THE FULLNESS OF LIFE
Meditation: Christian Approach
(6th of a Series)
Discipline
Some people dislike the word "discipline." It brings up the picture of an angry school teacher with a big threatening stick approaching a child who has been misbehaving in the class. It may also bring to mind, a man coming home at past midnight and tiptoeing into the room while the wife is waiting behind the door with a big surprise for him. And yet, "discipline" does not always need to have such negative connotations.
The Latin word disciplina literally means: study, instruction. It comes from the root word discere, to learn. Thus, a disciple is one who has subjected himself to a certain study, instruction or discipline. To be a disciple, or to go through a discipline, is to learn something. And to learn is to overcome ignorance. It is letting the light of truth dispel the darkness of ignorance which often is the underlying cause of superstition, incompetence and error. And, as the Lord tells us, "Truth shall make you free." So, discipline can be liberating, freeing.
On the other hand, we cannot altogether deny the other side of discipline, which gives us the experience of hardship, pain and suffering. It is the narrow way. It restricts our freedom in order to liberate us. The student must give up the interesting television show to prepare for his examinations. The athlete must undergo a strenuous program of training until he gains full mastery over his muscles. Discipline is the price of freedom and success in either spiritual or temporal affairs.
Discipline gives shape and direction to life, just as an aqueduct guides the course of water. Without discipline life ends up in meaninglessness, lacking a sense of direction or a goal. It is more like a flood which spreads out all over the place only to bring harm and destruction.
Discipline can be imposed on us by the very circumstances of life such as calamity, sickness or poverty. Under these circumstances we are forced to give up the less essential needs and desires in our struggle for survival and choice for a better life. Through these, some people also discover the way to self-reliance, patience, humility and compassion for others. Through these chastising elements of life a more thoughtful person will not fail to see how God lovingly disciplines and guides the course of his life.
Some people cannot live effectively or even rationally as human beings without having a master to constantly oversee them. Unless they have someone to discipline them, they give themselves up to a profligate life, satisfying the cravings of their lower passions. While still others probably will never realize their full potentiality or develop their talents to the full unless they have someone who can constantly show them the rod of discipline.
We rarely find people who are truly self-discipline -- who can submit themselves not only to the discipline of life's misfortunes, or the discipline imposed by others or by social structures, but by submitting to sound principles in life which they have elected to follow. To be able to discipline oneself according to the dictates of one's conscience and the higher principles in life is to attain true freedom. But this height of human attainment is not ordinarily possible without the discipline of a daily meditation.
Meditation exposes the interior faculties of a person to a discipline which is more far reaching than the merely exterior forms of discipline. Meditation can reach down to the very core of a person and submit the conscience to the purifying action of the Spirit. Through daily reflections on the word of God and the discipline of daily meditation, a person finally attains the freedom of a pure conscience -- the freedom of the children of God.