I mentioned in a previous post that training a dog and training your mind feel similar, as both require perseverance in the face of repeated noncompliance. I even use the same commands for my dog and myself:
* Sit - stop procrastinating and get your butt on your cushion to meditate.
* Stay - hold onto the meditation object without wandering off, distracted.
* Leave it or Drop it - forget that object of distraction and put your mind back on something positive. I use this command with my dog when she's found something stinky or when she's starting to be aggressive with another dog. I use it on myself when I'm starting to get fixated on something that's not taking my mind in a good direction. It's the advice New Yorkers often give: "Fuhget about it."
As Gen Jampa said at last year's Fall Festival(?), we shouldn't be like a dog with a bone. Not only are dogs obsessed with them, he said, they growl if anyone approaches while they are gnawing on their bone.
Then there's the popular bumper sticker "Wag More, Bark Less," and the cat equivalent "Purr More, Hiss Less." What do you think the human equivalent is? the Buddhist equivalent?
"Smile More, Frown Less"? or more bluntly, "Love More, Hate Less"?
"Abide More, Grasp Less"?
Having a sense of fun about discipline works for me. As Gen-la Dekyong said last Fall, and Kadam Morten really emphasized in his review, we should be "serious in a light-hearted way."
In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."
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