What is discipline?

Discipline means enforcing order. It is gaining control over oneself or others by enforcing obedience or order. But when you cannot gain control over your thoughts, emotions and actions, how can you enforce it upon others? You can only do it through fear of punishment or expectation of a reward for a particular behaviour.

Which means at school, we create a set of citizens who work prima facie only based on fear or expectations. We also train animals in the same way. What is the difference between our education system and animal training?

We must remember that we inhabit the body of an animal and even the brains of an animal. Only a small part of our brain can adjust to our life in the city. Only this brain has the capacity to understand concepts like impermanence and mortality and the meaning of life. So disciplining means enabling our human brain to have control over the animal brain. So the so-called success or failure in our lives depends on how our brain functions. And which brain has more control – the animal brain or the human brain.

To understand our mind and how it works, we need to sit with ourself and observe how it controls us. Observe how it makes us do things like watching Netflix when there is an assignment to do or play an online game when it’s time for a run. That is when you notice the conflict within. You begin to observe how one part of the brain controls the other. So the human brain begins to resist this and starts beating itself for not being able to stand up for itself. But when you understand how and why it works, you begin to gain more control over your animal instincts.

Click on the audio link below to practise a short guided meditation.