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Supporting Sports Teams
WesternBuddhism
England New
Hello I am very new to Buddhis, so any basic resources to get started would be great, thank you.
My question regards supporting sports teams, as I love supporting Liverpool, and England at tbe World Cup etc, is this still okay while trying to practice Buddhism? I wouldn't want to give this up as I find sport so fun and enjoyable, so any tips on how to incorporate this would be great, thank you.
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Comments
Yes, but only if you're a Chelsea or Leicester fan.
Seriously though, one can enjoy things, just try not to get too wrapped up into them and become angry when they lose or haughty when they win, etc. Have a healthy distance from them, try to enjoy watching without becoming attached and enjoy the sport for what it is.
Yep, enjoyment without attachment. In meditation and other practices you will learn how to observe what your mind is doing. How it sees the world, how it brings you to feel, react and act to different situations, including how you feel watching sports. I have noted that things I used to enjoy have naturally fallen away, and some things have stayed even while my perception of them changes. There is nothing wrong with enjoying life. It is the attachment to that so-called enjoyment that causes the problem as it leads us to see the rest of life as boring, upsetting, lacking etc putting us in pursuit of nothing but the things that make us supposedly happy. When true happiness lies in knowing how to be content in every moment, not just the ones we label as happy.
Pff, it’s prettty easy to let go of supporting any of the Aussie teams right now.....we’re either losing or cheating (or both!)
Back to your question though. You’ll find as you tread further along this path these things will naturally start to have less significance in your life. Don’t try and over intellectualise it and drop things before you’re ready. As some teachers much wiser than me have said, “Luke, when the right causes and conditions come together, it will happen.” And they’re right...
I watch sports and it is truly the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. It is interesting as a Buddhist to just watch how my mind reacts.
Oh no, did you say the world cup? I better take my pills, i can feel the depression coming on again.
This team can probably advise you on your nearest supporters club (Sangha)
http://www.thebuddhistsociety.org/
Buddha! Buddha! Buddha!
Goal!
My viewpoint is that we all experience Buddhism whether we like to or not... the fact that there is attachment, craving, suffering is indubitably true, except that most people do their best to ignore it and are not trying to gain insight into their mind and internal processes.
Does that mean that we should not celebrate, be joyful, dance, sing, love... even support sports teams? Certainly not. We should do all the things that make us happy, in limited doses so we do not suffer addiction, and whilst keeping in mind that this too shall pass and we should be ready and able to let it go at any time.
For me, that altered the perception of some pleasures. It made them less intense, less gripping, and gave me a quality of equanimity which stayed with me. This happened almost by itself as I understood more of the buddha’s teachings. It’s just that insight and realisation change your experience.
This is it for me. Buddhism isn't a list of rules; it's a source of guidance. Use it only as much as it proves useful. Find out whether your attachment to sports teams is causing you suffering, and then react accordingly.
Don't constantly drink beer the whole game.
The teachings of the Buddha are multifaceted. He tailored them to different people at different stages of spiritual development and levels of commitment. Most teachings he directed to mendicants, while others to lay practitioners. Even in those classes are broad ranges of teachings. Drawing the dichotomy of monastic and lay is a good way to begin sorting them.
A lay practitioner doesn’t give up lay life. Instead, one should work toward incorporating Buddhist practice into their life. Traditionally, one would incorporate respect and reverence for the Triple Gem, commitment to the 5 precepts as training rules and the cultivation of the sublime attitudes of goodwill, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity.
All these rest on mindfulness. That, above all, should be developed and weaved into life as it already is. Mindfulness may be developed first in mediation. For that you might find helpful the free ebook, With Each and Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
In Buddhism we do take the Five Precepts vows .. we try to give up lying, stealing, harming others, getting intoxicated .. and we use the discomfort of avoiding these actions as a way to become more aware of how impulses control us and cause our unhappiness. Thus our Five Precepts Vows become a tool for gaining insight and wisdom through self-observation.
But there is NO need to give up sports teams or any other attachment that causes no harm to others.
Eventually we will lose our interest in these things, in favor of other attitudes that enhance compassion and wisdom ... this happens as naturally as the infant loses its attachment to the pacifier/soother.
Don't try to push it ... you develop naturally and slowly as you do your practices.