Discipline

Discipline involves the organization of behaviour and attitudes in accordance with particular teaching. The term discipline implies discipleship, or the acceptance of a teacher or guide, so that the disciple organizes his behaviour and attitude in accordance with one who has greater knowledge and experience, and accepts the authority of that guide: "whoever travels without a guide needs two hundred years for a journey of two days" (Rumi). Undertaking a discipline does not imply hardship or punishment so much as freedom from lesser instincts and desires in order to follow that which is understood to be true. One is said to be most free, most what one truly is and can be, when one is most disciplined, every discipline implying a corresponding freedom. However, disciplinary proceedings are usually taken against members of an organization who have fallen into error, whether to reclaim them from error or to protect the organization from such error.