Through the height of summer, we are regularly blessed with some of the world’s greatest sporting events. This year we have enjoyed Wimbledon and the World Cup, witnessing athletes performing at the very peak of their abilities. What a privilege it is to watch the fruits of years of dedication, discipline and unwavering commitment.

From an Ayurvedic perspective, this feels wonderfully appropriate. Summer is the season in which Pitta predominates. Just as the sun reaches the height of its power, so too do the qualities associated with Pitta: focus, determination, courage, precision and the drive to excel. The countless hours of training, resilience and commitment required of elite athletes are all expressions of balanced Pitta.

Without Pitta, little would ever be accomplished. It is the inner fire that transforms vision into action and potential into mastery.

Yet, perhaps if you have been following either or both tournaments, like me you may also have noticed another side of Pitta quietly revealing itself.

Watching the World Cup unfold, I became aware of something rather interesting happening—not so much on the pitch as within my own mind.

I noticed how readily I could begin harbouring antagonistic feelings towards opposing teams, particularly whenever I perceived unfairness or injustice. Wanting to meet this tendency with awareness, I consciously tried to cultivate a more generous heart. After all, there is enough division in the world already, i thought to myself. It is only football. It may be tribal, but ultimately it is a game with the power to unite us.

I also began listening more carefully to the players and managers themselves. Curiously, those with the greatest investment in the outcome often displayed the greatest equanimity. Rather than complaining about difficult circumstances, they spoke with admiration for iconic stadiums, respect for their opponents and appreciation for the opportunity to compete. Their perspective quietly challenged my own.

My own softened.

Instead of seeing obstacles, I began seeing opportunities – for resilience, courage and sportsmanship. The external circumstances had not changed. My relationship to them had.

It reminded me of one of the most profound psychological observations found in the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali.

Patañjali calls it raga and dvesa.

Usually translated as attraction and aversion – or more simply, like and dislike – these two movements of the mind are described as among the principal causes of human suffering.

How often do we experience this? Every single day?

The mind continually moves towards what it wants and away from what it does not. It reaches for what appears pleasurable and recoils from whatever feels uncomfortable, disappointing or painful.

Perhaps you have noticed another tendency too.

How often the mind longs for what is absent whilst overlooking what is already here?

We become convinced that fulfilment lies just beyond our present circumstances – in the next achievement, the next relationship, the next holiday, the next purchase, the next success.

Then, once we arrive there, something curious happens.

The very thing we longed for gradually begins to reveal its own responsibilities, challenges or limitations. Before long, the mind begins searching once again for the next thing that promises greater happiness. The pendulum swings away from what it had only recently been moving towards.

Yoga invites us to become aware of these mental tendencies – not to judge or suppress them, but simply to recognise them. Through this awareness we gradually discover that the source of our suffering is rarely the situation itself. More often, it is our continual grasping after one experience whilst resisting another that keeps the mind restless and the heart dissatisfied.

Detachment from these tendencies does not mean becoming detached from life. Nor does it ask us to stop caring and enjoying.

Quite the opposite.

The yogic teachings do not ask us to reject the world or withdraw from its beauty. The world is given to us to experience, appreciate and enjoy. Relationships, nature, music, celebration, creativity, meaningful work, delicious food and the countless experiences that enrich our lives are not obstacles to spiritual life – they are part of it.

The Vedic tradition recognises this beautifully. In fact, Kama  – the enjoyment of beauty, love, friendship, creativity and the pleasures of being human – is honoured as one of the four great aims of life.

Yoga, therefore, does not ask us to suppress our natural delights in life.

Rather, it asks something much subtler of us.

It asks us to enquire and become awarea as to whether we can enjoy life’s gifts without becoming psychologically dependent upon them.

Can we appreciate them without believing our happiness depends upon them?

When we cannot, then that simple enjoyment quietly becomes raga  – attachment – and with attachment comes the fear of loss.

We delight in a beautiful place and then the mind whispers, “I need this experience to continue.”

We enjoy watching the World Cup and then discover we cannot sleep because our team lost or a favourite player was unfairly treated.

The enjoyment itself is never the problem.

The attachment is.

Life is indeed for our enjoyment. Yet when we ask an ever-changing world to provide what it cannot – lasting security, permanent happiness or freedom from everything we dislike -mental agitation inevitably follows.

Summer gives way to autumn. Victory gives way to defeat. Youth slowly matures into old age.

Every joy arrives, stays for a while and eventually passes on.

When we expect what is transient to provide permanent fulfilment, raga and devsa naturally arise. We cling to what we fear losing and resist whatever threatens what we cherish.

We live in a world of duality – a world where pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, attraction and aversion naturally arise.

Yoga does not ask us to deny this human experience.

Rather, it invites us to discover within ourselves that which is not divided by these changing opposites.

If raga and dvesa teach us anything, it is that suffering begins when we become caught in the mind’s continual movement of saying “yes” to one experience and “no” to another. We spend enormous energy arranging life according to our preferences, believing our peace depends upon circumstances unfolding exactly as we wish.

Yet there is another possibility.

As we become more firmly established in the deeper, non-dual ground of our being through the living practices of Yoga and Ayurveda, something can change.

There is less need to cling Less need to resist. Whatever arises within the body, the emotions or the mind can be held within the spaciousness of our unchanging awareness  –  our true nature.

In that compassionate holding, life begins to soften.

What once felt fragmented gradually finds its place within a greater wholeness and is changed and integrated.

We discover that we can care deeply and enjoy fully without becoming consumed. We can love without possessing.

Perhaps this is one of Yoga’s greatest gifts. Not that life becomes free from disappointment, loss or change, but that we are no longer entirely defined by them.

We find ourselves resting more deeply in something infinitely steadier than our preferences, freer than our fears and more enduring than every passing success or setback.

The world remains just as colourful, beautiful and unpredictable as it has always been.

The difference is that, little by little, we begin to meet it from a place of greater freedom, greater spaciousness and an awakening inner contentment that does not depend upon whether life gives us exactly what we want.

Surely this is the real victory – both on the field of sport and on the field of life.

It’s the World Cup final this weekend. May the best team win, and may the spirit of true sportsmanship triumph! I’ll say no more… I’ll be practising my yoga off the mat: observing raga and dvesha, staying spacious, balanced, and (mostly!) trying to remain detached. 😉
Ha ha. 

Enjoy the game if you are watching! And don’t forget to observe the second fascinating game unfolding within – the ever-changing play of the mind. 😉