Discipline is a very general term because discipline can be good, and discipline can be bad. Discipline can be a pain in the neck and discipline can be enjoyable.
If you can turn discipline into an enjoyable thing, which means finding the reason why this discipline is going to help you improve or succeed, then discipline doesn’t become mechanical. Discipline becomes difficult when it becomes mechanical because the mind reacts by saying, ‘I don’t want this control. I don’t want this discipline. I just want to be free.’ The irony is that you are disciplining your mind so that ultimately it blasts and becomes free forever. So, if you understand this, then you won’t have a problem with discipline.
If your question about discipline is related to your work or other areas of life, then you will have to work it out. I can’t tell you what to do in relation to that.
However, with regards to meditation, you should consider discipline as something that is ultimately going to free you from all discipline whatsoever. If you don’t follow a discipline, you will still be stuck with some other discipline. It is inevitable in this world.
When you really look into something with complete attention, that itself is a discipline. It’s not forced on you. That kind of discipline is essential. Because, I say, ‘I can’t see clearly, so I need to look’, and I might use a telescope to look. That kind of discipline is essential. But if the discipline becomes, ‘Every day at 9 a.m. I should look with a telescope’, then some people might rebel against it.
That said, some may not rebel against such a discipline. When it comes to meditation, there are any number of different kinds of people on this earth, so you can’t have a hard and fast rule that says, ‘This is okay for everybody.’ It doesn’t work that way. You need to look at it on an individual basis and see what works. What suits one person need not suit another person.
That’s why it is difficult. If there were some common formula then it would be a different matter, but there is no such common formula. In fact, I am personally very suspicious of common formulas. There cannot be common formulas because each person is made differently.
When somebody says, ‘All you need to do is chant this name and you’ll be free’, I become quite suspicious. It can’t be. Somebody may not like that name, so why should he chant it? It’s like saying, ‘This is the only way.’ It can’t be. Nothing is black and white. In this world, there are many grey areas and we need to handle it that way.
-Sri M
