I needed to disable a whole group of widgets:

I don't think this is complete, but maybe if we added some missing bits and pieces, it will be and it could be added to tklib?

 # gui::recursivestate --
 #
 #	Set state for a window and its children, recursively.

 proc gui::recursivestate {w newstate} {
     variable widgetstates
     set clist [$w configure]
     set idx [lsearch $clist [list -state *]]
     if { $idx > -1 } {
	 set slist [lindex $clist $idx]
	 set currentstate [lindex $slist 4]
	 set widgetstates($w) $currentstate
	 $w configure -state $newstate
     }
     foreach c [winfo children $w] {
	 gui::recursivestate $c $newstate
     }
 }

 # gui::restorestate --
 #
 #	Restore widgets previously affected by recursivestate to their
 #	native state.

 proc gui::restorestate {} {
     variable widgetstates
     foreach {w oldstate} [array get widgetstates] {
	 $w configure -state $oldstate
     }
     array set widgetstates {}
 }