Sportsmanship and yoga

Sportsmanship is very similar to the teachings and practice of yoga, although they might appear to be contradicting with one another.

Even though sportsmanship is always being related to any kinds of competitions, while yoga is never a competitive activity, where it's not about competing with the other minds, or with oneself in the past, and there's nothing wrong with the existence of the many different types of competitions in the world, that motivate the minds to keep improving as well as to be achieving higher and higher achievement in this momentary life existence, such as the competitions of academic learning and achievement, general or specific knowledge, intelligence, creativity, design, technology, engineering, architecture, agriculture, township or city infrastructure developments, various types of talents, physical skills, mental skills, sports, professions, businesses, politics, pageantry, jobs finding, apartment or house hunting, life partner or spouse finding, school admission based on entrance exam with limited places, and etc, but the presence of sportsmanship among all kinds of competitors is upmost important in any kinds of competitions/pursues.

No doubt that in all kinds of competitions/pursues, the goal is to win, or to be the best, or to excel among the competitors in any kinds of competitions, or simply to be able to get the desirable job, to have a desirable living space, to find a desirable partner/spouse, to build a desirable relationship, or to get a place in a desirable school, and etc, however, it really doesn't matter if one doesn't win, or couldn't get or do the things that one desires, from time to time, or even every time, where the entire process of engaging in any kinds of competitions or pursues, is without forcing the body and mind beyond the existing condition, ability, disability, and limitation, without hurting oneself and/or others, and devoid of corruption, unjust, prejudice, bribery, ill will, envy, jealousy, bitterness, resentment, disappointment, dissatisfaction, frustration, self-blame, blame others, guilt, regret, pride, arrogance, shame, humiliation, animosity, intimidation, slander, defamation, bully, threat, anger, hatred, vengeance, or violence.

In another term, the minds know how to respect the possibility and impossibility in the present moment now, as well as respecting the result of the competitions or pursues, as it is.

Healthy competitions are more about helping or motivating one another to keep improving in accordance to the existing ability and limitation as well as opportunity or possibility, while respecting the existing disability or impossibility in the present moment now, as it is, without hurting oneself and/or others, or even cheating, in order to win a competition or all competitions, or to have the apartment or house that one desires, or to have the partner or spouse that one loves, and so on.

Win or loose, achievement or non-achievement, success or failure, is not important at all, but sportsmanship is upmost important, in all kinds of competitions or in all kinds of pursues in life.

If the ambitious mind has many desires waiting to be gratified, but it doesn't know and doesn't have sportsmanship, it will be swaying in between satisfaction and dissatisfaction, superiority and inferiority, meaningfulness and meaninglessness, or happiness and unhappiness all the time, being determined by the gratification and non-gratification of desires, success and failure, accomplishment and non-accomplishment, or win and loose, while might hurt oneself and/or others out of such disturbed restless state of mind, either wittingly or unwittingly.

Real competitions under the presence of sportsmanship will make the winner(s) becoming more and more humble and keep improving, while the ones that didn't win would become more persevered and determined to keep improving and keep trying without the sense of inferiority, failure, animosity, humiliation, shame, self-blame, blame others, dissatisfaction, disappointment, envy, jealousy, anger, hatred, resentment, vengeance, or bitterness.

Meanwhile, in any kinds of competitions under the absence of sportsmanship (or correct mentality and attitude), the winner(s) might become proud and arrogant and be over-whelmed by the sense of success and superiority, while the ones that didn't win might be disturbed by the sense of inferiority, failure, animosity, humiliation, shame, self-blame, blame others, dissatisfaction, disappointment, envy, jealousy, anger, hatred, resentment, vengeance, or bitterness.

Sportsmanship isn't only needed to be existing in all kinds of sports/fitness/talents/skills/intelligence/knowledge competitions or championships. It needs to be existing in all kinds of family ties, connections and relationships, or in all kinds of worldly affairs, interactions and activities. It is highly important to have certain degrees of sportsmanship among parents, among siblings, among friends, among schoolmates and colleagues, and among partners in a relationship or in a business. Competition shouldn't be existing in such family ties, connections and relationships, but it does, unfortunately, due to the ignorance and egoism.

Those who are over-powered or disturbed by the sense of envy and jealousy towards others in any kinds of family ties, connections and relationships, and would be behaving in the way that hurt themselves and others out of envy and jealousy, are due to lack of sportsmanship, while at the same time, they always like to be 'competing' with all the others, about anything and everything, either wittingly or unwittingly.

It is quite common that there are many minds, including yoga enthusiasts/yoga practitioners/yoga teachers/yoga businesses, would think and feel that they are always in some kind of competition competing with all the others, particularly in this modern society of social medias addiction under the presence of higher technology. Meanwhile, some minds are always in competition competing with themselves in the past, ceaselessly pushing the body and mind beyond their limitation, to be better, and better, and there's no limit to that, until the body and mind suffers from that, or breaks down. It is indeed a form of mental illness, where there are endless desires, and the sense of discontentment or dissatisfaction has no limit.

The minds that understand sportsmanship, or are endowed with high degrees of sportsmanship even when they are not interested or engaging in any kind of competition, or they don't have any particular desire to have something, or do something, or achieve something, they also wouldn't have much difficulty on the path of yoga that is about non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-comparison, non-judgment, or non-expectation, that enables the mind to do its best in all actions or in the yoga practice, while exerting effort to be looking after the physical and mental condition, or purifying and sharpening its reasoning power and understanding, to be free from ignorance and the consequences of ignorance, while without being determined or disturbed by the fruit of actions/practice being what it is.

The mind that is endowed with high degrees of sportsmanship might still be functioning under the presence of the idea of 'I' due to the veil of ignorance, while the yogi's mind or the buddha's mind is devoid of the idea of 'I', due to the realization towards selflessness.

The mind that is not free from the idea of 'I', will still have the idea of 'I existing in the form of thinking to be identifying as the yoga practitioner who is practicing yoga (I am a yoga practitioner and I am practicing yoga), or as the yoga teacher who is teaching yoga (I am a yoga teacher and I am teaching yoga).

Meanwhile, the mind that is free from the idea of 'I', there's no 'I' existing in the mind to be identifying as a yoga practitioner who is practicing yoga, or as a yoga teacher who is teaching yoga, even though in everyday life, there is the need of using the 'I' and 'my' frequently in all kinds of worldly communication, interaction, affair, and activity, while knowing that this non-existing 'I' and 'my' is merely for the purpose of all that.

That is also why the observation of renunciation/seclusion/solitude and the practice of silence and dispassion is highly important and efficient on the path of yoga of self-inquiry and self-realization. The idea of 'I' as well as all kinds of worldly ideas will be thinning-out, and eventually vanished from the mind naturally, after engaging in a prolonged duration of genuine silence, solitude, and seclusion. The mind will see the truth of the 'I' and all kinds of worldly passionate egoistic ideas deriving from ignorance and egoism, that give rise to so much unnecessary evitable unrest and suffering in oneself while ceaselessly inflicting unnecessary evitable unrest and suffering unto others and the surrounding environment.

There's nothing wrong and it's common that the yoga enthusiasts can be highly devoted, persevered, and determined in performing/learning/practicing/teaching certain yoga asana practice, pranayama practice, sound vibration practice, cleansing practice, concentration practice, or meditation practice, of certain lineage and style, persistently for years and years, while achieving significant improvement in the physical and mental condition, ability and performance, and enjoying the momentary sense of focused within, stillness and lightness, or the impermanent undisturbed quiet state of mind, or the momentary sense of calmness, goodness, positiveness, meaningfulness, confidence, success, or achievement, deriving from the enhanced physical and mental condition, ability and performance that are impermanent, or deriving from the process and progress of teaching and learning between the teacher and the students, that is impermanent, as well as deriving from the empowered mental and emotional dependency (attachment) among the community or among the teacher and the students, that is also impermanent, however, the mind is still not free from the idea of 'I', or ignorance.

Most important is that the mind knows what is non-attachment, or knows how to let go upon the presence of attachment. There's no suffering can arise in such mind, even if there is still the idea of 'I' existing in the mind that is attached, or unattached, or detached, or letting go.

As even the presence of the cause of suffering and the rise or manifestation of suffering in the modification of the mind, or the mind perception of suffering, is also impermanent, and it's not "I am suffering".

What is attachment? There's nothing wrong with the mind enjoys and appreciates certain pleasant/desirable/agreeable/positive/uplifting condition, environment, space, place, nature, plants, objects, people, animals, food, family ties, friendship, relationship, mentorship, community, livelihood, conveniences, enjoyments, interaction and activity, however, if any of these names and forms that the mind enjoys and appreciates very much has changed into something else, or is absent/non-available/not possible for some reasons, either temporarily or permanently, and the mind would be disturbed/dissatisfied/disappointed/upset/unhappy by the changes, the absence, the non-availability, or the impossibility of the names and forms that the mind enjoys and appreciates, that indicates the presence of attachment in the mind, either wittingly or unwittingly.

Inquire the truth of everything.