Can sports be linked to spirituality?

[Ampresus]

I am still new, so this may be a stupid question. Can sports be linked to spirituality? Everytime I go to the gym, the motivation + the music makes it an extraordinary experience for me. I wondered while running for 10 mins if sports could be linked to spirituality.

[Salvijus]

Running 42km can be spiritual. Or 10km if you're beginner.

 

[Ampresus]

@Salvijus Oh wauw tnx  

[Salvijus]

@Ampresus See the video i linked. It talks about monks who were running marathons to become enlighten. I love that story

[Ampresus]

@Salvijus What do you think I am doing  ?

[Soulbass]

ofc sports makes energy flow

[TimStr]

@Ampresus

Many spiritual teachers talk about the bodily aspects of enlightenment.

As far as I understand it there are a couple of different aspects to it:

• strong determination: Having a strong determination to make your body do "hard things", that can't be achieved by your self but only by your body, after you surrendered the self. An example would be the Mount Hiei Monks. They run 30 to 80km for 100 consecutive days.
• expressing spontaneity: Tuning into the just-happeningness of motion to find, that a self is not nesscesairy for movement of the body to happen. Shinzen talks about this:
• Martial arts: many martial arts like aikido and kendo are grounded on a non-dual metaphysics. Also Peter Ralston's Cheng Hsin
• (eastern) yoga: using the body for spiritual purification

I hope this is good fuel for your research.

[Hellspeed]

If you quit the music while you doing it, put some earplugs and just listen to the breath in the process, to really benefit. 

[Salvijus]

Martial arts also could be linked to sport/spirituality category.

[outlandish]

Yes of course! I mean fundamentally everything is spirituality innit? 

We're apes that are meant to move, and the body and mind are completely intertwined. 

I enjoy the presence of being that is crucial to performance in sports, and I see a big connection to meditation. It's an easier kind of meditation than doing something like sitting meditation, because the object is very easy to focus on.

I find it great value in practicing formal meditation, because it's so damn hard, and sports are a good way to exercise that focus and open-ness in the real world. Ultimately, everything in life is spiritual. ...but I must admit this isn't the perspective of my normal monkey-mind!

[martins name]

@Ampresus this is where he got the story about the monks from https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Marathon-Monks-of-Mount-Hiei-John-Stevens/9781626549951?redirected=true&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=Base1&utm_source=SE&utm_content=The-Marathon-Monks-of-Mount-Hiei&selectCurrency=SEK&w=AF7YAU96SKJ1G4A80948&pdg=pla-311544571188:kwd-311544571188:cmp-806215649:adg-43350854602:crv-191468170312:pid-9781626549951:dev-c&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6rXeBRD3ARIsAD9ni9D0QeCOBX5ZzNzuaPHi751ChJ_mq4tnLDHD6O0WQWbtev9aBJyZGf8aAjktEALw_wcB

[Hellspeed]

Even hunting big game is spiritual.