Discipline

Discipline can be described as training the mind. This is because the source of all our actions is mind. If mind is corrupt, putting in place any stringent rules and regulations would not prevent a person from doing wrong actions. Mind is the generator of good and bad thought. If our thoughts are positive, we have to be glad and do more and more good. If they are negative, we should feel bad and ashamed that we are entertaining such thoughts.

I feel that disciplining mind is more important than disciplining actions. This is because sometimes our thoughts or intentions may be good but the actions may be wrong and vice versa. For example a person with no selfish desire may steal from rich and miserly and, on their behalf, give them to the needy or make an offering to the Triple Gem. Similarly, we may lie in order to protect someone on the verge of being killed.

“Once in a previous life, the Buddha was a captain called Compassionate Heart. He was sailing upon the ocean with five hundred merchants when the evil pirate called Black Spearman appeared, threatening to kill them all. The captain realized that these merchants were all non-returning Bodhisattvas, and that if one man killed them all he would have to suffer in the hells for an incalculable number of kalpas. Moved by an intense feeling of compassion, he thought: “If I kill him, he will not have to go to hell. So I have no choice, even if it means that I have to go to hell myself.” With this great courage he killed the pirate, and in so doing gained as much merit as would normally take seventy thousand kalpas to achieve. On the face of it, the act was a harmful one, since the Bodhisattva was committing the physical act of murder. But it was done without the least selfish motivation. In the short term, it saved the lives of the five hundred merchants. And in the long term it saved Black Spearman from the sufferings of hell. In reality, therefore it was a very powerful positive act.” (Patrul Rinpoche, 2009). We may commit harmful acts but as long as our minds are pure and free from selfish desire, actions become less important. If our minds are pure, that is a true discipline.

Therefore, discipline is training one’s mind so that one does not let negative thoughts occur in.