When I was in Junior High and High School I was an avid sports player and fan. From a young age I had player-cards from my favorite New York Yankees baseball team that came from buying bubble gum (I didn’t care about the flat square gum, only the cards that had pictures and stats of the players): Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and more all adorned the inside of my bedroom door. And football—my team was the Green Bay Packers with Bart Starr, Jim Taylor and Ray Nitschke. Then for years I was not interested in sports—and now I enjoy a good football game on television.
Whether you care for sports or not there are lessons we can draw from those who play—as we can from anyone who practices an art, skill, trade or craft at a high level. Even in the top echelon of players and best teams there are always fumbles, dropped passes and missed tackles. There is no such thing, even amongst legends of the game, as those who make every play. The lesson we can learn and apply to our spiritual efforts—that we, as do they, aim for perfection, but we understand that spiritually we will drop passes of inner direction coming from God, we can fail to tackle and contain ignorance, and we can fumble away our spiritual connection with God.
Watching the players coming to the sidelines after making one of these mistakes we see them communicate with their coach. My football coach would occasionally grab my facemask (that would be called a foul if done on the field!) and talk in a forceful voice inches away to make sure he had my full attention and that my mind was not wandering when he was giving me his wisdom (Mother could do the same in her own way!). Coaches are foremost—good teachers. They encourage full effort, to have excellent concentration, and to help you to make good choices in split seconds. So, there is a learning moment with the coach on the sidelines, then he encourages you to shake off a bad play and get focused on the next. All good lessons for being on the spiritual playing field.
Thirdly, sports demand individual effort, but they are also team endeavors. There is a balance in these concepts and one understands that firstly the individual player is responsible to fully participate. That he or she is also part of a team effort in which victory comes from everyone making their best and brightest contribution, and that the coach is essential for directing the strategy and teaching tactics of the game.
As aspirants, we too must take responsibility for making our best effort, to recognize the value and synergy from being on a team of devotees (“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” Matt 18:20), and the guru-coach helps us to make superlative individual and collective effort and is ever directing us toward being victorious—that we might all become one with God and help lift this world into higher consciousness.
