In Case You Missed It
Zen Optimisms for the Week from February 15-21
Saturday, February 15th: Practice Practice Practice
Returning to the breath
Sunday, February 16th: Are You Serious?
Happiness is a serious matter...
Monday, February 17th: Stillness
... is a matter of understanding
Tuesday, February 18th: Are You Serious...
... about meditating?
Wednesday, February 19th: Expedient Means and the Benefit of Doubt
The Hara
Thursday, February 20th:
Friday, February 21st: Producing Vision, Producing Knowledge
Picturing the near shore, far shore
George P’s Take: Zen and Team Sports
“In basketball--as in life--true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way.” --Coach Phil Jackson
To follow up on last week’s take on Jodo and other Zen-influenced physical wellness activities, this week, the field is expanded to look at Zen Buddhism in team sports and not just individual or one-on-one competition, like jodo. Comparing a team to a sangha, there is an opportunity for all to practice mindfulness, open their hearts, transform, and see all others as teachers. Many well-known professional athletes around the world have practiced or practice Buddhism in team sports, including basketball, baseball, football, soccer, rugby, ice hockey, and cricket. To wit:
The “best-ever” Italian soccer star (and Catholic) Roberto Baggio practices Nichiren Buddhism, which teaches that Buddhism needs to be more than meditation and should be practiced "with the body" in one's actions.
Three-star Sri Lankan cricketers (Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tillakaratne Sampath, and Suraj Randiv) converted from Islam to Buddhism.
Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic meditates before and between matches. The monks at the Buddhapadipa Temple, where Djokovic sits, credit meditation as the secret to his success at the London Open.
Hockey’s Chicago Blackhawks captain and future NHL Hall of Famer Jonathan Toews credits studying and practicing Buddhism (and Taoism) for his becoming more empathetic and a better teammate.
Retired Welsh rugby star Ricky Evans says the inner peace he has found by practicing Buddhism means as much to him as representing his country in a match.
Orlando Cepeda, a former MLB all-star and Hall of Fame member, said that Buddhism saved his life.
DeAndre Jordan and Metta Sandiford-Artest are two current American professional basketball players in the NBA who identify as Buddhists.
Speaking of basketball, Phil Jackson, a former famed professional basketball coach incorporated Zen practice into his training sessions and wrote a best-selling book about Buddhism entitled Phil Jackson's Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior that includes these quotes about teamwork, simplicity, and harmony:
Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the 'me' for the 'we.'
Awareness is everything.
I taught the players. “Respect the enemy, be aggressive without anger or violence, to live in the moment and to stay calmly focused in the midst of chaos.”
The Take: We Zen practitioners who are also passionate about baseball are attracted to a “Baseball Zen” feature during ball games on television. While some feature a spectacular catch or hit, others show a groundskeeper watering the infield or slowly raking the dirt with a baseball diamond superimposed over it. We feel Baseball Zen captures the grace and skill of baseball perfectly, i.e., its relaxing nature, its ethereal quality, and how a player’s grace brings on calm and peace— just like sitting in the Zendo during meditation, watching the sun rise or snowfall, or manifesting love.