One shock of recognition

The lesson is discipline in the face of no reward.

The actions are simple but the consequences are uncertain. The question, what then shall I gain, puts the action in peril, because the principle of the action is the abandonment of the gaining idea and the severance of attachments. There is nothing to be gained and likewise there is nothing to be lost. When this action, in any circumstance, is carried out for the first time, there is an enourmous show of seeming consequence: anxiety, anger, a sense of loss of self. Carried through, there is the sense of meaninglessness or senselessness: the action carries no gain or reward and so seems without point. Frustration and disillusionment follow. Carrying the action through these irrational deceptions is the final enactment of discipline: once undertaken, an understanding develops that the action proceeds without gain, justification, attachment, or any outside meaning: this is the proof of the action, even when it seems to be its condemnation.

klik if you demand tedious explanations of every little thing.