There is joy in watching the beauty, the excellence, the accomplishment, the bodies, the boldness, the hard work, the craft of Olympic athletes. Whether we are talking about runners, divers, swimmers, breakers, climbers, gymnasts, jumpers, soccer players, basketball players, or….beauty and excellence bring joy. Along with cheers.
And, of course, watching excellence and beauty shared between competitors of different nations and races and watching them excel and interact brings joy.
One of the absolute high points for me in these Games occurred when America’s champion woman gymnast Simone Biles came in second in a contest and she and another American who came in third honored the Brazilian who came in first with a special bow at the podium.
They were not only showing respect for their opponent (whom Simone bested in several other events), but demonstrating something else that is very important: Acknowledging how important it is to lose with grace as well as to win with grace.
If a certain American politician had learned this lesson some time in his life, we never would have had the January 6 debacle for which 1000+ people are now in prison and 7 lives were lost and we enter an upcoming presidential election wondering if it will be violent or non-violent and if the true winner will be allowed to lead the government. The Big Lie would never have metastasized as it has.
There is Via Positiva in sport—the joy and beauty and excellence on display. The Via Negativa too—lots of focus as well as sweat and hard work. And also the moment of being still and alone and in solitude just before the contest begins. Being vulnerable and setting oneself up to win or to lose. And learning to lose with grace and to acknowledge the excellence of others and to become inspired to work even harder.
And the Via Creativa, learning a sport and how to be coached and how to make imaginative decisions on the spot. As I explained in yesterday’s video, sport is meditation insofar as it contributes to calming the reptilian brain. In sport we literally play with our reptilian brains and the desire to win but in a predetermined context where specific rules apply.
And the Via Transformativa, going for a goal and working with others as a team if the sport is a group sport. And contributing to uniting, exciting and healing people.
See Matthew Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life (formerly, On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style).
Banner Image: Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh (second right) takes the gold as Olympic High Jump Champion, while Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers (right) receives silver and Ukrainian Iryna Gerashchenko (second left) and Australian Eleanor Patterson (left) shared bronze. Ukrainian government photo on Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you experience sport as a way of meditation and calming the reptilian brain? Do you experience Joy in participating in sports whether as player or as fan?
Recommended Reading
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
How do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? Fox defines prayer as a radical response to life that includes our “Yes” to life (mysticism) and our “No” to forces that combat life (prophecy). How do we define adult prayer? And how—if at all—do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, originally published under the title On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style, Prayer introduces a mystical/prophetic spirituality and a mature conception of how to pray. Called a “classic” when it first appeared, it lays out the difference between the creation spirituality tradition and the fall/redemption tradition that has so dominated Western theology since Augustine. A practical and theoretical book, it lays the groundwork for Fox’s later works.
“One of the finest books I have read on contemporary spirituality.” – Rabbi Sholom A. Singer
2 thoughts on “Sport and Spirituality, continued”
As Matthew has observed, even with the excesses of money, fame and commercialism and the injustice of shipping the homeless away from the events, the Olympics has brought an abundance of celebration and joy to so much of humanity who have gathered in Paris or watched from afar. Why does religion not seem to be able to do this? What can we of all faith traditions learn from this?
Yes! I enJOY sports, especially the recent Olympics, as a fan! It’s definitely one of the many Joys and Beauties of Life in the Via Positiva of our spiritual journeys as human beings here on Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth/Her living creatures/Graceful abundance… Daily centering/contemplative prayer is also part of my spiritual journey which helps me deepen my many human experiences within myself and with Others in ‘Being~Becoming the Divine Flow ~Spirit of LOVING Healing Creative Diverse Wholeness~ONENESS in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT’ (my spiritual mantra).