discipline

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Yeah, Well…

Posted by Sanjay Sanghvi

There is this, isn’t there. I expect I’ve posted this before as it’s my own personal deadly sin. The sin of SLOTH.

And a belated happy birthday to Jos Heller. A good man, a good writer. One still revered and honored as well he should be.

  • Donna May Story Tender

Joseph Heller’s Birthday was May 1, 1923. He of course wrote Catch 22, a novel much quoted still today, or at least referred to although few know of the origin. An absurd or contradictory choice. (You have to be insane to want to stay in the army. You want to get out, plead insanity. Ha! If you’re insane you wouldn’t want to get out! A catch 22.)

And that’s the way things are, this today, this now.

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Prayer At The Edge

Tao & Zen· 28 November ·  “Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement, [to] get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.

Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.

Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness. Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge. Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn, or scoff at the totality of being.

Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song.

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power… Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.”

~Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
(January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972)

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Zen Suchness

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Ah, the zen of it. Wherein there seems to be a reflection on everything, if not an actual doing that works. If one applies it—the teaching, the spirit of it, the intention, and on into the practice. What we live, what we do with our intention—the meditating, the meta, and the works—all become our practice. And on with the flow of it. And, as is my own special way, the fall off the Path and the Practice. Distracted by life.

What needs be overcome? For me it is always Lazy. Lazy & lack of Discipline. Maybe they are the same? Finding this, the KAIZEN posted in Lion’s Roar struck a cord of harmony. This seems so easy to practice, how can I not? I like easy. So here we go:

Japanese Suchness—to overcome laziness & to cultivate discipline. Kaizen. One minute, same time everyday. Do same thing for one minute. Kai=change; zen=good.

That’s all, that’s it. One minute everyday. Pick the time and do something, even standing or sitting. Anything. It’s the discipline of same time, same thing. I for one am going to give it a try. I’ll stand for a minute every morning at the same time and watch my breath, in and out. Suchness.