Golf for Enlightenment: The Seven Lessons for the Game of Life - Hardcover

Chopra M.D., Deepak

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609603906 ISBN 13: 9780609603901

Verlag: Harmony, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

Deepak Chopra has discovered the delights—and frustrations—of golf, and he is passionate about the game. Confronted by the wild ups and downs of his own play, he consulted with golf professionals and developed a new approach to the game that any golfer can follow—from the novice to the expert. The results can be measured not only in increased enjoyment and skill, but also in greater wisdom about life beyond the 18th hole.

Chopra’s own game has improved dramatically since incorporating the elements of his program. Instead of focusing on the mechanics of a “perfect” swing, Chopra reveals how golf can be mastered through mindfulness, a form of awareness that combines sharp focus and relaxation at the same time. Expanded awareness, he tells us, can accomplish much more than external mechanics to improve one’s game.

But Golf for Enlightenment is also an engrossing story about Adam, an Everyman who is playing a terrible round of golf when he meets a mysterious young teaching pro named Leela. In seven short but profound lessons detailing spiritual strategies, she teaches Adam the essence of a game that has much to explain about life itself.
Chopra has spent the last year taking the unique message in Golf for Enlightenment nationwide, teaching the essential tenets of his program at lectures and seminars to golfers everywhere. His message continues to help players turn an obsession into a positive life path.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

DEEPAK CHOPRA’s books have become international bestsellers and classics of their kind. Dr. Chopra is founder of the Chopra Center for Well Being in Carlsbad, California. Visit his website at www.chopra.com.

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Chapter One
A New Way to Play

Golf for Enlightenment is the story of an Everyman named Adam who begins with a terrible round of golf and ends up mastering the game, an achievement he never dreamed possible. He does this through an extraordinary and mysterious teacher, a young woman named Wendy. She instructs him in things that at first seem fantastic and mystical but which, in time, turn out to contain great practical wisdom.

I didn't play the game when this book was conceived. Golf was just an image caught out of the corner of my eye as I walked past airport televisions. Then one day on a long flight from Atlanta to California I was seated next to a man who was studying a golf magazine with rapt attention. Every few minutes he called on his cell phone to Dallas, anxiously inquiring about tee times.

"You must love the game," I said casually. He turned a twisted smile toward me.

"I think I almost hate it," he replied. "I obsess about golf, and you know what? I walk off the course mad as hell. My scores don't go down. Nobody can talk to me without getting an earful of my whining. It's the worst thing I'll never let go of."

The seed of this book was planted in that moment, when a stranger blurted out his love-hate relationship to the game. If golf doesn't bring joy and satisfaction, I mused, something has been lost. Perhaps it could be brought back. The next step occurred when I met my first actual golf pro. She showed up at the Chopra Center in San Diego to be treated for a lifelong history of migraines.

"I was destined for golf from birth," my visitor told me. "Or perhaps before. I think I got my first lessons in the womb, since my mother watched so much golf on TV. It worked. I had talent, I got good. But for as long as I can remember, I've also been crippled by these agonizing headaches."

I decided to learn more about her game while focusing on curing the migraines, since the two had been connected almost from the beginning. We talked about the spiritual side of playing. Golf has always had its mysteries, but they have rarely been addressed in spiritual terms. After the visiting pro was relieved of her headaches with a course of mind-body treatments, she began to agree that golf could be approached a new way. We formed a team. She would begin a program to teach golf as part of the Chopra Center (it became the most successful first-year offering in our history), and I would try to articulate exactly what makes golf spiritual and to explore the wisdom golf can bring to everyday life. That is the goal of this book.

Why are we here? We exist not to pursue happiness, which is fleeting, or outer accomplishment, which can always be bettered. We are here to nourish the self. The self is the source of your personal reality. All perceptions come back to the self. All emotions come back to the self. All ideas come back to the self. In golf you succeed or fail according to all three.

First, perception. Golf begins and ends with seeing the ball. Minuscule sensations streaming into your body affect where the ball will go, down to one blade of grass on the putting surface. When your perception is clear and concentrated, the ball seems to aim itself directly at the hole with the force of inevitability. Golf can't be mastered without totally clear perception.

Next, emotions. Tournaments are won on Sunday because when players of equal skill attack the course, their emotions decide the outcome. Fear and anxiety are enormously amplified in this game; the tiniest tension in a major muscle group can throw the swing off drastically. Golf can't be mastered until you confront your emotions.

Finally, ideas. Golf requires creative thinking because no two rounds are ever the same. Every new lie is a challenge, and as the player looks up from the ball to consider wind, temperature, moisture, distance to the hole, angle of the club face, and terrain, there is much for the mind to ponder. If your thinking is rigid, the game can't be mastered.

My visiting pro took me on as a pupil (it is no coincidence that her name is Wendy, the name given to the teacher in this book). Because of a deep passion for cricket as a boy, I found it not too hard to learn the basics of the swing. My teacher congratulated me on having no bad habits. Some of my first shots sprayed wildly, and others landed surprisingly close to the hole. I was also astonished by the wellspring of emotions that erupted from hidden places inside me. I got frantically excited when a long putt went in; blood rose to my face if Wendy unwittingly smiled when I missed the ball completely. Any claim that "this is only a game" crumbled like a weak seawall in a hurricane.

I realized that this is one activity you cannot escape or take lightly. It holds tight, it seduces, it gives instant reward then snatches it back a moment later. In a fair world there would be a sign posted over every first tee, do not feed or disturb the game. it bites.

But the self can be your ally in taming the game. I hasten to add that you do not need a metaphysical bent to open this book. Its seven brief, pointed lessons are meant for every golfer who has devoted long hours trying to improve his or her game. Golf is a billion-dollar industry devoted entirely to hope. The results of all this effort and expense are not always positive. The "perfect" or model swing remains ever elusive. This is because a mechanistic approach, based solely on technique, has built-in limitations. By constantly reminding yourself of the many elements in a "perfect" swing, you may gain a degree of objectivity, but you lose your self. Since the self is all-important in golf, I propose an approach that is centered there.

You Can Master this Game

In our fable, which is the first part of each chapter, Wendy teaches Adam how to find himself a little more each time he returns for his lesson. "How long will it take to make me a master of the game?" he asks, not really believing she can do it at all. "We're not going to take any time," she replies. "We're going to do it now."

Now is the only time that really exists in golf. The swing is always in the present, and when you walk up the fairway to address the ball again, the present moment is once more at hand. Enlightenment is nothing more than mastering that mysterious place called now, where intention and attention come together. Wendy shows Adam how to master the ever-renewing moment, and in so doing, she teaches him how to master the game of life.

One day, very early in my learning, I had an epiphany. I had been training myself to swing at the ball in a way that will seem unique. I prepare for every shot by imagining a line that runs from my heart to the ball. I push my diaphragm in and out at the navel with a few conscious breaths, an exercise used in Yoga. This special breathing is for relaxation; the line from my heart to the ball is for concentration. Finally I place my tongue against the roof of my mouth to stop the internal dialogue in my mind-again, a technique from Yoga. When I do swing, the stroke is soft, easy, and natural. The ball soars. On that particular day, I finished my round and walked off the course. For some reason, nothing changed. My mind continued to remain quiet, events flowed around me, and I looked on whatever happened with a sense of peace.

The same soft, easy, natural style that had become part of my game continued seamlessly into the rest of my day. I remembered that in the ancient scriptures of India, the highest wisdom is to see the universe from God's perspective, not as a machine, a work of art, a testing ground for karma, or a vast theater. Certainly life has all these qualities. But ultimately, the ancient sages declared, life is lila-a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Harmony
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2003
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0609603906
• ISBN 13: 9780609603901
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar