Someone asked an old teacher,
“What is meditation?”
“It’s not meditation.”
“Well then, what is it?”
“It’s alive.”
Dear SMS,
For this evening’s talk, I’ll be exploring with you this odd word we use, “discipline.”
What’s that? Often, I think we approach it with a certain curiosity, even hope or excitement, mixed with fear and loathing. And yet, it holds a central place in many teachings about practice. What is it when it’s alive, an expression of our deepest wish—of the passionate engagement that powers a meaningful life?
We have tons of opinions and beliefs about it. In this culture, we tend to believe that for something to be wild, free and alive, it must be free also of the constraints of discipline. Really? And yet, we love to talk with each other and post cute clips about how we train our dogs or can’t train a cat, and how our animal companions train us….heck, our plants train us, our gadgets train us! And we or our children spend thousands of hours mastering games and gadgets.
What are the vows and precepts we actually, already live by? How are these connected with our sense of a beautiful life? How can a vow, a discipline, nourish us, transform us, enable us to transcend our small stories and glory in the chance to be part of this large, wild life?
So here are two links to enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mX42087N4Q
I keep watching this. Because it thrills my heart. Now here’s discipline! One kind, anyway. And….we hold it up as exceptional, but what about the daily dance of your own life. What if it is just this beautiful, and goes on mostly unseen by you?
And here’s a piece about discipline from Gail Gustafson, of Mahakala Radio, to seed our 5:15 conversation.
http://www.mahakalaradio.org/a-look-at-discipline/
There’s something John Tarrant keeps saying these days, that is coming up for me a lot: “This life of yours, the one you actually have–it’s for you.” I’m loving hanging out with these words. Hope you will, too.