Discipline

Discipline (tshul khrims / shila paramita / ethics or morality), according to Dzogchen, can also be spoken of as energy – naturally arising energy or spontaneous energy. Non-duality incites the flow of spontaneous compassionate activity in precise relation to circumstances. Each situation—with all its complicated facets—guides the activity of pure appropriateness.

Pure discipline—in the Tantric sense—is the ecstatic embrace of the Lama's vision of ourselves. Pure discipline is based on our devotion to the Lama, rather than the self-determined and wilful adoption of a rigid code of conduct.

The process of referentiality saps the energy of naturally present compassionate activity. This is why discipline needs to be applied – in terms of adhering to a pattern of guidance given by the Lama. This is then a skilfully evoked pattern which approximates to compassionate activity for the disciple concerned.

The purpose of discipline is to overcome the compulsive nature of our habit patterns. For this to succeed we need to become transparent to ourselves. As practitioners we need to dwell in a limpid pool of self-awareness.

Discipline is necessary because of our primary ambivalence concerning practice and its result – realisation. Our primary ambivalence is that we wish for realisation at the same time as wishing against it.

Acknowledging this fact needs to underpin our lives as practitioners. There can be no progress unless we spend considerable time watching the play of this fact unfolding: day-by-day, week-by-week, and year-by-year. There are endless opportunities to watch.

We might love to think of ourselves as ceaselessly working for the benefit of everyone and everything, everywhere – but there are other things for which we might work more assiduously, such as our need to referentially establish ourselves in terms of solidity, comfort, distinction, continuity, and definition. These needs pervade our lives and pervert the sparkling through of our beginninglessly enlightened nature. We are extremely dishonest about realisation. We want it but not now: we need a few more minutes in bed; we need to vent our spleen; we need to retreat into the form of boredom at tonight's dinner plan – all rather than sit in the discomfort of non-conceptuality.

What we really want is to get as close as possible to realisation. . . then we want to sit back and admire our accomplishment.

Watching this push and pull – toward and away from the rules which we have applied to ourselves, is a primary practice of living the view. It induces an energetic sensation with which we must sit until it dissolves – this, is the acute claustrophobia of being a practitioner. It is a magnification of what occurs in formal practice, because it is applied in our everyday lives and is therefore endless. When it reaches uncomfortable intensity, hilarity and relaxation are often the only way to encourage the sense of spaciousness. To cling to that intensity is merely to add another layer of referentiality.

Discipline is like a band-aid for the injury of duality. However, band-aids have their limitations. They lose adhesion and fall off as we lapse in our application. 'Spiritual' band-aids become dirty when we judge others according to the discipline we have adopted. They become dirty because our discipline exists in order to temper our personal styles of playing with the primary ambivalence of wanting and not wanting realisation. 'Band-aid discipline' is no substitute for the real skin of realisation, but it has to suffice until such time as we can change.

We are immensely attracted to manipulating our lives in terms of discipline as another excuse to play with form in order to avoid emptiness. 'Spiritualised earth element neurotics' love nothing more than to impose strict sets of rules on themselves (and others) until they become crippled by such self-imposed bondage. When this crippling point is reached, we binge on whatever it is we were attempting to avoid.

This is the game where we divide ourselves into two people: the good and the bad – both of which are ugly, and far more entertaining than our tedious selves. This is the trap of 'discipline as reference point'. Without the guidance of the Lama, we will need to watch ourselves falling into this trap – possibly over and over again, before it wears itself out.

The Ten Paramitas

(Parol-tu Chinpa Çu – pha rol tu phyin pa drug phar bCu)

1.    Generosity (jinpa – sByin pa – dana paramita)
2.    Discipline [energy / morality] (tsultrim – tshul khrims – shila paramita)
3.    Patience (zopa – bZod pa – kshanti paramita)
4.    Diligence (tsöndrü – brTson ’grus – virya paramita)
5.    Openness [transcendental knowledge or insight] (samten – bSam gTan – dhyana paramita)
6.    Knowledge (shérab – shes rab – prajna paramita)
7.    Method – skilful means (thab – thabs – upaya paramita)
8.    Aspiration power (mönlam – sMon lam – pranidhana paramita)
9.    Strength (tob – sTobs – bala paramita)
10.  Primordial wisdom (yeshé – ye she – jnana paramita)