(Waterspout and lightning at Porto di Genova Pra’, Genoa, Italy. Photo by Julien Stephant)
If you didn't know that you couldn't,
could you?
If you knew that you could,
would you?
If you can only control your mind
you will have nothing more to control
Si solo puedes controlar tu mente
no tendrás nada más que controlar
The Buddha, background to Dhammapada Verse 36
One who conquers others is strong,
But one who conquers himself is mighty
胜人者有力，自胜者强
Tao Te Ching (Laozi), Chapter 33
Conquer thyself. Till though hast done that, thou art a slave;
For it is almost as well to be subjected to another's appetite as to thine own.
Sir Richard Francis Burton
The mind is very restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate, O Krishna, and to subdue it is more difficult than controlling the wind.
For one Whose mind is unbridled, Self-realization is difficult work. but the person whose mind is controlled and who strives by appropriate means is assured of success.
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6, verses 34 and 36
Self discipline means choosing the path that you really want instead of the path that you want right now.
Self discipline =
Freedom to choose what you want to do and when you want to do it
The distance between you and your goal =
Planning, discipline and execution
What do you want to do?
When you throw a rock into the water, it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution. Siddhartha does nothing, he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he passes through the things of the world like a rock through water, without doing anything, without stirring; he is drawn, he lets himself fall. His goal attracts him, because he doesn’t let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal. This is what Siddhartha has learned among the Samanas. This is what fools call magic and which they think is effected by demons. Nothing is effected by demons, there are no demons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.
Siddhartha
Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age. It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Heroism” (1841)
The danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it. If you fail anywhere along the line it will take away your confidence. You must make yourself succeed every time. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt, “You Learn by Living”(1960)
He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.
Love in the Time of Cholera
Se dejó llevar por la convicción de que los seres humanos no nacen para siempre el día en que sus madres los alumbran, sino que la vida los obliga otra vez y muchas veces a parirse a sí mismos.
El amor en los tiempos del colera
You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
The Little Prince