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A Zen
Approach To
Playing Golf In
Scotland |
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The Final Pause (Some Final
Considerations of Zen Golf)
Just as there is a Zen way
for archery, calligraphy, drinking tea, and gardening, so too there is
a good reason there should be a Zen way of golf that will lead to Zen
Golf itself.
Remove any illusions as to your abilities. The parameters of improvement
at 25 are not the same as at 55 and those not the same as at 65. Not
only can you not play the same golf course twice, but also the “you”
who is playing is never the same “you” twice.
The golf course,
like a Zen garden, exists to pull you beyond yourself. Whenever you
use your best strokes and keenest strategies to transcend for a couple
of hours the plodding weariness of daily chores and the drudgery of
any routine, you are actually progressing towards Enlightenment (or
at least a contented happiness). Zen Golf is really about your own attitude
towards your own golf game. If you played raggedly, but had fun either
alone or with friends, move into the winner’s circle - YOU have
done it right!
But, once again,
why Scotland?
Have you seen
carp? They adapt themselves to their small world. In a tank they become
goldfish and in a large pond, huge and multicolored fish. Golfers are
the same. If one learns and plays on the Florida flats, how does one
adapt to the hilly fantasy flights of Hawaii? The course is the enclosed
sacred space of the Shinto shrine, enlarged to the scale of the landscape
of the unbounded sheep pastures of a primeval world that continues today
in the Scottish metamorphosis of shepherds into the finest golfers in
the world in ability and in spirit.
You
can read the entire chapter in our book "A Birdie for Buddha"
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Extreme
flexibility and acceptance are at the heart of a successful Zen
approach. This always entails the giving, and acceptance of the
giving, of putts. The Zen Master should never miss a putt under
10 feet - it would be to disturb his or her serenity. One can, however,
putt out a “given” putt, provided the purpose is strictly
to “feel the terrain” while doing so.
Eventually,
practicing A Zen Approach begins to affect not only your game for
the better, but your whole personality as well. You begin to suspect
that something greater than a single shot or a single round is at
stake here. You may even begin to believe you are thinking and living
outside the box of your present life. At this point some very interesting
things begin to happen - to you and to many of those around you.
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