Here’s my issue: recently, the World Cup started, and I’d like to follow it. Why am I talking about this, you may ask? Well, before that, I never felt the need of being up-to-date with sports events because they would estimulate and distract the mind too much, so I decided to stop following them. But now, the World Cup started, and I’m very excited for it. Why? Even though it implies some drawbacks (like agitation and passion) it’s something I’ve been following since I was a kid, so it has a sweet-spot in my heart; and besides, it’s not an everyday-event.
My concern is this: recently I’ve discovered the Dhamma, and I’d like to stay in line with it while enjoying this particular kind of sensual pleasure. How could I balance those interests in order to be not too indulgent nor too extremist? I’d like to know from you. I hope this topic remains on topic, and not the oposite.
I think that’s totally fine, I’ll be following it as well. It’s only on every 4 years so that kind of makes it ‘special’ in a way, a bit like the Olympics.
Perhaps a good approach is, making time for it. So for example, if you set a time of the day where you want to watch a full game, then do so.
But don’t be ‘mixing’ things, i.e. a lot of people will be eating their lunch and scrolling on their phone at the same time checking/watching updates etc.
Once the game is finished, then say to yourself, “Okay that’s over now, time to study or wash the dishes (or whatever it is you have to do next).”
That way you won’t miss out on having some leisure time, but you also need to do all the other things in your life. Hopefully that makes sense.
And when you watch the game…watch it 100%, keep your attention on it, don’t be scrolling on your phone at the same time.
I shall be balancing them by watching only the games of my national team, England. You might do likewise.
Alternatively, if you’re more ambitious, then you might try cultivating nibbidā with respect to football by electing to watch some really hopeless team like Curaçao, New Zealand or Qatar. As they’re sure to be eliminated in the group stages, you’ll only actually need to watch three games.
Reminds me when the talking of “balance” that kind of thing Ajahn Sona is good at answering with lay life questions.
Also that came to mind "“To increase the wholesome, refrain from the unwholesome, this is the teaching of all buddhas” and “benefit / drawback / escape”
I think paying attention is the essential thing here. Pay attention to what arises from your engaging with this particular thing you have a passion for. Don’t take a stick to your own back, and no need to punish yourself for anything, but observe and respond appropriately. The real danger is when we simply ignore the dangers we can perceive, simply to pursue pleasure in any form.
I actually wrote about this topic some days ago, and my apologiez for the unsolicited “plug”: When The Heart is Overcome Maybe it can help in some way with offering a perspective on this topic.
You can also use this as an opportunity for practice! Some ideas:
if you have a favorite team, watch what your mind does when they lose and when they win
contemplate the other team and see if you can generate some admiration for what they do well
the other teams have fans just like you by accident of birth or circumstance, try to empathize with them and how their minds react to win and loss
find the humor in the game and the opportunities for shared enjoyment for everyone
I read an anecdote years ago about when Brazil was hosting the World Cup. The national team was ranked #1 and they lost in humiliating fashion. The nation had spent huge amounts of money to host. The suicide rate in Brazil spiked dramatically the next day. Contemplate the harms that can come when something as simple as a game can generate that destructive passion.
Great post, yeshe.tenley! I was thinking the exact same things.
I noticed many years ago that a person can walk into a room with any sport happening on TV and within a minute, they will probably pick one they want to win even though they have no idea who is who. People are also highly likely to root for their regional team, perhaps out of tribalism.
I generally don’t watch sports any longer, as there’s too much tension.
I find watching competitions to have a very strong drawback: let’s say you pick 1 team you wanna win. The chances that they actually win among the other teams is very slim. So most likely rooting for them will make you upset/sad at certain point, when they get eliminated. This can grow into frustration when your team is loosing great tournament after great tournament.
I also found when rooting for a team/a player, you develop this craving/aversion dynamic a lot. Just by doing what others described here, which is observe cause & effect, I managed to see how masochistic it is so I’ve stopped.
Another thing is to contemplate how sport is often difficult for health of participants. Personally I’ve been following e-sports (computer games), and many players have seriously damaged wrists from practicing crazy amount of hours/days/weeks/months/years. Some of them had to retire because they couldn’t hold the mouse without pain anymore. The same is true for other sports, but other parts of the body gets overexerted and damaged at certain points. Of course different sports have different levels of health risks.
Still, it’s pretty harmless compared to many things in samsara. But there are drawbacks. So it all depends when we wanna be on the path and how we wanna feel. All the best to you.
((actually there’s a reason why 8 precepts is considered more condusive to dhamma practice))
like “what’s for the benefit of my self and the benefit of others” and times that might be “yes developing relation with family who enjoy football now” etc other time no
papanca about precepts
also how people relate to those is a thing like if someones all moralistic about entertainment or they feel they “shouldn’t” that may be more harmful than like the one that’s like seeing the “for the benefit of self and benefit of others” reason and does & so like the whole intuitive sense of the thing, like the precepts being there for understanding ‘benefit of self benefit of others’ understanding what? responsibility and agency which is intention (how that leads to suffering) - so like there’s this funny way mara is really sneaky and can be like keeping the precepts (good job mara that is a good meritorious thing) but be like not understanding the whole bit about what is like really beneficial for self and others, yeah “the precepts are there for understanding intention”
Like there’s variants of mara that keeps all the precepts but looking for the exception and can see that with what seems like some of the arbitrary rules but they’re important - like “high or luxurious beds” the thing looking for the “how do I keep the rules perfectly and do X” is mara - the precepts are there to understand intention - “for the good of self” “for good of otheres” “for the benefit of many” mara super crafty “I was just trying to help” “it’s for their benefit” etc. hehe
Italy if lookng for something to support there is emptycloud.it where there is community and practice about understanding the 4 noble truths. Beginning with (but not least) the first one 1. there is suffering.
All the best to you. 
"skeletons and skeletons … all these players, the ref, the crowd… "*