Inspirational stories-1: stop the madness of self discipline

Stop The Madness of Self-Discipline
 

Everywhere you look nowadays the new holy grail of success seems to
be self-discipline. From, diet plans, to sports, to the stock market, to
 

the arts and also, most unfortunately, even in the practice of
 

meditation, yoga and the related spiritual sciences. Raw material
 

enters boot camp, is put through the patented regiment, and out
 

comes a finished product. Discipline yourself to eat right, exercise right
 

so you can get healthy, discipline yourself to sleep less so you have
 

more productive time, discipline yourself to sit endlessly hour after
 

hour watching your breath so you can gain enlightenment. Is this the
 

way? Is self-discipline necessary? I don’t think so. Let me tell you a
 

story...
 

The War of The Rice Farmers
 

In a small village far from the hustle and bustle of the city, there lived
 

a rice farmer, Barbary Rao. He was a simple man and had a small rice
 

paddy, which he would tend to diligently and which rewarded him with
 

ample harvest to support his family. Now Barbary loved to farm. He
 

was born to farm. He loved to hoe the land, build irrigation canals,
 

study the weather patterns, research fertilizers, and most of all he
 

loved his rice..., yes eating it also. He knew all about farming rice.
 

From end to end he was an expert farmer. Barbary had also developed
 

new systems to ¡mprove the quality and quantity of his dear crop and
 

other farmers would often visit him and his farm to learn from him
 

new techniques in de-husking, storage, aging, packaging etc. etc. One
 

such visitor was coolun Das.
 

Coolun Das was from a neighboring village and he was a very strong
 

man. His body was strong, his will was strong and most of all his
 

ambition was strong. Coolun was eager for success and worked very
 

hard to make his farm productive and profitable. He knew that Barbary
 

was his main competition in the region and so worked very hard to
 

learn his systems. One season, there was great excitement among the
 

villages, that Barbary had developed a formula for new hybrid rice
 

seeds that would double the yield of the harvest. Upon hearing this
 

news, Coolun was very disturbed. What if Barbary refused to share the
 

formula? What if he decided that this was too good to give away, as he
 

had done with his other discoveries, and using it made himself the richest and most powerful of the region?

Coolun began to have nightmares. So one night he snuck into Barbary’s farm and stole the
 

formula and seedlings. Barbary was unable to reproduce the stolen 

formula and eventually moved on to other work. 

Coolun utilized the formula and had a bumper crop that year and in 

the common market, where all the farmers would bring their crop and 

samples, he sought out Barbary to gloat. Much to his surprise and 

irritation Barbary was quite undisturbed by his success. Barbary 

congratulated him on having such a good year and began discussing 

with him new techniques in polishing that he was working on. Coolun 

wondered how come he was not as contented as Barbary. He decided 

it was probably due to the fame Barbary had in the region, so Coolun 

made up his mind to achieve greater lame than Barbary and thus 

greater gratification. Coolun knew Barbary worked very hard so he 

decided to discipline himself to work even harder. He started sleeping 

in the barn so that the dawn calls of the cocks would awaken him. He 

trained himself to eat only one time a day, so he would be even more 

time efficient. He learned to concentrate and work through pain, 

discomfort and fatigue becoming a non-stop farming machine. All that 

hard work brought him great success and in a few short years he 

became the richest and most famous farmer in the region. But alas, 

every year that he met Barbary in the market, he would be reminded 

that he was not the happier of the two. 

Coolun tried everything, he had a huge estate built, purchased large 

farm lands, grew in political power, gave away rice to the hungry, all 

the time using great self-discipline to achieve these successes, but 

even when old and gray whenever he met Barbary, he knew there was 

something he had missed. Eventually, they both grew very old and as 

luck would have it they passed away on the same day. In the line 

outside the pearly gates, Coolun and Barbary met again. As usual, 

Barbary greeted him happily and began discussing the latest research 

on creating vitamin-enriched rice. Finally their turn arrived to meet the 

Big Boss. 

Once inside the Big Boss turned to Barbary and said, “Well done my 

boy, here come take a seat you need the rest.” He then turned to 

Coolun and asked, “Any questions?” “Yes,” Coolun replied, “How come 

you have asked him to rest and not me? I have worked just as hard, if 

not harder than him, throughout my life. Also, how come Barbary was 

always happier than me, even though I achieved so much more 

success, so much more wealth, power and fame?” “Well the answer is 

really very simple,” replied Big Boss. ‘You, Dearest Coolun, were 

meant to be a wrestler not a rice farmer. So your work is yet to be 

done. Off you go...” and with that Coolun was sent back down for 

another go. 

Commentary & Analysis of Passion vs. Self-Discipline 

One of the most important things in life is to figure out what you really 

love to do. This is not always easy. What makes it harder ¡s that what 

you love to do is not necessary what you want to do. You may want to 

spend all your time sitting around watching TV, or playing World of 

Warcraft, or golf. This does not mean you have figured out what you 

love to do. I am not saying you don’t do the things you want to do 

either, its just if you have not figured out what you love to do in life, 

you will do these things to escape from the tedium that your life will 

eventually become. So how can we figure out what we love to do in 

life? That is your first and foremost challenge and I have found the 

following questions to help with that process... 

Questions to Help You Discover Your True Passion: 

1. What is it that you like to do for its own sake, without any 

concern for reward or compliment? Do you like the joy of 

building things? Do you like to just create music? Do you like to 

teach? Do you like the challenge of watching your thoughts ¡n 

action? 

2. If you won the lottery, I mean the really, really big one how 

would you like to spend the rest of your life? 

3. If you were informed that you were about to die shortly, what 

would you regret most as not having spent your time doing? 

4. No matter where on Earth you are. In a rich, first world country, 

in the bush lands of Australia or high up in a Himalayan village 

what do you see yourself doing regardless of location? 

5. What activity do you always find yourself coming back to 

throughout your life? 

6. What activity can you just not see yourself doing without? 

One important thing to remember is that nowhere am I saying that 

what you love to do is going to be easy. It may be very hard, very 

challenging, but what I can assure you is that you will do the hard 

work, with a smile on your face and not needing a shred of self- 

discipline. 

The passion for the work will carve its own discipline. It is, like a river, 

carving its own banks, making its own path, no outside influence is 

required. Similarly when you are doing what you love to do, you don’t 

need to impose any external discipline. You just do what you love to 

do. Pay attention to the demands that the work makes on you and you 

will find that simply trying to meet the challenges of these demands 

gives your life great order. 

Self-discipline being imposed from outside is violence. It is not born 

out of intelligence and the natural demand of the work at hand. You 

can look at it this way, either you are devoted to yourself and, like 

Coolun, discipline yourself through will to attain what you believe you 

need to succeed in life, or like Barbary, you are devoted to your 

passion and you do what it requires from you. One leads to frustration 

and one to contentment. Time, to stop the ugliness of imposed self 

discipline and embrace the path of wisdom and grace.