Was Nadal in the future?

In the second straight tie-breaker in the fourth set during Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer's classic final we may have been shown how even the mind of a great athlete can go to the future.

The tie-breaker begins with a pair of crowd-pleasing rallies and the players are tied 1-1. Then Federer misses a forehand and gives Nadal a mini-break at 2-1. Nadal kicks an ace wide for a 3-1 lead, then gets another winner on the serve for a 4-1 lead. Federer whips a forehand winner to cut it to 4-2.

An errant Federer backhand gives a Nadal a 5-2 lead and two serves for the championship. Did Nadal see himself holding the Wimbledon trophy even though he had not yet closed the deal? Nadal has two serves to win and he double faults! Was it pressure or the mind not in the "Now" but in the future? With another serve to win, Nadal hits a backhand into the net to make it 5-4. Uh-oh, the "dream" of the trophy in his hand is now slipping away. Federer roars on with two big serves and goes up 6-5 for set point. A long rally ends with Federer missing a forehand wide, and we're even at 6. I believe the definition of a champion's mind is not that their minds go into the past and the future but how quick they bring their mind into the "Now". Both Federer and Nadal stayed in the Now and took the match to a fifth set.

Federer sends a shot long and Nadal has a championship point. Federer gets it to 7-7, but Nadal hits the shot of the tournament — a running forehand winner to give him another crack at it. Nadal comes to the net after the serve, but Federer rips a backhand winner down the line. More solid hitting from Federer, and he's got a 9-8 lead. Nadal rips a return long and Federer has won a thrilling fourth set.

When you watch sports, try watching your breath and staying in the Now. What you may witness is great athletes in one of the three places: the past, the future, or The Now.

One breath at a time

I hear this often: "I can't meditate." The first thought that comes to my mind when I hear this is "Who knows that?" In the late 1970s as I was sitting in a meditation cave in India, thoughts like, "I wonder what my girlfriend, Bonnie is doing?" or "Are the Red Sox in first place?" or
"What the heck am I doing in this cave?" I believed I wasn't "getting it". I believed I couldn't meditate. Because I was being constantly reminded by Swami Muktananda (www.shantimandir.com) that the energy within everyone and everything is also my essence, who I really am, I came to the realization:
Hey! My energy is watching the thinker. I am meditating even though thoughts keep banging around my skull like a pinball.

You are Being. You are an energy that has been with you before you took your first breath. That energy is unchanging. That energy is. All you have to do to get in touch with that energy is to "watch" one breath at a time. Don't try to stop the mind. The mind does what it does best: think thoughts. The thoughts will come, it is up to you to concentrate on one breath at a time and allow the thoughts to go. If you practice experiencing the space between the breaths you will find there are no thoughts in that gap. The thoughtless state will come naturally. Until of course the thought arises: I am not having any thoughts and the thoughtless state is over.

So just sit still and watch one breath at a time with all your love, honor and attention. One breath is all you need in that moment because that is all you have anyway. Then you can say,
"I can definitely meditate, I experienced one breath with love."

Tiger Woods revealed recently he has been playing for at least 10 months with a torn ligament in his left knee, and that he suffered a double stress fracture in his left leg two weeks before the U.S. Open. PGA Professional Paul Casey provided the most graphic description of the injury, based on a conversation he had had with the caddie of Robert Karlsson, the Swede who played alongside Woods in the third round. “He [Gareth Lord] said there were actually noises coming from Tiger's knee,” Casey said. “Clearly he was suffering. There was a moment where Tiger, I think at the 18th, stepped up to hit his tee-shot and backed off because of weird noises. They all chuckled and he said, 'I shouldn't hit this one too hard.' He got it in play and made eagle.

It is interesting to consider Tiger's performance in the context of the Now. In my book, "Peace and Par - Enjoying Golf in the Now," I maintain there is no one who stays in the present, in the zone, better than Tiger. Many of us have played athletics with pain. I remember basketball games with a sprained ankle, and baseball games with a sore arm. I never had the illusion that these injuries did not effect my performance. I remember consciously favoring the injury as I naturally anticipated the pain. Tiger on the other hand goes to his own Being, the energy within him and stays in the moment. Tiger addressed the ball, took his normal, full backswing, transferred his weight, tourqued his knee and created

club speed that would tear your socks off if you stood too close, and finished with his classic follow through all in the Now. Even though somewhere in his long and short term memory bank there existed the knowledge: "the pain is coming", Tiger did not hold the thought of this future pain. Tiger stayed in the Now shot after shot for five days. When the pain came at the end of the shot, Tiger endured it knowing all pain is going out. He then stood straight, handed his club to Steve and walked down the fairway completely focused on the task at hand, winning the US Open.

The ego and its partner, the pain body loves to anticipate the future and the potential for pain. The upcoming dentist appointment, visiting a critically ill friend or relative, or the golf match or lunch with the person who never shuts up. We miss so many breaths, so much of life in this moment because we embrace that future pain. Take a lesson in life from Tiger. The pain, like the future is an illusion. We only live in a series of "right nows".

Happy Walk

Some of our best teachers are those that teach us what not to do. People walking down the street will demonstrate posture at its worst. There is an adverse relationship between smiles and slumped shoulders. You don’t have to be a psychic to realize who is having a good time or not. Just watch how they walk. It seems natural to be bummed and bent over. Many times you can change your attitude and the patterns of your thoughts simply by standing straight, pulling your shoulders back and putting a smile on your face.

Trevor Immelmann in the Now.

Trevor Immelman had a tumor removed from his rib cage late last year. In an interview on the Golf Channel, he was asked “Did you consider you might not make it through the surgery?” Trevor said it crossed his mind, but the perspective the surgery gave him was not to take life for granted. As I watched Trevor in yesterday’s Masters, he seemed so focused on every shot. When Immelman made a double bogie on 16, he still had a three shot lead over Tiger Woods. If his mind went to “can I do this?” perhaps what he learned about himself during his recent critical illness gave him the confidence to answer to himself: “Yes!” The same energy that watched the nurses wheel him into the operating room watched him tee it up on 17. Trevor stayed in the present and did not take the swings he had to make to finish and win the Masters for granted.

Kundalini

I am creating a powerpoint presentation for a "Now Sound" program I

am giving at Yoga on York, Maine studio May 31. I was asked by

the proprietors Rae Lynn and Jeff to emphasize the Kundalini. All of my

programs imply the Kundalini, but for corporations I have down-played

the concept. Kundalini is the source and force of all experience. It is the

powerful yet subtle energy that mirrors the spine. In the picture above the energy

centers or chakras are represented by the colors associated with the particular chakra.

The seven chakras are usually described as the Muladhara, at the base of the spine; the

Svadishthana, in the pubic region; the Manipura, at the navel; the Anahata, near the heart;

the Vishuddha, in the throat; the Ajna, in the center of the forehead, and the Sahasrara at

the top of the head. This energy is always there, always on. Duhhh! If it is the source and

force of all actions, where would the Kundalini go? Swami Muktananda told me while

there are diverse modes of awakening the Kundalini described in the scriptures, the easiest

and most beneficial is when the Guru transmits his own divine energy into the disciple.

This initiation by the Guru is called Shaktipat. The Guru can transmit the Shakti by touch,

look, thought or word. Baba in fact would come to you in the middle of meditation and

grab the top of your nose between his thumb and fore finger and hit you on the head

with a bunch of peacock feathers. Look, I am not making this shit up! My experience in

that moment was pure unadulterated bliss. However, Baba also said a few thousand times

that the highest Guru is the Sadguru inside each one of us. Therefore, once you honor the

energy within you as you, that energy inside of you will give you the "touch". The thought:

"I am the energy of everything and everyone" is the thought of the Sadguru. Once the

Kundalini is awakened, (I believe it is already awake in most of us, we just don't recognize

it is there or have words to describe the feeling we get as the Kundalini says, "Hey, numb-nuts

I have always been here...feel that bliss?") you are now able to "See". When you look at a

flower, it is no longer just a flower, but a mirror of the divine. It is perfect what it is. That is

the "look" of the guru. I don't want to mitigate the power of the Guru in the form of a great

Master like Muktananda or Anandamaya Ma or Buddha or Paramahansa Yogananda etc.

I just believe we may be missing the experience of our own Kundalini, by waiting around for

someone to awaken us. Love your own inner Self, your Being in this moment. Realize you are

already awake.