DISCIPLINE

A BROAD PERSPECTIVE

LIFE

LIFE IS DIFFICULT
This is a great truth, one of
the greatest truths

Four Noble Truths

The first tenet of four
noble truths which Lord
Buddha preached is, life
is suffering. Birth is pain,
old age is pain, sickness is
pain, death is pain.
The second tenet is the
cause of the pain. This is
the craving (trust) that
leads to rebirth. The
craving of the passions, the
craving for (continued)
existence, the craving for
non-existence.

Four Noble Truths

The third tenet is cessation
of pain consisting in the
remainder less cessation of
craving, its abandonment
and rejection, emancipation
and freedom from support.
The fourth tenet is the
noble eight-fold path
actual means of arriving at
these truths.

Eight fold Path

Right views
Right intention
Right speech
Right action
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness, and
Right concentration
These encompass the
whole training of a
discipline. He who submits
to discipline is disciple.

View of Life - 1
If we accept the premise that the life is
difficult, then life remains no longer
difficult.
Then, we make efforts to solve our
problems of life. Life is a series of
problems. We may moan them or solve
them.
Process of confronting and solving
problems is a painful process. Because of
the pain that events or conflicts engender
in us that we call them problems.

View of Life - 2
Yet, it is in this whole process of
meeting and solving problems, life
has its meaning.
Problems are the cutting edge that
distinguishes between success and
failure.
Problems allows us to grow mentally
and spiritually. Those things that
hurt-instruct.

WISDOM
It is for these reasons, wise people learn to
overcome problems.
Most of us are not wise.
We avoid problems, we procrastinate, we
ignore them, we forget them, we pretend
that it does not exist. We attempt to get out
of them rather than suffer through them.
We must, therefore, teach ourselves how to
suffer and how to grow.
Experiencing the pain of the problem
constructively with intention of solving it, is
discipline.

TOOLS TECHNIQUES
METHODS
There are four tools and techniques
/ methods to inculcate discipline.

Delaying gratification
It is the process of scheduling the pain
and pleasure of life in such a way as to
enhance the pleasure while meeting and
experiencing the pain first. It is the
only decent way to live.
Dont eat the frost of the cake first
Do the homework before watching the
TV
Do hard work to earn a holiday

Acceptance of Responsibility-1
It is an integral part of discipline.
Children watch their parents and learn
behaviour from them.
If the child sees self-discipline, selfrestraint and regulated behaviour, they
will learn to love and respect.
Loving, admiring and caring is positive
acceptance of responsibility.
This is how comes the concept of a role
model

Acceptance of Responsibility-2
There are people who would never accept
their responsibility.
If they drink, they will find out reasons for their
drinking as bad weather, hard work, bad boss,
nagging wife, difficult life etc. They would
never assume that drinking is his choice.
Such people also will not accept any form of
discipline.
Acceptance of responsibility bestows
accountability.
One who cannot account for has to be led.

TIME
Once we accept responsibility, we have
to devote time. Time to observe each
person closely to become aware of when
their need for disciplinary assistance can
be expressed subtly.
Often we do not devote time and try to
impose discipline brutally out of anger
rather than active deliberations. We do
not even examine the problems properly.
The time and quality of time span
indicate the degree to which people are
valued.

IMPORTANCE
This indicates the sense of being
valuable.
The feeling of being valuable is
important.
If we feel ourselves valuable, then
we will feel our time to be valuable,
if we feel our time to be valuable,
then we want to use it well.

CARING
Caring is involvement in problem
solving.
The feeling that there are people
who care about our problems and
feelings is important.
The degree of trust generates and
people feel secure.
We cannot solve our problems
excepting by solving them.

Dedication to Truth
Dedication to truth is the path.
This is the right view of life. The path is
difficult yet simple, because truth is
simple.
Untruth can be divided into two types,
white lies and black lies. There are
gray lies also. This is a big and gray
area which we may avoid delving very
deeply.

Withholding Truth
Withholding truth may be
sometimes realistic and
unavoidable.
We need to however maintain
certain basic concepts of remaining
on the side of the truth i.e.
remaining dedicated to truth.

Withholding Truth-1
First, never speak falsehood.
Second, bear in mind the act of
withholding the truth is always
potentially a lie and that each
instance in which truth is to be
withheld a significant moral
decision is required.
Third, the decision to withhold
the truth should never be based
on personal needs, such as need
for power, a need to be light, or
a need to protect self.

Withholding Truth-2
Fourth, the decision to withhold
the truth must always be based on
entirely upon the needs of the
person or people from whom the
truth is being withheld.
Fifth, the assessment of
anothers needs is an act of
responsibility which is so
complex that it can only be
executed wisely when one operates
for the genuine love for the
other.

Withholding Truth-3
Sixth, the primary factor in the
assessment of anothers needs is
the assessment of that persons
capacity to utilize the truth
for his or her own spiritual
growth.
Finally, in assessing the
capacity of another, utilize the
truth, the general tendency is to
under-estimate the capacity.

CHOICES
Most people opt for a life of a very
limited honesty and openness and
relative closedness, hiding
themselves from the world.
It is easier that way.
Yet rewards of the difficult life of
honesty and dedication to the
truth are more than
commensurate with the demands.

ROLE MODEL
By virtue of the fact that their mental
maps are constantly being challenged,
open people are continually growing
people.
Through their openness, they can
establish and maintain intimate
relationships far more effectively than
most closed people.
Therefore, inculcating discipline by a role
model concept becomes easy when one
is open and dedicated to truth.

BALANCING - 1
Balancing is the discipline that gives us flexibility.
Extraordinary flexibility is required for successful
living in all spheres of activities. To use one
example, let us consider the matter of anger and
its expression.
Anger is an emotion bred into us by countless
generations of evolution in order that our survival
may be encouraged.

BALANCING - 2
We experience anger whenever we perceive
another organism attempting to encroach upon
our geographical or psychological territory or
trying one way or another to put us down. It
leads us to fight back. Without anger, we would
be exterminated.
Only with anger we can survive. Yet our
perceptions go wrong most of the times about
the attempted encroachment of others when we
examine them closely.

BALANCING - 3
Thus, it is necessary that the higher
centers of our brain (judgment) we will
be able to regulate and modulate our
lower centers (emotion). To handle our
anger with full adequacy and
competence, an elaborate, flexible
response system is required. To a
greater or lesser degree, all people
suffer from inadequacies of their flexible
response systems.

Process of Balancing
It is becoming increasingly clear that the
exercise of discipline is not only a
demanding, but also a complex task
requiring both flexibility and judgment.
Courageous people must continually
push themselves to be completely
honest yet must also possess the
capacity to withhold the whole truth
when appropriate.
Balancing is related to giving up
something and is a painful process which
is difficult to imbibe and practice.

INTEGRATION
Discipline is to be integrated with
life.
The integration has to be such that
it takes care of the body and mind
and leads to the formation of such
habits which make the difficult life
easy.
Disciplined habits apparently
become a great competency which
helps to handle the intricate
situations of life with ease.

THANK YOU