Quotes About Discipline

I'll be washed and ironed. I'll be washed and ironed and starched.

Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.

If a musician wants to become a fine artist, he must first become a finer person.

First character, then ability.

Is meditation really that valuable? Yes it is, because a person's base level of concentration is, in a sense, the most valuable thing that they have. Anything a person may want will be more easily attained if they are functioning from a high level of effortless focus. The entire range of human endeavors relies on concentration, and if your base level of concentration is elevated through practice, it means that you can function from a continuous state of extraordinary focus every day.

For shame, Miss Hunt. If your grandfather learned you had taken the liberty of inspecting the tools of one of his workers, he might just tan your hide.

My goal was not to be famous or rich but to be good at what I did. And that required going to New York and studying and working in the theater.

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. – Vince Lombardi

The habit of procrastination fatigues you more than the effort it takes to do the task.

Learn to Like the Things That Need to be Done

When we wear the okesa, we are also farming. This is the meaning of "robe of virtuous field" (fukuden-e). This body and mind is the field we work. It is not a field of fortune from which we can expect to receive blessings without practice. We have to cultivate our life.

When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.

Just continue in your calm, ordinary practice and your character will be built up.

Actually we do not have any particular name for our practice; when we practice zazen we just practice it, and whether we find joy in our practice or not, we just do it.

To take this posture itself is the purpose of our practice.

But if you make your best effort just to continue your practice with your whole mind and body, without gaining ideas, then whatever you do will be true practice.

But the way of practice is just to be concentrated on your breathing with the right posture and with great, pure effort.

For the beginner, practice without effort is not true practice.

In Hinayana Buddhism, practice is classified in four ways. The best way is just to do it without having any joy in it, not even spiritual joy. This way is just to do it, forgetting your physical and mental feeling, forgetting all about yourself in your practice.

But do not give up your practice; continue it, knowing your weakness.

Another mistake will be to practice for the sake of the joy you find in it. Actually, when your practice is involved in a feeling of joy, it is not in very good shape either. Of course this is not poor practice, but compared to the true practice it is not so good.

Bowing helps to eliminate our self-centered ideas. This is not so easy. It is difficult to get rid of these ideas, and bowing is a very valuable practice. The result is not the point; it is the effort to improve ourselves that is valuable. There is no end to this practice.

As long as you have rules, you have a chance for freedom. To try to obtain freedom without being aware of the rules means nothing.

Practice does not mean that whatever you do, even lying down, is zazen. When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.