We’ll jump right in with a look at the fact that if we’ve got spiritual liberation on our soul’s to-do list, we’ve gotta have discipline!
As Beckwith says: “We’ve all experienced how discipline sometimes causes an automatic rebellion or resistance within us. We don’t like the energy around the word discipline, perhaps because of the place it has occupied in our upbringing, education or religion. However, a healthy view of discipline keeps us on track in areas of our life where we’ve determined to make a change. Discipline is a practice of self-love, self-respect, and surrender that results in freedom.”
It’s interesting how averse some peeps are to the idea of “discipline”—as Beckwith says, it seems to have some weird energy around it.
Fact is, though, we NEED it if we want to evolve into our Authentic Self!
I love to quote Lao-tzu’s wisdom on discipline. If the ultimate “go with the flow” guru has this to say about it, I take it pretty seriously: “Don’t think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness.”
In terms of discipline leading to “blissipline” (love that!), Seneca comes to mind. In his Letters from a Stoic (see Notes), the classic philosopher tells us: “You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good.”
Translation: We’ve gotta have discipline to stick with something long enough so we can create new habits that eventually lead to a new way of being where doing the right thing comes naturally.
He also says: “How much better to pursue a straight course and eventually reach that destination where the things that are pleasant and the things that are honorable finally become, for you, the same.”
Translation: Discipline leads to blissipline when what you love to do is what is best for you. :)
So, let’s bring this back to you.
How’s your relationship to discipline?
Need to apply a little more to your spiritual practice?
What’s the #1 thing your soul’s been begging you to do?!?
Meditation? (Beckwith goes OFF about how essential meditation is to our liberation.) Yoga? Getting more rest? Exercising? Quitting smoking or drinking or watching TV so much or … ?
Get on that and watch your discipline lead to blissipline! :)
One more brilliant thought from Beckwith to drive this Idea home (it’s BIG!!):
“One of the ways we hijack our capacity to experience a state of beholding is that we become swept up in what I call the ‘tyranny of trends.’ The tyranny of trends allows for the lowest common denominator to set the standard of success, and of course, ‘coolness.’ Very often, trends convince individuals what their life’s purpose should be. The tyranny of trends is blasted out at us from television, radio, newspapers, tabloids, computers, and even our dentist’s waiting room, attempting to convince us that we must smell a certain way, wear a certain label, weigh a specific weight, have whiter teeth, drive a certain car, make a certain income, and so on, before we can consider that we’ve made it.”
