Spontaneity Versus Discipline

"Should spiritual life be spontaneous, or is there a place for discipline and regular practice? Rupert says: ‘For most people, discipline is necessary at the beginning. If attention has spent decades absorbed in the content of experience, it won’t spontaneously rest in being without some initial effort. Regular practice – meditation, self-enquiry, contemplation – establishes new patterns that gradually replace the old habits of seeking happiness in objects and experience. However, as understanding deepens and attention becomes naturally established in being, practice becomes increasingly effortless and spontaneous. You’ll find yourself drawn to being as naturally as you’re currently drawn to thinking. Eventually, discipline dissolves because there’s no longer anyone who needs to discipline themselves. Being simply abides in itself, as itself. So yes, discipline has its place, but it’s a temporary scaffolding, not the final structure.’"

From event 21 - 28 November, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at The Vedanta, 21–28 November 2025

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