Some time ago I wrote on the topic of Discipline vs. understanding and I received a very good question regarding that short essay. The question was:”Should we then strive only for understanding if discipline is worthless?”
Discipline is important if you don’t understand why you should do something. A child, for instance, must of course wear a cap in the winter and eat vegetables even if he doesn’t understand why he should be doing any of those things. That’s one of the important roles of parents – to maintain discipline with certain standards in the things that would otherwise harm the child because of his or her lack of understanding. But as we grow older and become adults it is really shameful if we are still fighting childish battles on all fronts. This time not with our environment anymore but with ourselves. People who continually wage war with themselves leave a trail of collateral damage wherever they go and with whoever they are with.
Fortunately, if you don’t like discipline and don’t have the understanding yet, there exists a third possibility. A complete surrender. I don’t mean surrender in a negative way which is the point when the going gets tough the weakminded people quit. I mean surrender in a positive way which is surrendering to the process. To say with complete surrender:”I will do what the process requires of me on the path I have chosen or on the path which life has laid before me.” and then act in that manner.
When you surrender to the process even if your external struggles remain your internal struggle ceases. A so-called effortless effort begins. If someone watches you from outside it may seem like you are struggling. But because you have surrendered yourself to the process you are now detached from all the effects of that process like un-comfort or even pain.
Unfortunately surrendering to the process is not an easy task for most people because surrendering means giving up control and majority of people don’t want to give up control even if that control is just an illusion and exists in their heads. Most people need constant tension within themselves. That is how you keep the illusion of struggle alive. That is how you keep the ego alive. By waging constant battles outside or inside ourselves with imaginary foes.
The way I see things is you have three choices. You can walk the path you have chosen or have been given with either discipline, understanding or surrender. But know that in reality surrender is by far the easiest because you can surrender in an instant. For discipline you first need to gather willpower and you need experiences for understanding. By surrendering you can simply say to life itself at any moment: “I trust you completely. Do what must be done.” and you will be pleasantly surprised how things you most worry about will never happen.
