Discipline

NOV. 7, 1980, 5:54 AM
W. WILLOW, STUDY

You displayed some discipline in getting up and being here ready to write before the dawn, but your mind is not a very disciplined mind. If it were you could accomplish certain things more readily and more thoroughly, but, of course, you would miss out on other aspects of life. Discipline is important… but as a part of a life rhythm, not as a “pure good”.

Discipline need not be severe. It can be quite gentle. There need be no great display of force, but just a soft, persistent unwillingness to let your mind wander off and do other things. You can set certain goals for yourself for a day, and then you can accomplish them. And if not, you persist and see that some are done the next day… or the next. If a task is worth doing then discipline is a means for getting it done.

Doing something not worthwhile, just as an act of discipline has some merit… as practice… but always has to be weighed against what you did not do during the time involved. The process may be good, but the content not worthy.

As in some other issues it helps to look at this in terms of the dimensions of well-being. The spiritual dimension is the most interesting one (naturally). What you are experiencing just now is an example. There is an incredible beauty to the morning light just now, and it would be unspiritual to pay no attention to this. Yet you also are listening to Me, so that if you watch the colors in the leaves and sky for too long you will not write down My words. But know, of course, that My words can come in the colors of leaves and sky. Too little discipline could cost you a lesson (in discipline!) but too much could cause you to miss a lesson in beauty. The completion of this thought is that the occasion of beauty was short-lived; now it is over and you can continue, with it included as an experience for the day.

The main point is that discipline of the spirit involves doing things like this writing, prayer, Bible reading, contemplation… with regularity and persistence, no matter what the forces counter may be. The “undiscipline” of the spirit is to “catch a falling star”… be aware of and appreciate special times when your spirit can be fed unexpectedly… when to be disciplined would be to miss something special that I offer to you.