Day 34 - Soft Discipline

Taming the mind is like taming a horse. Large, wild, beautiful, powerful, it has the capacity to do tremendous good if it can be gently engaged and patiently trained. If brutalized by an unskilled trainer it can be extremely dangerous, reactionary and frighteningly impulsive. Many of us were trained in childhood with brutal and arbitrary violent punishment as well with manipulative and shaming mind games designed to make us mindlessly submissive to authority.

Our parents were also trained in this way, and until we can become conscious we do the same. Often by the time we begin to understand the implications of this, even if we improve on it, our undealt with stuff is carried onto our children.

Bruce Lee said to be like water, though he was far from the first to express this. The harsh forceful energy is often expressed as yang in Taoism, with the soft, yielding approach yin. Just as with our children we must begin to train our own mind with a soft discipline. It is the warriors way, committed to respect, and yet powerful enough to give direction in the most challenging of life circumstances.

Kindness is all important, and change without it is brittle. We become our own harsh parent, and even if successful there is no joy, just endless unpleasant effort. Who wants to be forced to do something? If someone twists your arm behind your back you will resist, even if they tell you it is for your own good. No one respects a despotic authority figure, even if it is you being the authority to your own self.

Chart your course. Focus in calming and being conscious of where your edge is. If you are going on a trip you have to start where you are. Be kind. Find the discipline of the willow that flows in the wind. Soft and yielding, we will change the word.