By: VW Florencio B. Maghinay, PDGL (Maguindanao Masonic Lodge No. 40)
Right now, there are plenty of reasons to talk about Masonic discipline. Within the Masonic fraternity, members are not anymore isolated from the transgressions of this very important tenet, of which we cannot deny that Masonic discipline is part of the structure of moral values. Masonic discipline requires training and some self-discipline.
Discipline is the assertion of willpower over more base desire, and is usually understood to be synonymous with self control. Self-discipline is to some extent a substitute for motivation, when one uses reason to determine a best course of action that opposes one’s desires. Virtuous behaviour is when one’s motivations are aligned with one’s reasoned aims: to do what one knows is best and to do it gladly.
In its original sense, Masonic Disciplines referred to as the systematic instructions given to a discipline or member to make him a better man in our craft, or to follow a particular code of conduct or “order”. Often, the phrase “to discipline” carries a negative connotation. This is because enforcement of order – that is, ensuring instructions are carried out, is often regulated through punishment. To discipline means to instruct a person to follow a particular code of conduct or order. In the field of Masonic discipline, discipline refers to methods of modeling character and of teaching self-control and acceptable behavior, for example, teaching a Mason to wear his apron before entering a lodge. Here, wearing your apron is a particular pattern of behavior, and the Mason is being disciplined to adopt that pattern. To discipline also gives rise to the world disciplinarian, which denotes a person who enforces order.
“Without discipline there is nothing to be proud of”, according to Richard L. Kempe, a well known Psychologist. According to him, the best discipline is self-discipline and can be defined as the ability to motivate oneself in spite of a negative emotional state. Qualities associated with self-discipline include willpower, hard work, and persistence.
There are different kinds of discipline and to name a few are military and church discipline. Military discipline refers to the regulation of the behaviors of members of any military, involving rules that govern orientation and behavior inside and outside the institution, including the socialization process that happen in military training. Rules of discipline are firmer or relaxer depending on the prevalent culture of the military’s country or institution. As early as the time of the Roman army, discipline was enforced through military justice, but broader compilations of laws such as the Codex Theodosianus contained provisions dealing with military discipline. While church discipline is a response of an ecclesiastical body to some perceived wrong, whether in action or in doctrine. Its most extreme form of discipline is excommunication.
Masons accept into our fraternity only just and upright men who have a belief in a Supreme Being. Not only do we do an investigation and elect our candidates by unanimous ballot, we each take an obligation, acknowledging that we are subject to Masonic discipline should we violate our vows.
Masonic offenses fall in two distinct classes; those which are committed against the laws, customs, ancient usages of the Fraternity, and those which are in conflict with the laws of the Nation, State, or community; usually (not always), these latter must have moral turpitude to be classified as Masonic offenses. Thus, violation of a parking regulations, while an offense against a local law, could hardly be held a Masonic offense, whereas selling liquor, legal in many places, in many Grand Jurisdiction is a Masonic offense.
Many offenses are sometimes the result of ignorance; a brother ill informed as to his duties in the Lodge as a Mason, and not oriented as to the Masonic law, many easily commit a Masonic offense in all innocence. In a vast majority of such cases, admonition and instruction have been found much more effective than the preferring of charges and the holding of a Lodge trial. Thus, a newly made Mason, not yet instructed in all that a Mason should and should not do in a Lodge, like failure to answer summon, or insist on speaking in the Lodge without recognition by the Master, has no taint of guilty intention. Obviously, instruction will cure such ignorance and prevent a recurrence of the offense, far more easily than preferring charges and holding a trial.