Nirvana On The Golf Course

Walking with awareness on green can be an enriching experience. Most golf courses provide beautiful sights with manicured grass, landscaped fairways and strategically placed water bodies. Birds, butterflies, flowers, and trees add to the visual delight. Audio pleasures include the wind whistling between the trees or the plop of the opponent’s ball in water!

Meditation and golf are interlinked. Just as golf is recognised as a form of meditation, several meditation techniques help the golfer tremendously, by slowing down thoughts and facilitating an easy, smooth swing. All this sometimes leading to what one call's a 'Golfer's Zone'.


Players like Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus are known to have played several rounds in the zone, rewriting history. When a golfer is in the zone, irrelevant thoughts just disappear. The desired result just “happens” rather than made to happen. The mind and body work harmoniously to create a swing free from tensions and distractions. Some golfers say they experience a sense of euphoria, others say they are totally calm and in control when zoned in. There is ease and effortlessness in swing. Moments like these make the game of golf attractive. The bad shots are forgotten and the memory of the zone moment brings you back to the course.
Excerpted from The Calm Sutra, the Art of Relaxation
 
Talking about Tiger Woods, I would like to quote few snippets of his televised aplogy. Indeed spiritual!
 
“I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have far — I didn’t have to go far to find them. "

“I was wrong, I was foolish. I don’t get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone, apply to me. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before. It’s now up to me to make amends. And that starts by never repeating the mistakes I’ve made.’’

Yes, we have the same sets of rules to play by in life.No exceptions to THIS rule!

C'est la vie
Vikram