline • Trungpa Rinpoche advised creating an atmosphere of discipline: setting a tone for the day, then paying attention to the results of our actions upon ourselves and upon those around us, slowly bending the energy towards benefit and less towards feeding further confusion • discipline is traditionally said to be that which cools the heat of neurosis • there can be a tug-of-war quality to discipline where we decide to do something, and then immediately a big wall of resistance arises • in some ways discipline is just “carrying on.”