FAITH NOT FEAR

  I'm back to my next book, out late Spring. Here is a message for sports but much needed during this pandemic where fear is confiscating our spirits. 

My new book, The Competitive Buddha, is now available for pre-order from a local bookstore near you or in hardcover from Amazon

Like the Buddha, when I speak of faith I speak about belief and confidence in oneself. I speak about the essence of the Mamba Mind and how Kobe’s confidence was simply about his belief that he could be the best he could be at most times. To have confidence in ourselves requires that we have within us right now, the Buddha nature, the faith that we can act and behave according to the Noble Eightfold Path (see PART THREE). This notion is affirmed by the insightful, empowering words of Buddhist master Hakuine who says in “THE SONG OF ZAZEN”, “Sentient beings are primarily all Buddhas.” He asks that we have faith in the thought that each one of us is a Buddha. Without this faith and belief in ourselves, we wind up drifting along in a confused state of fear, afraid to journey inward as we’re being controlled by sources of ourselves. We lose all self- confidence in our ability to choose and make good decisions. We fail to trust that the wise Buddha is already present within. The true nature of our reality is dependent upon only that which resides on the inside.

How is this related to the Buddha sports? To begin with, in so much of athletic performance, anxiety and fear is caused by external things: past mistakes, future possible losses to name two. Fear is the biggest obstacle to mastery and success. I call it a cancer of the athletic soul. It weakens you causing you to be tight, tense and tentative. The cure of this cancer is faith – faith that you have the Buddha mastery strategies well within; faith in your coaches and the system and faith in your team. It is a faith not in outcome but in all the little things you can control such as solid defense, work effort and ethic, attitude about competition, preparation and all the competitive Buddha precepts outlined in this book. Knowing that you can have an influence in these ways will improve your confidence, trust, belief and faith from within without being manipulated by external sources that cannot be controlled.

What I’m saying is to have faith that the Buddhist teachings included in this section are available and can be practiced daily. This is the way to strengthen your belief and weaken your fear. Here are how things work when you elicit the Mamba “Beginner’s Mind.”

If your mind believes “I can’t,” you will sabotage your work efforts. You won’t do what’s required to be in a state of mastery. But when you use the Buddha Brain and Mamba Beginner’s Mind, you believe, “I can,” and you follow paths of behavior and thought that help ensure that mastery is possible. The psychology of this thinking includes the mindsets of hope, motivation, commitment, confidence, courage, concentration, excitement, and observation.

It takes work to renounce your restrictive beliefs about what you can and can’t do in sport. Your power as a Buddha athlete starts with awareness that you have unlimited potential once you align yourself with the belief “I can.” Remember that acting “as if” you can achieve something is self-direction, not self-deception.

It places you on the path of mastery. As you forge ahead, you can learn from your setbacks and mistakes. Hard opinions about yourself distort the truth about your potential. Be flexible in your beliefs: Rigidity will block your growth.

When you function with a flexible Mamba mind, you access a clear vision and a nonjudgmental mental state that gives you faith and belief. Then what’s needed is to simply “act as if” and focus your behavior on all the ways of Buddha and Mamba Sports, a process-oriented approach with the wisdom of a diligent work ethic.

Most athletes on all levels of play, from the recreational enthusiast up to the professional, utilize far less than half of their potential. Why should you believe anything other than ‘I can”? Approach each free throw, putt, pitch, fly ball, pass, stroke, spike, or technical maneuver with a positive inner belief of yes – act “as if,” and activate your concentration, your belief and your faith in the Buddha within, the Mamba mind path of mastery.

William James, the great American philosopher, once said that the greatest discovery of his generation was that “human beings, by changing the inner beliefs of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.” And Buddhist teaching reminds us that if you’re facing in the right direction, all you need to do is keep on walking that path. This is exactly what the Mamba Mentality is all about, showing how changing inner beliefs can change outer aspects of life.