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I feel I’m confused as to what discipline is, I think of discipline in a social context, like behaving properly or being respectful and polite to other people and girls, being punctual, not being violent, doing your work humbly (job). But then I hear peter ralston say to ask the question, what is social? Or where does social exist?, and what I find is that whatever I think of as social is not etched in stone, like whatever happens in the social domain is very relative and may not be ultimately true. So then I feel that the social discipline I’m trying to follow is like a joke, I’m doing what I heard growing up as to what discipline is.
And then considering the assertion by Peter ralston, that discipline leads to freedom.
So I’m unable to understand, what is discipline?, I want freedom too, but the discipline I’m trying to do in the social context feels limiting.
In a certain way all my life is social, so it becomes even more confusing.
I'd define discipline as the commitment to something regardless of circumstance.
So discipline in a social context would be like having the discipline not to swear or disrespect people even if you really want to, or whatever you are disciplined towards. In a work environment it could be a discipline towards doing your job and pushing on even when it's challenging, regardless of how much you do or don't want to in that moment.
And so it is with this kind of work. The discipline is to get what's true, regardless of how you feel about it, and to acknowledge and be committed towards authentically grasping for yourself the truth of some matter.
If I'm being honest, I have yet to discover the freedom as a result of it, but I would say that it comes from the freedom of not having to wait around for it to happen on it's own, because you take action and make it happen, and move yourself out of the predicament and so free yourself from it. Metaphorically speaking, to pull yourself out of the ditch
Merry movements
ok, i think i assumed discipline to be a function inside the social context. But i see now that discipline(from your definition) as a principle is something that is independent, but can also be applied within the social domain.
Sometimes when I tell people that I write a journal every night before I go to bed, they say that I must be disciplined.
I think it's cute that they're assigning a word to an observable pattern and then identifying me with it.
I have NO IDEA why I write every night. ZERO. Zilch. Nada.
That doesn't mean I couldn't come up with a plausible-sounding explanation, it just means that I don't know what happened before the big bang, or why I was born after humans became literate or why I have hands or feel like writing.
I generally hate the word discipline because I don't feel as though I have it and I don't feel as though there's anything I can do about that. There are probably exceptions to some of these comments that I've made.
It is not discipline if the activity is occurring easily for you. Discipline is that stuff that helps you do the things that aren't arising naturally.