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Buddhist view of sports?

tim45174tim45174
edited May 2010 in Buddhism Basics
?

Comments

  • NomaDBuddhaNomaDBuddha Scalpel wielder :) Bucharest Veteran
    edited April 2010
    tim45174 wrote: »
    ?

    Buddhist view of sports ??
    Well, if you put that question...I practiced 1 style of martial arts(and I still practice) and basketball so far, and it's nothing special if yo usee sports as just motion. If you do sports ( let's take basketball for example), and practice hard you'll gain many things that non-practicants can't really gain, like increased jump height, increased speed, incresed stamina, more focus, more balance, empathy (yeah, at some point you can understand what another person is about to do without saying a word), sharpened reflexes, and so on.

    If you want to see the empty part of the glass, sports cause you physical damage, injuries, wounds, bone fractures, etc.

    But sports in general are good, depending on their nature : yo uhave good sports, bad sports, and "neutral" sports.
    As a buddhist I don't like at all wrestling (John Cena, Undertaker & comp.) because it promotes stupid violence. I've seen little kids (in Romania->where I live) trying to immitate wrestlers, and often they would injure each-other.
    You would say that is normal, but those kids did it all the time. It is like an obsession for then. A really bad one...

    The conclusion is that sports, for a buddhist are like any other activity.
  • patominpatomin
    edited April 2010
    I am not an expert by any means, but I think, as you stated, sports are as anything else to a Buddhist. If competition is good-natured and not destructive, then I can't see how it hurts anything. Just the new guy's two cents. :)
  • NomaDBuddhaNomaDBuddha Scalpel wielder :) Bucharest Veteran
    edited April 2010
    patomin wrote: »
    I am not an expert by any means, but I think, as you stated, sports are as anything else to a Buddhist. If competition is good-natured and not destructive, then I can't see how it hurts anything. Just the new guy's two cents. :)

    Yup, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout !
  • thickpaperthickpaper Veteran
    edited April 2010
    Attachment to Sports either as a participator or a fan is going to end up preventing progress with our practice. This is not to say that Sports is bad, of course.
  • DazzleDazzle
    edited April 2010
    Participating in sports is a good way to keep fit - so long as it doesn't become an obsession, obviously.



    .
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited April 2010
    agree

    enjoy it whenever i can get a footy in my hands

    good for the body, good for the co-ordination, good for the mind

    10h9lid.jpg
  • DaozenDaozen Veteran
    edited April 2010
    I heard that Buddha supports Barcelona FC.
  • ShutokuShutoku Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I play hockey, and I am a goaltender.
    Aside from all the other discussion of attachment to results and violence, to play well I do so in a state of no-mind. The focus is quite extraordinary! It is just me and the puck...and actually they are not different. If I play poorly it is usually because there is too much chatter, doubt and so on in my head, so for me goaltending is meditation.

    Regarding the violence in sport, generally speaking humans have energy that needs to be expelled. Watch children play...children like to play-fight...tickle, etc. no one needs to show them this...they will come up with it all on their own.

    If people choose to participate in a sport that has a reasonable level of violence, it really is not the same as committing an act of violence on an innocent person. I think it is probably better to have sport as an outlet for physical aggression.
    All this within the context of the middle way of course.
  • RainRain
    edited May 2010
    This, as many things, strikes me as a personal question rather than a religious one. What a Buddhist thinks of sports I suppose depends on whom you ask. Anything in this world could be "good or bad" for us, depending on how it is used in that person's life I suppose.

    I play roller hockey (I'm absolutely terrible at it). Never been one for sports, I'm more of a computer person, but I've taken up the roller hockey as an adult. My husband plays ice hockey. I'd like to play ice hockey too so that's why I've taken up roller hockey, to learn the mechanics of the game (equipment for roller hockey is much cheaper than that of ice hockey ;) ) before trying ice hockey.
    Shutoku wrote: »
    I play hockey, and I am a goaltender.

    So is my husband :) He also plays winger though for a rec team but he tends net for his league team.
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