Inspired by Bindu Wiles' 21.5.800 challenge (see http://binduwiles.com/buddhism/my-new-project-21-5-800/) and her writing on discipline, "Discipline, the word we mostly cringe at (http://binduwiles.com/buddhism/discipline-the-word-we-mostly-cringe-at-21-5-800-day-8/comment-page-1/#comment-1158):
For me, I think of discipline as surrender, not as in I surrender to an opposing army but as in I surrender, swooning, into the arms of a lover.
If
- I envision the practice to which I submit myself as my lover,
- love infuses the act of surrendering myself to the lover,
- in surrender I reach out, not closing but rather opening to the fullness of the experience, as my vulva, vagina, cervix and uterus swell with blood to support the sexual experience
then the whole experience of submission or surrender to discipline is transformed.
There are some things in life - especially, for me, I have noticed, the subtle experiencings of my emotions, soul, spirit and heart - that require aspects of to submission or surrender, an opening and turning toward, for me to experience them at all. Otherwise they pass unnoticed. This has become most clear to me since beginning a personal practice of Focusing, which I do without fail a minimum of once a week, and often more.
I *love* the experience of discipline when I think if it this way. One of my yoga teachers said that if we are ready, the experience will happen. (I'm sure this is not unfamiliar to many of you.) Surrendering in love to discipline is how I make myself ready.
Bindu, thank you for opening the space in which I can reconnect with the juiciness in me in relation to this topic.
Shulamit
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Very sensually put. :) I do see though the benefits of involving all your senses in discipline as it also commits it to memory as you said, not just passing unnoticed. I will have to keep that in mind the next time I feel out of focus or without discipline towards doing something.
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