Discipline means returning with devotion. It is continual practice. Discipline doesn't mean beating yourself with a hair whip, or hard core spiritual push ups, or tightening up on yourself so much that there isn't room to breathe. In fact, discipline means breathing and flowing with your life without being distracted. Discipline is the effort we make to stay in the middle of the road.
If you pay close attention to your life, you will know when you are out of balance and whether you need to pull on the reins or ride with the wind. As your commitment to Zen practice grows, your difficulties with discipline will arise and perhaps become clear. How often do you meditate? How do you train your mind to settle? How do you contribute to the sangha? How do you rein in your impulses? How do you balance feelings? How do you work with passion? How do you allow yourself to be lively and vital? How do you study? How do you work with your life and find accord with all things? These are the questions of discipline, and how you wrestle with and resolve these questions will be how your spiritual life manifests.
Some people are good at discipline in a same time same place kind of way. I'm not, so I work with this, showing up on a regular basis to activities. Other people are good at just sticking with practice in a more willy-nilly fashion, and over the years they keep coming back. Some prefer practicing alone, some in groups. I think if there is a measure of discipline it is simply the sincere longings of your heart to cultivate clarity about your Buddha nature, to bring loving kindness into the world, to heal the fractures within yourself as you move towards wholeness, and to walk with great sensitivity through this brief life.
When scattered, I sit.
When dour, I laugh.
Yin and Yang, balance is the way.
Discipline
