Q9: What is the interplay between playing out strong attachments, habits, compulsions, addictions, in order to let them go with gentleness and understanding, or using discipline and self control to end these attachments?

A: Discipline is not a rigidity or resistance against. Genuine discipline is merely a product, if you will, of the mind. Genuine discipline requires only that you bring your attention to precisely what is true in any given moment of your experience, without judgment. Discipline is the vigilance of awareness and the decision to be the presence of Love.

The answer seems simple and short and to the point, but if you will contemplate it, even if you will sit in your meditation and write the answer out slowly, so that you watch the letters of the words appear on your plain white paper, and as you give yourself permission to be patient, not in a hurry, more will be revealed to you. And yet, the essence has, indeed, been given. Enjoy the discipline of contemplating the answer.