The Zen of Baseball
Rev. Christina M. Neilson
February 22nd, 2009
A friend of mine says that the real secret to every sermon lies in the experience that made the minister want to preach it. I’ve been thinking about writing a grant for my sabbatical, and the sponsoring organization asks, “What makes your heart sing?” I thought of my usual suspects- social activism, good worship. The application asked us to integrate body, mind and soul, and the only thing I could think of that really set my soul on fire and engaged my body and mind was baseball.
As a child, I lived for baseball. I loved it. I would tear out of the classroom so that I could be first on the field. I got to pitch that way. I could really wham the ball. I wasn’t a runner. I was slow.
I never thought I’d be a professional sports fan. When Sharon and I first started going to games, I was more interested in our friends and the atmosphere than the game. But then I got to know the players names, and some of the subtleties of the game. Then the tribe started winning - I was hooked.
I had to confess to being more than a casual fan when I was watching the World Series one year. (2005) Play after play was miscalled by the umpire, usually the same one, and it gave an unfair advantage to the Chicago White Sox in the series. In some cases they were called safe when the replay showed they were clearly out. In other cases it showed the other team was safe, and could have continued their scoring streak if they had been allowed to continue. They were called out while they had several runners in scoring position.
I found myself yelling at the TV set, engrossed like my father and brother used to be. I realized in that moment that I was but one of thousands of fans watching those plays, and I felt connected in this baseball community. I was completely in the moment, watching the play by play. There was no past and no future. Only now. I was consumed in the Zen of baseball.
Who would guess I’d get so obsessed with the team. I love watching the Indians win and improve. I appreciate the team approach that the Indians use, rather than the pumped up steroid “star” model. Teamwork reminds me of the fun days of baseball. When life was simple and even the church school let us play ball during our breaks.
Even watching the game is fun. I just love screaming my head off when they get a hit, love that the players give their all to the sport. I love enthusiasm like that. It is infectious. But if anyone would have told me that I would drop all to watch it, I wouldn’t have believed it. Passion is a funny thing. It makes life worthwhile. Puts me in touch with the pulse of being. Makes me live in the moment.
A Zen moment, an experience of what the Buddhists call “Emptiness”, is a time of connection to all of life, a time of being completely in the now, part of a moving body of life. Much like we call our interdependent web. We are connected as one moving body.
Is baseball a Zen sport? If you look at the business side of baseball, it isn’t. Like most businesses, it is opportunistic, and materialistic. It’s about putting fannies into seats, selling merchandise and beer. It is about attachment to a team.
Zen is the meticulous art of effortlessness. The pursuit of the perfect swing is a spiritual practice. Players spend hours in practice, doing a bunt a thousand times. Swinging at balls with numbers on them so they can see the pitch. They lift weights, they run, they slide. They rehearse the same play again and again and again, so that when they hit that ball in the real game, it appears like natural talent. In the stands we see an amazing home run. What the player sees is the 1000th hit.
Baseball is an in-the-moment sport. Though what you’ve done up to this point will determine your action, still, it is the current action that is the focus of attention. It’s not like you can plan for a home run. You have to decide what to do now based on the current situation. You can’t play the seventh inning in your head while in the fifth inning.
Baseball has a lineage just as there is in Zen. Experience and teaching is handed down from the veteran to the rookie, from the teacher to the aspirant. There’s a natural talent, of course, but to play in the big leagues involves following someone who has been there.
Zen moments usually take years of training the mind through meditation practices. In the book, “Zen in the Art of Archery,” the archer practices and practices until the bow speaks that it is time to release the arrow. The archer appears to use no effort. There is no struggle in the release of the arrow to reach its target. The trained mind, knows how to pull back without physical exertion.
Zen is found in everyday life. How much more like daily life can we get than an all American sport like baseball? Thich Nhat Hanh has several different Zen meditations in his book, “Peace is every step.” We can find peace, love and joy in everything, even the air that we breathe.
He says, “We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.” Zen is experienced in the moment of connection and mindfulness that make you feel awake and alive and in the present.
A Zen experience puts us in touch with our Buddha nature. The Buddha-nature is a potential present in all sentient beings, for awakening and becoming enlightened. We are pure, loving, and natural.
A Zen moment with Baseball occurred when Ben Broussard's homer triggered a six-run fifth inning to lead the Cleveland Indians to a 7-4 victory over the New York Yankees. After he hit his second home run, the crowd leapt to their feet, chanting “Ben, Ben, Ben” until he came out to take his bow. The Indians had been trailing 4-0 in the game at Jacob's Field before Broussard smacked a lead-off home run that ignited the Indians. I was crazy with excitement, the crowd was wild. I think even the people in wheelchairs were on their feet. Again I felt the air of timelessness, of being suspended in time and space, only the moment being of importance.
It was an especially important hit because Ben had not been playing well. He was on a real losing streak when he pulled the team to victory. The only thing that could have made it a better game is if we had just beat Chicago. (No offense to Chicago fans like my worship associate co-hort, but I have wanted them to lose ever since they hit Travis Haffner in the head with the baseball, giving him a concussion that took several weeks for recovery.)
Zen is found in everyday life. It can be a meditation to wash dishes, to look at a flower, to focus on your breathing, or walk along the riverside. You only need a mind trained to notice the enlightenment of everyday moments.
If we do not seek enlightenment, we will habitually chase after one thing after another, expecting each new experience to satisfy us—thinking somehow the grass is always greener. True satisfaction, comes from simply enjoying what is, living our lives as they are, rather than compulsively running after the dangling carrot of “The Next Big Thing”.
Baseball season is right around the corner. Make a date with a special friend, enjoy the hustle and bustle of the crowds, and take a moment to just be. To be away from work, away from future plans, away from the stress of life. Our spiritual life does not need to be complicated. We can be part of that timeless tradition that defines American spirit, and Zen spirit. May we allow enlightenment to be both light hearted and fun.
7th Inning Stretch