Tiger, Apology, and Refuge in Dharma
Tiger Woods’ formal public apology came just a day ago, and many from the social media universe are chiming in on the subject. A few of the responses circulating are from those who consider his presentation a “canned,” performance. I must admit the thought has crossed my mind. “Of course Tiger needs to do this,” I say to my self, “After all many other disgraced public figures pay top dollar to have public relations experts to help restore their marred image, not so much as a way of receiving absolution, but to improve their charisma, so that their name can continue being a marketable commodity. So the ‘Tiger Woods’ must be must be restored, if it is to remain marketable, and keep whatever endorsements remain.”
Whether or not his presentation was “canned” is a mystery. Can anyone really judge his motives? To those who find Tiger to be insincere, I ask, “Where’s the beef?” I’m also just being way too cynical to think this is just a well-played PR campaign. I’d say, give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
However, there was something that Tiger said that really caught my apologetic ear. He shared that his own shortcomings and need for restoration had drawn him back to the Buddhism—the faith that he received from his mother, which he had walked away from. So I wondered: Can Tiger’s reconnections to the Buddha—his refuge in Dharma—really offer the spiritual power he needs to transform life and make it whole again?
What would Buddha say to Tiger? The enlightened one would probably tell him of Four Nobel Truths. He would instruct Tiger that all life is suffering, the suffering is caused by his own desires, the cessation of suffering ends with detaching himself from all desires, and the way to detachment is through adhering to an Eightfold Path. Perhaps he would offer a mantra to recite?
Yet Buddha would have also told Tiger that the pro-golfer must also accept that the evident suffering is more than just the desires he knows about—there is a principle of karmic law at work, which means his suffering is the just punishment for all evils committed during a myriad of past lives he has already lived, and—very importantly—his present suffering is really rooted in his failure at discovering and correctly appropriating Buddha’s Four Nobel Truths in one of those other past lives. In fact, he was born as Tiger Woods, as opposed to attaining Nirvana, because he failed to extinguish his desires during one of those past lives. Thus, he was reincarnated as Tiger Woods, because of the failing to extinguish all his desires. Even Tiger Woods’ identity as Tiger Woods must also be extinguished, for all that is Tiger Woods is a source of desires, and such must be extinguished in order to attain a state of complete detachment from all desires, for in Buddhism ultimate reality is no-thing—the void.
Is this true? Must Tiger accept that he was fatalistically determined from birth for this fall, that all things that transpired in his life led up to his downfall, yet not necessarily something he had done, or has knowledge of, but even something that had been committed many lives ago, and karmic law has finally caught up to him? Could Tiger’s refuge in Dharma really set him free of the chain that ties him to the cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation? Is there another way?
Did not Jesus have something to say about a prodigal son returning home to his estranged father? Did He not offer Good News to the lost? Did He not say to people lost in darkness that the Light has come? Do not those who believe in Christ’s message pass out of death into new life?
Whether or not his presentation was “canned” is a mystery. Can anyone really judge his motives? To those who find Tiger to be insincere, I ask, “Where’s the beef?” I’m also just being way too cynical to think this is just a well-played PR campaign. I’d say, give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
However, there was something that Tiger said that really caught my apologetic ear. He shared that his own shortcomings and need for restoration had drawn him back to the Buddhism—the faith that he received from his mother, which he had walked away from. So I wondered: Can Tiger’s reconnections to the Buddha—his refuge in Dharma—really offer the spiritual power he needs to transform life and make it whole again?
What would Buddha say to Tiger? The enlightened one would probably tell him of Four Nobel Truths. He would instruct Tiger that all life is suffering, the suffering is caused by his own desires, the cessation of suffering ends with detaching himself from all desires, and the way to detachment is through adhering to an Eightfold Path. Perhaps he would offer a mantra to recite?
Yet Buddha would have also told Tiger that the pro-golfer must also accept that the evident suffering is more than just the desires he knows about—there is a principle of karmic law at work, which means his suffering is the just punishment for all evils committed during a myriad of past lives he has already lived, and—very importantly—his present suffering is really rooted in his failure at discovering and correctly appropriating Buddha’s Four Nobel Truths in one of those other past lives. In fact, he was born as Tiger Woods, as opposed to attaining Nirvana, because he failed to extinguish his desires during one of those past lives. Thus, he was reincarnated as Tiger Woods, because of the failing to extinguish all his desires. Even Tiger Woods’ identity as Tiger Woods must also be extinguished, for all that is Tiger Woods is a source of desires, and such must be extinguished in order to attain a state of complete detachment from all desires, for in Buddhism ultimate reality is no-thing—the void.
Is this true? Must Tiger accept that he was fatalistically determined from birth for this fall, that all things that transpired in his life led up to his downfall, yet not necessarily something he had done, or has knowledge of, but even something that had been committed many lives ago, and karmic law has finally caught up to him? Could Tiger’s refuge in Dharma really set him free of the chain that ties him to the cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation? Is there another way?
Did not Jesus have something to say about a prodigal son returning home to his estranged father? Did He not offer Good News to the lost? Did He not say to people lost in darkness that the Light has come? Do not those who believe in Christ’s message pass out of death into new life?
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