By Ian McPherson
I am a Northerner. I was born and brought up in County Durham. I support the Premier League side Sunderland Football Club. I am also part-owner of non-league Bishop Auckland Football Club. I tend to take the often expressed view that football is the most important thing of the non-important things in life. It’s only a game – but what isn’t?
But hey! What has all this got to do with the really important things in life, the spiritual things, Pureland Buddhism for example? Well listen and I will tell you a story.
A very good friend of mine who I will call Peter is a fully qualified osteopath and homoeopath with an extensive practice. As a young lad he attended football matches with his Dad. On this particular occasion his team scored an unexpected goal. The crowd around him cheered ecstatically and the next thing he knew was an experience of complete oneness with the supporters all around him, the players, the stadium itself and the sky and the clouds above. He lost himself, and found and felt at one with everything around him. This happened again some years later. He tells me that for him this was the beginning of his spiritual journey – a journey which continues to deepen itself over the years since then. He still supports the same team!
I too often feel the same when watching a football match (not for nothing is it called the beautiful game). Tens of thousands of supporters sharing the same experience at the same time or, in the case of World Cup football, several million, creates a strong sense of togetherness and unity which in a similar way is akin to what my own Pureland practise brings to me. Everything that happens is, of course, taking place in the Pureland except we forget – hence the Nembutsu!
Football too has its Buddhas (the Manager of the team), the Dharma (the rules of the game) and the Sangha (the supporters). Football clubs also bring a sense of purpose to the communities which they represent (whether city, town or village) helping the elderly and young people alike and were very proactive in this respect during the Covid pandemic.
So as Sunderland supporters say: “Sunderland till I die. Ha’way the lads!”