When we talk about discipline, we are not talking about turning a spoiled child into a good kid.
It does not mean to plague one's own mind with a stick or to whip it until it submits itself to us. Nor is it a plot to make your life dull. Like the word "emotion", the word "discipline", in the buddhist sense, has several meanings that are not apparent in the ordinary use of language.
First, the term carries a sense of refreshing. It's like spending a very hot summer day on the street and just as we begin to feel bad because of the heat, we find relief under the shade of a tree.
We were very happy to be sitting in the shade, and soon we began to feel calmer and at peace. This is an example of the result of practicing discipline: relief from the intense nuisance we feel in the prison of our common habitual patterns.
Discipline also carries the sense of "on its own" or "stands by its own strenght". It means that we do not always have to be guided by someone, like when we were children.
When we were young, of course, we had many authority figures - our parents, teachers and counselors at school who taught what was to be done. We learned the rules of how to behave at home, at school and in public. But since we have gone through all this, we now realize that we are capable of being our own guides, which is a liberating recognition.
Likewise, at a certain point in our spiritual journey, we come to a point where we are able to evaluate our actions and correct our own mistakes.
In the end, each of us is the best judge and counselor for ourselves, since we know our standards better than anyone else. The problem of relying on teachers is that we always present our best angle when we are in their presence. If we are really good at introducing ourselves, we end up being one person in their presence and another totally different when we go out the door.
So how could the teacher guide us? Sometimes students are even afraid of their teachers and end up trying to "follow the rules" or imitate good behavior, for fear that the teacher will be upset with them.
Our training in discipline should not be based on any kind of fear. This is not true discipline. Tru discipline comes from a deep desire to find freedom.
Ethics as a mental presence
From a certain point of view, practicing discipline involves following a path of ethical conduct: certain actions should be avoided and others encouraged.
Based on this, we may think discipline is just following rules and making effort. However, the main intention of this training is to make us aware of our actions, recognizing them clearly, and thus being able to recognize those that are harmful and those that are beneficial.
Being aware of all actions and taking care not to harm others or ourselves is indicative of a disciplined mind. This menas that we need to examine our assumptions about what constitutes positive or negative action.
Some actions may be positive in a particular social context, but negative in another. The discipline goes beyond just following a set of rules. It requires genuine discrimination, empathy and honesty. In any case, it is our own discipline that we are developing. It is we who are on the road, treading our own way to our freedom.
Becoming a disciplined person means cultivating a mental presence and awareness in order to recognize our actions clearly and accurately.
Being disciplined means that we have a panoramic view: we see our thoughts and the intentions of those thoughts; we see how our intentions develop and, ultimately, are expressed through speech or others actions.
In addition, we see the impact of our actions on ourselves, on others, and on our environment. Whe we apply mental presence and awareness to this process as a whole, we experience more freedom. We are not limited to just repeating our usual tendencies or blindy realizing what we think should be done.
We can choose to say what is in our mind and what seems to burn us inside to be expressed, or we can pause and relax a bit.
This is a moment: we are about to fall into a trap again and something sets us free, saving us from disaster. This is the basic intelligence, the awakened mind, which begins to act. In the beginning, we are more likely to fall into the trap, but little by little, the rebellious mind becomes so agile and precise in our actions that we can begin to relax, even under strong emotional fire.
It is not enough to try to maintain a mental presence and be disciplined only once, and then say, "Well, I tried, but it did not work." It takes time. We must try again and again, and then at some point we can feel the transforming energy.
Regardless of whether or not we change the way we do things, we find that it changes the way we relate to our actions. If we are in the habit of shouting orders to the people in our work, this is likely to continue. However, it may be that we relate to our cries quite differently.