Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Sacred Hoops



































by Phil Jackson


Sacred Hoops was a great read! Jackson's detailed accounts of the personalities on the early 90's Chicago Bulls teams was fascinating. I already had a great deal of respect for Jackson (the numbers are unbelievable) but I have gained a much deeper respect, for Jackson as a human being and as a man, after reading Sacred Hoops.

Jackson stresses that "in basketball - as in life - true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way. Jackson's strict Pentecostal roots reminded me of my childhood and I could relate to much of the resentment and disenchantment he felt towards religion during his early adulthood.

He mentions many books he has read and found useful that may warrant investigation on my part, someday. One book, How to Meditate by Lawrence LeShan, Jackson said he began with and then moved on to Practicing the Presence and Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.

While he was playing for the Knicks he read William James' The Variety of Religious Experiences and said that it changed his outlook on spirituality. He realized that religion didn't have to be a "big production." Rather, "it could be as uneventful as a moment of reflection... I no longer felt compelled to run from my past or cling to it out of fear. I could take what worked for me and let the rest go." That last sentence struck a nerve with me. I'm beginning to understand this and I believe that taking some of what I was taught as a child and letting the rest go is what I need to do.

Much of the zen principles and ideas that Jackson describes interest me greatly. "If you speak and act with a polluted mind, suffering will follow you... if you speak and act with a pure mind, happiness with follow you, as a shadow clings to a form."

This next part is very relevant to my struggles:
"What pollutes the mind i the Buddhist view is our desire to get life to conform to our peculiar notion of how things should be, as opposed to how they really are."
This is my main struggle. I become aggitated and depressed when my "self-view" does not match up with reality. I see the world and myself in should terms without honestly considering how I really am: what shortcomings I have, which situations I mishandle, etc. I need to be more honest with myself. More realistic and less of a perfectionist. These Buddhist ideas encourage me.

Later Jackson says, "The point of Zen practice is to make you aware of the thoughts that run your life and diminish their power over you." Sound great to me.

Jackson describes bare attention as "listening without judgement." Like living with the beginner's mind; a mind that is void of predispositions, judgement and that accepts things the way that they are. "In Zen it is said that the gap between accepting things the way they are and wishing them to be otherwise is 'the tenth of an inch of difference between heaven and hell.'"

Jackson also states, "I had to let go of my compulsive need for order and learn how to stay composed when everything seemed hopelessly out of control." Bingo. Remind you of someone?

"...most people were motivated by one of two forces: fear or greed. That may be true, but I also think people are motivated by love... They live for those moments when they can lose themselves completely in the action and experience the pure joy of competition."

"What makes basketball so exhilarating is the joy of losing yourself completely in the dance, even if it's just for one beautiful transcendent moment."

"If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life." - Wu-Men. Jackson entitled a chapter, "Being aware is more important than being smart." Here are some excerpts from it:

The secret is not thinking. That doesn't mean being stupid; it means quieting the endless jabbering of thoughts so that your body can do instinctively what it's been trained to do without the mind getting in the way.
Jackson quotes Robert Pirsig, "Peace of mind produces right values, right values produces right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see the serenity at the center of it all." This reminded me of the Buddhist's Guide to the Eightfold Path that I read part of last fall.
"Chop wood, carry water. The point is to perform every activity from playing basketball, to taking out the garbage, with precise attention, moment by moment."
"My biggest obstacle [as a player] was my hyperactive critical mind" - Sounds very familiar.
Suzuki Roshi calls "beginner's mind," an "empty" state free from limiting self-centered thoughts. "If your mind is empty," he write in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, "it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are may possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

Jackson writes more about noting thoughts and sensations and then returning awareness to breathing - practicing meditation. It's remarkable how any experience, including boredom, becomes interesting when it's an object of moment-to-moment investigation.

As the stillness becomes more stable, you tend to identify less with fleeting thoughts and feelings, such as fear, anger, or pain, and experience a state of inner harmony, regardless of changing circumstances.

When I read the final part of Sacred Hoops, I found Jackon's opinions on anger extremely enlightening. "Anger was the restless demon that seized the group mind and kept the players from being fully awake." Regarding his athletes, "they'd been conditioned since early adolescence to think that every confrontation was a personal test of manhood."

"The strength of the triangle offense is that it's based on the Taoist principle of yielding to an opponent's force in order to render him powerless. Bottom line: there's no need to overpower when you can outsmart."

In Buddhist teachings the term skillful means is used to describe an approach to making decisions and dealing with problems in a way that is appropriate to the situation and causes no harm. Ultimately, leadership takes a lot of what St. Paul called faith: "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). You have to trust your inner knowing. If you have a clear mind and an open heart, you won't have to search for direction. Direction will come to you.

The idea of impermanence is also discussed. Jackson describes a parable told by Achaan Chaa, a Laotian master, who tells of a beautiful goblet. He says that, to him, the goblet is already broken. "I enjoy it; I drink out of it...When I understand that this glass is already broken, every moment with it is precisou." This is a fantastic idea!

"There's no percentage in trying to push the river or speed up the harvest. The farmer who's so eager to help his crops grow that he slips out at night and tugs on the shoots inevitably ends up going hungry... When we cannot accept the truth of transiency, we suffer."

"What brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing. I get unhappy when my mind begins to wander, during wins as well as losses Sometimes a well-played defeat will make me feel better than a victory in which the team doesn't feel especially connected."

"Eventually, everybody loses, ages, changes... Buddhism teaches us that by accepting death, you discover life."

"My mind is completely focused on the goal, but with a sense of openness and joy."


The real appeal of Zen to me is the idea of "not thinking." I am so often consumed by anxiety, fears, anger and the desire for truth that I rattle my brain with more thoughts than it can handle. I over-analyze, dwell and dance from one situation to the next, neither of which I truly can control. The idea that someone can stop thinking; stop worrying, analyzing and processing every moment to make the best possible decision, is liberating.

I am glad I was born with a brain that tries to piece everything together. A brain that looks for patterns, order and reason. Sometimes or really, most of the time, I feel like I'm swimming through my thoughts. Like I'm trying to figure everything out at once and that each detail must be carefully considered or I may not optimize my happiness (my life, etc.). I want to "stop thinking" now and then. Maybe more often than I know now. I want my brain to stop processing, reflecting and fearing and just be. In the moment, aware.

Hopefully I'll accomplish this to some degree, in the near future.




Artist: Kaitan

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