Mind, Body, Morality, desires and sports - a yogi talks about his life experiences.
Mind over matter
It was the year 1968, Olympic games in Mexico City. At the eve of the 100 m. running competition few athletes were training in the huge stadium. Some of them had chosen to climb the stairs of the stadium. Only one would prefer to descend the stairs running as fast as possible. How strange ! He would become the pioneer of a new style of training. His name was Valery Borzov, the Russian winner of both the competition on the 100 and 200 m. in that historical venue of the Olympic games. Valery was training himself to experience the sensation of speed with the idea of getting into a rhythm which would eventually be filled with the strength of his muscles when running on a straight surface.
Today trainers have understood that most limitations for the athletes are on the mental level and not in the physical sphere. Athletes learn that to get the experience of a higher performance is foremost before actually being able to build the physical body machine in order to achieve it. Mind comes first and body follows.
Mind and fear
As a child I was trying to learn how to swim with little avail. Once two girl friends of mine called me towards the sea pretending to touch the ground with their feet. I ventured without hesitation and before reaching them I found my head under water. I started to swallow water and I got afraid. In the reflex to survive I turned on my heels and I started to swim vigorously towards the shore. When I found that I could swim, the fear was gone.
Mind and morality
At the age of fourteen I was playing baseball with a self-made team. Our president was sixteen and our field was a piece of land with holes and patches of grass coasting a ditch. Every time we were training we used to loose more time looking for the lost balls in the bushes than actually playing. In spite of these odds we could go on and compete with stronger teams and we even got a sponsor. One year we decided to hire a trainer coming from another city that had played baseball all his life and could bring our team to a more professional level. In the due time we found out that his moral conduct in his personal life was not completely clean. Our performance didn’t improve and the inner cohesion of the team started to degrade. We finally decided to get rid of him and continue to train by ourselves. We had the internal awareness that morality was more important than achievement and personal life does matter in the example you bring to younger boys and girls.
The sweet taste of victory
At the same age of fourteen I ventured to participate to a table tennis competition. We were in a resort place and some national players were present. One of them had been national champion many years ago and he decided to pick me up for the double competition as his two other friends were teaming together. In the finals we were confronted just with them at the best of five games. We lost the first two and we won the following two. In the last game we were under 16 to 19 and I had to serve. We scored five straight points and we won unexpectedly. I never experienced such a tremendous burst of joy like in that moment.
My best memory
During my period of spiritual training in India I was in a desolated place for three weeks without the possibility to speak in my mother tongue surrounded by people who were talking in a language I didn’t understand. The food was limited and not like I was used to . I remember I had constipation for one week, my best record with it. There were other types of deprivations; no electricity for example and in the night I used to walk to a place where I was sleeping in the company of fireflies. The sleep was short, as I had to wake up early before five. One night I distinctly dreamt to play tennis in my hometown. I woke up so surprised! Among all the deprivations, the one that had pierced my subconscious mind was above all a sound game of tennis on the clay court.
Mind and desires
In the period of my stay in Haiti as missionary worker I used to share the food with the people I was staying with. After few months there was no more money in our cash box and the food variety had been considerably limited to rice, beans and sometimes mangoes.
I started to feel really depressed. One night I went to the supermarket just to have a look at the food as I didn’t have the money to buy it. After that I decided to meditate on the roof of the supermarket. The day after unexpectedly I felt completely satisfied as if I had actually eaten that food I could not buy.
Meditation leads to inner happiness
Some time ago I decided to meditate non stop for three days. I went to a field in the late evening. I spread my meditation blanket and started. In a few hours I realized that my attempt was going to be more difficult than I thought. A few times I moved from my place and I started wandering looking for another site. I spent one night there and the day after I found that my place was also the boy-scouts preferred field. I moved away and I started to circle around a lake. After a few more hours remaining in complete silence I headed home walking some more time. The day after I found that my concentration had improved greatly and I felt very happy inside.
In sports as in life the secret I found is to set a goal higher than your capacity to achieve it. Then victory comes unmindfully and some unseen hand is bound to help...
Dada Vimaleshananda