"He who has no undue fondness towards anything, who neither exults nor recoils on gaining what is good or bad, his intellect is established." - Krishna, The Bhagavad-Gita
I´ve taught hundreds of people how to meditate in the manner that Krishna taught in The Bhagavad-Gita, the ancient textbook of Yoga. I´ve even taught others how to teach meditation and lose their worldly attachments. I´ll bet dollars to curries that Krishna wasn´t a sports fan. I say that because I know how hard it is to kick a lifetime attachment to a sports team. I must confess I´ve loved the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team since I was eight years old, and I recoil big time on gaining what I call bad (see Krishna´s comments above). And in this case, bad is when the men in purple and gold lose a playoff game. Call me shallow, but I´ve been hooked for too long. And attachments to the things you´ve been hooked on for the longest time, die slower.
Confession #2: I watched nervously as game 5 of a Western Conference semi-finals playoff game drew to a close. The Lakers were clutching tightly to a one-point lead with just seconds to go, when Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs, with less than one second left, made a nearly impossible shot falling away from the basket. It wasn´t fair ... nobody has the right to make a miracle shot like that, especially as the clock is winding down and there´s a 3-2 advantage in a best-of-seven playoff series at stake. He had virtually stolen a victory against my Lakers. I jumped off my couch and screamed in anger. Screamed! I could hear yogis turning over in their caves.
Confession #3: But the game, of course, wasn´t over ... the Lakers still had four-tenths of a second left. Big deal, I thought: the chances of winning now were slim and none. I had given up hope. But then, miraculously Lakers guard Derek Fisher followed with a prayer of his own, an 18-foot jump shot that went in the basket, and won the game. I leaped off my couch and screamed again - but this time delirious with joy. This is what Krishna referred to as undue fondness and exulting. Call me attached.
Good News #1: Some years ago, I gave up my equally long New York Mets attachment. This after enjoying them in person in the Subway Series against their cross-town rivals, the New York Yankees. Occasionally, I´ll watch them with interest, but with no attachment anymore. I´m happy when they win, but it doesn´t matter to me when they lose. Thank God, I´m no longer blue when the men in orange and blue lose.
Good News #2: Sometimes I watch the Lakers while I´m awake in my higher Self. That´s the silence in me that witnesses life´s play of ups and downs. Interestingly, these are the games that I enjoy the most. There´s an important reason for that: I have no attachment to the outcome. I´m still a fan, but when my higher Self is awake, I´m a fan in the zone.
As the Lakers move deeper into the playoffs, and play in the finals, my attachment, in the past which got stronger the further they went, got weaker. As their superstars were outplayed by the Pistons which, clicking on all cylinders, emphasize teamwork instead of individual stardom, I found myself more and more removed from each game´s unhappy outcome. Losing 4 games to 1, the Lakers were forced to learn (hopefully) a tough lesson by their opponents from Detroit: that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts - even when the parts were Hollywood-like megastars. So this fan slept soundly after the Lakers season ended in playoff thrashing. That wasn´t how it went when they lost in the past.
Speaking of fans (as in fanatics), I´ve seen far too many people give away their power, their marriages and their lives to the teams they so passionately loved. Fortunately, I have family, friends and a life, so it was clear that my Lakers attachment could die more easily. A wise yogi once said, "Love without attachment is light." I can love them without being attached to them. I see the light at the end of the tunnel.
What´s the one attachment you´d like to let go of in your life? Let it go - and you´ll be free to enjoy it with even more pleasure and peace.
