Training is interdependent

Training and keeping only morality has its own pitfalls. Many people sincerely try to keep morality (sila), but after some time that starts to stink. This happens because they try to suppress the natural urge, which has deep-rooted conditioning patterns. This suppression lead to stagnation and that energy needs to find another way of expressing itself. This suppression leads to imbalance, and in extreme cases, becomes a psychosomatic disorder. These suppressed emotions keep accumulating and erupt like a volcano through another outlet. Trying to follow only sila will result in a conflict because one is going against one’s own habit pattern. One has to simultaneously work on eradicating the habit patterns.

For example, a person may try to project a humble character, which would manifest as an ego-strengthening exercise. There are people who profess a celibate life, they claim to be ‘brahmacharis’, but a closer look will tell a different tale. They suppress the natural impulse of passion to such an extent that they become psychological wrecks. I have heard of some extreme cases of brahmacharis tying a heavy horse-shoe to their organ to prevent expression of their urge for passion. In order to escape this conflict, some individuals become recluses and isolate themselves from social living under the pretext that the outside world is meaningless. Stretching these principles to the extremes creates a lot of tension at the mental as well as the physical levels. These principles are a tool to protect the mind from getting defiled. Already the mind is defiled with negative conditioned patterns, so applying these laws aids in the process of eliminating the already existing patterns which cause unhealthy states. Anyone who tries to follow morality must simultaneously practice meditation and vice versa.