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.

Inquire towards egoistic reactions

The ego is pleased upon coming in contact with names and forms that it likes and agrees with.

It is displeased upon coming in contact with names and forms that it doesn't like and disagrees with.

It is happy and satisfied when it gets and experiences what it desires, and when it doesn't get or experience what it doesn't desire.

It is unhappy and dissatisfied when it gets and experiences what it doesn't desire, and when it doesn't get or experience what it desires.

It wants unrestricted freedom of expression and opinion for itself, to agree and disagree with something.

It allows limited freedom of expression and opinion for other people, to be restricted to express certain expression and opinion that it likes, desires and agrees with, that doesn't contradict its thinking and belief, but not allowing any kinds of expression or opinion that it doesn't like, doesn't desire and doesn't agree with, that contradicts its thinking and belief, especially if it's about other people's expression and opinion towards itself and everything that relates to itself.

It only welcomes agreement towards itself, while rejects and disallows any form of disagreements towards itself.

It feels offended, insulted, belittled, disrespected and hurt by other people's expression and opinion towards itself and anything that relates to itself, if those expressions and opinions are something that it doesn't like and disagrees with, even if those expressions and opinions are the truth, but it's inconvenient truth for the ego where it thinks it's going against itself, that is threatening something about itself, particularly when it's related to power and fame.

It feels satisfied, happy, pleased, respected and flattered by other people's expression and opinion towards itself and anything that relates to itself, if those expressions are what it likes and agrees with, even if those expressions are not really the truth, but it's convenient untruthfulness for the ego where it thinks it's favourable to itself, that is empowering something about itself, particularly when it's related to power and fame.

If the minds are not aware of this defilement in themselves when it is not too serious, when the minds still have certain awareness and self-control over the egoistic reactions, it would turn into a form of mental illness, where the minds are unable to reason or inquire the truth of anything, but living in a self-imagined 'perfect desirable reality' that is built according to what it likes and desires, and would be highly defensive and offensive towards the presence of any names and forms that it thinks and believes has the potential of contaminating, intimidating, threatening and damaging the 'perfect desirable reality' that it built for itself.

Yoga and Buddhism's essential practice is about mind purification of removing the defilement in the mind, to free the mind from ignorance and impurities. No doctor, or surgeon, or medicine, or Guru, or 'God', can remove the defilement in the mind but the mind itself. All minds are under the influence of certain degrees of defilement. Those who are fortunate to have awareness towards the defilement in the mind, and have self-control without being over-powered by the defilement, while be initiative to do something to eliminate defilement from the mind, is considered mentally healthy and matured. If the mind doesn't have awareness, and doesn't do anything about it, the defilement could expand to a greater degrees where the mind would be over-powered by the defilement, then it becomes a form of mental illness.

Those who are unfortunately suffering from mental illness, are losing the basic ability to process the thought activities, to reason and understand, where they cannot and don't know how to deal with certain or all the mind perception of names and forms, being confused and have no self-control over certain or all kinds of action and reaction. Those who are overly sensitive and easily being offended by this and that, who can't deal with and don't allow the presence of certain names and forms that they dislike and disagree with, where they think and believe that the presence of certain names and forms that they dislike and disagree with is the cause of all the disturbance in their minds, are indeed suffering from certain degrees of mental illness. Healthy minds have the basic ability to reason and understand, have self-control over actions and reactions, while allowing all kinds of likable and dislikable, agreeable and disagreeable names and forms being there as they are, without being determined or over-whelmed by all the names and forms being what they are.

The mind that is being determined by other people's perception or opinion towards itself, where it attaches onto and identifies with a personal and public self-identity and self-image that gives certain power and fame to itself that is being supported by some other people, will reject and disallow any forms of personal and public expression or opinion that appear to be disagreeable towards itself, or going against itself, as this mind doesn't want other people to come in contact with any personal and public expressions and opinions about itself that it thinks and believes will be threatening its power and fame relates to its particular public identity and image, and it wants to 'determine' how other people think and judge about itself, by 'controlling' and 'restricting' what type of personal and public expression and opinion to be exposed to other people, where it doesn't allow other people to be given the opportunity of coming in contact with all kinds of expressions and opinions as they are, to have the freedom to reason the truth of those expressions and opinions, and to make their own judgment towards any expressions and opinions, but this mind wants to control what people come in contact with, to 'make sure' that people only be exposed to expressions or opinions that will be in favour of its public identity and image, to secure its power and fame to be the way that it likes and desires. This mind is suffering from fear of losing the power and fame that it likes and desires.

A society that doesn't have the freedom of expression and opinion, that doesn't allow freedom of reasoning, that is being exposed to certain 'limited' and 'filtered' information, expression and opinion, with the intention to 'determine' and 'control' what people should and shouldn't be exposed to, in order to 'control' what people know and shouldn't know, that 'influencing' how people think, judge and believe, is unhealthy and detrimental to the long term over-all well-being of that society.

A healthy society that will make a country or the world strong and prosper, is when people are 'mentally matured', where people are being educated to develop the power of reasoning, to be exposed to all kinds of expression and opinion, and to have the freedom or opportunity to reason and make their own judgment towards what they want to agree and disagree with towards all kinds of information, expression and opinion. And that is the basic freedom or basic human rights, where people are free to reason and make their own judgment, regardless of whether people are agreeable or disagreeable towards certain information, expression and opinion based on their particular interest, thinking and belief.

A democratic country can be run by any leadership that is agreeable by the majority of the people, not by 'determining' or 'controlling' people's knowledge and judgment to be in favour of oneself to be in power, but by allowing the people to have the freedom to be exposed to all kinds of information as they are, to have the freedom to reason and make their own judgment, to agree and disagree, and to choose the leadership that serves the people unselfishly and non-discriminatively. It's not democracy, if the authority of a democratic country is afraid of losing power, that wants to keep in power, and will do whatever it can with the power that it has, to 'control' and 'determine' what the people know and shouldn't know, and what they agree and disagree with, in order to attain the support from the majority to keep in power.

A healthy society is made of mentally matured people who are free to agree and disagree with anything, who are free to reason everything, and free to express their thinking and opinion, while respecting everyone's freedom to have their own different opinions of agreement and disagreement towards everything based on their particular thinking and belief, without interference towards other people's different opinions, especially towards certain opinions that oneself disagrees with.

Everyone doesn't need to be determined by other people's freedom of expression and opinion, likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements towards oneself and/or everything.

Everyone doesn't need to agree with everything, while doesn't need to feel offended by something that oneself disagreeing with, and doesn't need to be offended by other people's freedom of expression and opinion of dislike and disagreement towards oneself, or towards one's particular thinking and belief.

There will be less anger, hatred and violence, but more peace and harmony in the world of diversity, if the world is occupying by human beings that are mentally matured and open-minded, even though there will always be many disagreements among human beings about many things due to the different thinking and belief and desire.

In another term, it's called 'sportsmanship'. All the people who involve in leadership in the world should first be endowed with the quality of 'sportsmanship' before being given the power to lead a government that is supposed to be serving the people, and not about 'controlling', 'oppressing', 'punishing' and 'prosecuting' the people who express their opinion of disagreement towards certain things, while doesn't allow freedom of knowledge and reasoning by 'controlling' and 'restricting' all kinds of expression and opinion, in order to control what people know and don't know, and what people should and shouldn't think and believe, in order to get enough support to keep in power.

Peace and harmony in the world or within a country, is not achieved by 'controlling' and 'unifying' what people should and shouldn't know, and 'determining' what people should and shouldn't think and believe, under the intention of promoting peace and harmony by having less disagreements in the world, but it's by allowing all kinds of agreements and disagreements to be existing in the world as they are, while respecting everyone's freedom of expression and opinion based on everyone's different knowledge, thinking and belief, without interference or oppression towards all kinds of disagreeable expressions and opinions deriving from different thinking and beliefs, that contradict one another.

When people are living under an oppressed society, where many people are suffering from certain degrees of mental illness, and are not mentally matured or open-minded, as people are being brought up in the way of being highly defensive towards their own particular identity, and being highly sensitive and offensive towards other people's freedom of expression and opinion, where people have no freedom of expression and opinion about anything, because people would be prosecuted under specific law and orders for their freedom of expression and opinion of agreement and disagreement, where people are being forced to have certain degrees of fear and tension most of the time dealing with many highly sensitive, defensive and offensive mentally-ill people around them, then how can that society be healthy and prosper?

When people are not living under an oppressed society, where most people are free from mental illness and are mentally matured and open-minded, where people have the freedom of expression and opinion about anything, where people won't be prosecuted under the law and orders for their freedom of expression and opinion of agreement and disagreement, then people can develop the power of reasoning and can learn from each other's different knowledge and opinion about everything, and the society can grow healthily and prosper.

Even so, it's everyone's freedom if someone wants to filter it's own expression and opinion, if one thinks that is necessary, for some reasons, out of one's free-will, and not out of legal restriction under an oppressed society. Such like, people can choose not to have any intentional violence or hypocrisy in their expression of thought, action and speech. It's part of the yoga practice for having self-control and self-restraint over one's thoughts, actions and speech, to restrain the outgoing tendency of the mind, turning the mind inward for self-introspection and contemplation, to not interfering with all the names and forms being there as they are, to allow the perceived reality to be what it is, not necessarily the way that the mind would like it to be.

Everyone has the freedom to restrict and filter their own expression and opinion, or not. Everyone has the freedom of how to react towards other people's expression and opinion, but none can interfere with other people's freedom of how they want to react towards all kinds of expression and opinion. People can be highly sensitive, defensive and offensive, if that's what they want to be. It's everyone's own responsibility towards one's own action and reaction.

Inquire the truth of everything.