But it need not be explicit ritual behavior only that em-
bodies the ideals and techniques of constructive discipline.
Such discipline appears in any system which assumes that
within the seeker lie qualities that, although perhaps dor-
mant, can be brought to the surface so that the ideal can be
made real. “Be faithful imitators of Jesus, and perfect imita-
tors of Mary,” the fifteenth-century monk Thomas à Kempis
wrote to his fellow Christians in his Imitation of Mary. “Be
simple, like the simple children of God, without deception,
without envy, without criticism, without murmuring, and
without suspicion.” In his Imitation of Christ, Thomas simi-
larly taught others to “learn to turn from worldly things, and
give yourself to spiritual things, and you will see the King-
dom of God come within you” (2.1).
Elements of constructive discipline may also be seen in
the Chinese, specifically the Neo-Confucian, tradition of the
cultivation of sagehood. Zhangzai (1021–1077) defined the
sage as one who understands the harmonious and holistic na-
ture of oneself and one’s relationship to the world. According
to his teachings, a human being’s essential nature (xing) is
identical with all of nature (tiandi), and the sage understands
the principle (li) that unites his essential nature with all
things. According to Neo-Confucian thought, transforma-
tive understanding of this unity can be obtained through var-
ious techniques reflecting the ideology of constructive disci-
pline. Gao Pan Long (1562–1626), for example, advocated
a combination of several attitudes and practices: the cultiva-
tion of an open-minded reverence (jing) for all things; an in-
tuitive exploration (ge wu) of the unifying principle that links
the inner and outer worlds; a pervasive appreciation of the
natural world; a sense of one’s place in history; and a practice
he generally characterized as “quiet sitting” (jing zuo) in
which the student brings the body and mind together into
a whole. Gao described this latter technique as “ordinary”
(ping chang) because it reflects the basic unified nature of
being itself.
In his Fu qi gui Gao notes that one may practice such
quiet sitting by observing some general procedures:
Burn incense and sit in the lotus position.... Try not
to be lazy. After eating one must walk slowly for a hun-
dred steps. Do not drink too much wine or eat too
much meat or you will stir up the muddy waters. When
resting do not take off your clothes. If you feel sleepy,
then lie down. As soon as you awaken, get up.
Discipline of the body. There is a general recognition
among religious traditions that the body’s tendency to please
its own senses tends to distract the spirit from its more ethe-
real tasks. Therefore, most spiritual disciplines involve the
seeker’s control and restraint of his or her physical body.
Christian monastic traditions provide a good example
of such discipline of the body. “The life of a monk should
always be as if Lent were being observed” even though “few
people have the fortitude to do so,” wrote Benedict of Nursia
in the sixth century (Rule of St. Benedict 49), for “monks
should have not even their bodies or their wills under their
own command” (33). According to Benedict, monks were
to “let one pound of bread be enough for one day, whether
there be one meal only, or both dinner or supper,” and “wine
is not appropriate for monks at all” (39–40). Benedict never-
theless admitted, “Since it is not possible these days to con-
vince the monks of this, let us agree at least on this: we
should not drink excessively nor to the point of satia-
tion.... one pint of wine a day is enough for each one”
(40).
Benedict’s Rule thus reflects the value he placed on the
monk’s renunciation of material goods, the primary purpose
of which is to satisfy the body. “He should have nothing at
all as his own: neither a book, nor tablets, nor a pen—
nothing at all” (33). Six centuries later, Francis of Assisi re-
stated and modified for his fellow monastics many of Bene-
dict’s rules, telling them, for example, “to go and sell all that
they have and carefully give it to the poor,” and that “all the
brothers shall wear humble garments, and may repair them
with sack cloth and other remnants” (Rule of St. Francis 3.2).
It may be, however, that the best classical example of
the discipline of the body comes from the ra ̄jayoga tradition
of India, particularly as represented by Patañjali’s Yoga Su ̄tra
and its principal commentaries, Vya ̄sa’s Yogabha ̄s:ya and
Va ̄caspati Mi ́sra’s Tattvavai ́sa ̄rad ̄ı. According to that tradi-
tion, the path to the ultimate goal of meditation practices—
namely, complete autonomy (kaivalya)—involves eight
stages or “branches” (an ̇ga) and is therefore known as the
“eight-limbed discipline” (as:t:a ̄n ̇gayoga).
The first of the eight steps given by Patañjali is known
as restraint (yama) and is centered on injunctions not to kill,
not to lie, not to steal, not to enjoy sexual contact, and not
to envy other people’s possessions (Yoga Su ̄tra 2.30). The
second stage is comprised of the five traditional spiritual
practices (niyama) of cleanliness, mental equanimity, asceti-
cism, scriptural study, and devotion to a master (2.32). At
the third level, the yogin masters the various limber body
postures (a ̄sanas, e.g., the lotus position) that strengthen the
body against the rigors of severe asceticism (2.46), some of
which take many years of training before they can be prac-
ticed without the risk of dangerous injury. The fourth level
consists of breath control (pra ̄n:a ̄ya ̄ma) in which the adept
slows down his rate of respiration, sometimes to the point
of stopping his breathing altogether for long periods of time,
and in so doing releases for his disciplined use all of the life
force (pra ̄n:a) that is said to reside within the breath itself
(2.49–51).
At the fifth stage of the eight-limbed discipline, the
yogin withdraws all senses from their objects in an enstatic
process known as pratyahara, which includes in part focusing
all attention thus retrieved from external distractions on a
single object—such as the spot between his eyebrows—in a
technique described as eka ̄grata ̄, the sustained concentration
on one thing (Yogabha ̄s:ya 2.53). Mastering this technique
gives the yogin power over all of his body, which possesses
an almost immeasurable amount of energy.8704 SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE