The reward of discipline is life. The lack of discipline is the same as a lack of life. Without discipline, there can be no full life; this leaves only death as the natural recourse. This is the inevitable natural consequence of the fool who seeks to walk his own path against natural law.

In wisdom one knows what one needs and when enough is enough. In wisdom one seeks the fulfillment of need and has no interest for anything other or more. This is the natural way; this truth is reflected throughout the universe. Neither the sun nor the moon, the sea, land or air seek to be anything more or less than that which they are. They have no sense of aggrandized ego.

The natural way expressed throughout the universe defines for us wisdom and shows us the way that we are to be wise. Yet, who pays attention to wisdom? Who learns anything anymore by simply being silent and observing the natural ways?

Discipline is the force within us that says yes to this and no to that, all within the proper parameters of our individual needs. As such, discipline is wisdom in action. Without discipline there is no wisdom; without wisdom there can be only limited discipline. For the discipline of body can be imposed by another from the outside; however the discipline of the mind can only be imposed upon oneself from the inside.

Of all creatures only human beings are disconnected from the realities of natural law. We humans live in our own minds and do whatever we can to bend reality to the shape of our thoughts. When the human mind is clear and lucid this may not be a bad thing. However, when the human mind is clouded by deception and lacking clear insight into the nature of reality and nature itself, then whatever the human wishes to impose on the world is by nature defective and harmful. In essence, we create our own hells. We have taken the original primordial garden and turned it into a dangerous jungle. Human arrogance knows only one end; this is the grave.

In the natural world, in which we used to live, before eating the forbidden fruit, we were like the animals intuitively knowing the difference between what is good and what is bad for each of us personally. When however we wanted to become more than, at the time, we could become, instead of making ourselves greater, we made ourselves lesser. Instead of becoming like G-d, we instead sunk to a level beneath being human, and in many ways even beneath being the animal.

Animals know what is helpful and harmful to them. Dogs can smell and tell the difference between good meat and bad. We have lost this sense of knowing. For us all revolves around what we think. And what we think is a combination of both good and evil, helpful and harmful, blessing and curse. We have lost the natural intuitive edge that kept us connected to external reality.

Now, our only hope is to discipline our out-of-control minds and to control and temper our outrageous passions. Wisdom is intuitive knowledge; it cannot be learned from the pages of a book. Wisdom is psychic awareness; it is gleaned once the books have been closed and the heart has been opened to experience the reality of the world around us. With an open heart, we can hear the long-ago forgotten voice that speaks within us, telling us the difference between true right and wrong, helpful and harmful, good and evil.

Discipline controls fear. Discipline controls desires. Discipline controls a mind that thinks too much and thus justifies even the worst of behaviors. Without discipline, the mind races forward to justify all types of evil and see them as good. This is foolishness and insanity in its purest form. Our world today is very much insane.

Because there is no proper discipline today, there remains only foolishness. Because we live in a world of foolishness, we are surrounded by insanity. Because we are surrounded by insanity, our fortunes and future are not bright.

What can we do about this dismal state of affairs? Why, we can change our diet, of course! We can stop eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Good and Evil and cultivate a taste for the fruit of the Tree of Life. This can only come about through discipline. In discipline there is life; without it there only remains death.

Life is a long road, full of joys and wonders. Death is a short road, full of foolishness, insanity, misery and death. One cannot walk two different roads and expect both to take one to the same destination.