{"id":2285,"date":"2012-03-26T14:50:12","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T18:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=2285"},"modified":"2012-03-26T14:50:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T18:50:12","slug":"the-dharma-of-tiger-woods-humiliation-and-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2012\/03\/the-dharma-of-tiger-woods-humiliation-and-redemption.html","title":{"rendered":"The Dharma of Tiger Woods: Humiliation and Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday, I was critical of Tiger’s public demeanor<\/a>; today I’ll congratulate his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.<\/p>\n

Perhaps no other athlete has been scrutinized as much as Tiger. Before his scandal, he was bigger than life chasing the record books, often dominating events.<\/p>\n

The Noble Eightfold Path consists of the following “Rights”: View, Resolve, Speech, Action, Livelihood, Effort, Mindfulness, and Concentration. Let’s see how Tiger has been doing on the Path.<\/p>\n

Tiger’s improprieties’ and fall from grace are good examples of how not to engage in Right Action. The scandal and its aftermath seemed to hurt his concentration. Without Right Action, Right Concentration is hard to muster.<\/p>\n

Right Mindfulness playing golf is a difficult thing. There are many variables to attend to in any given moment. If karma has been stirred up by unskillful actions or intentions in the other areas of the path, it’s hard to be mindful.<\/p>\n

There has been no doubt that Tiger has been putting much effort into his game. However, Right Effort is not just brute force; it is gaining control over the flow of thoughts in the mind and being able to generate positive states of mind on cue. There is no sense of “me” in Right Effort–just effort.<\/p>\n

When you have Right View, you have an intellectual and experiential understanding of the Buddha’s basic teachings.Right Resolve follows right view. Since I know the teachings, such as the Four Noble Truths<\/a>, are valid because I have experienced them to be valid, I am going to commit myself to the path.<\/p>\n

Right View would require Tiger to see the karmic consequences of his actions, to know that no one is beyond consideration, even if he is one of the greatest athletes in the world. Right Resolve sees Tiger committing himself to rebuilding his game, integrity, and public image. It sees him returning, perhaps, to his Buddhist roots, which he cited as a source of solace and direction after the scandal<\/a>. It sees him coming down to Earth–humiliated–literally coming to ground<\/a>. And since golf is played on and in the ground, what better place to be? By embracing humility, perhaps Tiger has established the requisite wisdom to move forward.<\/p>\n

Tiger really fell down with the ethical\/moral aspects of the 8-Fold Path. Right Speech is speaking the truth, of course, but it is also not gossiping, not engaging in speech that is not meaningful–avoiding idle chatter. Right action means not causing harm to others through your actions. Tiger’s speech and action caused a lot of harm. He lied to his wife, he lied to the publ he lied to himself. His actions had a negative impact on what was otherwise Right Livelihood.<\/p>\n

The Eightfold Path is aspirational–how would a Buddha live? By living like a Buddha we become more like a Buddha ourselves, come closer to realizing our buddhanature.<\/p>\n

According to Buddhist scholar Damien Keown, \u201cThe Eightfold Path is thus a path of self-transformation: an intellectual, emotional, and more restructuring in which a person is reoriented from selfish, limited objectives towards a horizon of possibilities and opportunities for fulfillment.\u201d<\/p>\n

I hope Tiger is embracing his buddhanature and the Noble Eightfold Path and will once again become a dominant golfer.
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Yesterday, I was critical of Tiger’s public demeanor; today I’ll congratulate his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. Perhaps no other athlete has been scrutinized as much as Tiger. Before his scandal, he was bigger than life chasing the record books, often dominating events. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2285"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2298,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285\/revisions\/2298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}