Showing Us Ourselves is The Greatest Gift of Tiger Woods

By Carlo Ami © 2010

Many think that Tiger Woods’ greatest gift to the American public has been in
showing us his golf mastery. While entertaining and inspiring, this aspect of his
gift to us is insignificant when compared to a much greater gift which he has
given and may continue to give.

He mirrors us. With mirrors, we get to see our self. We learn. We grow. Some
aspects of this mirror:

The Pre-Apology Mirror:

• The feeling of entitlement. He thought he deserved to be treated

differently, that given his fame he could play by a different set of rules than
the rest of us. This is a facet of arrogance. In what ways might we be
acting in arrogance?

• Pretending to be something he was not: a faithful husband. Woods

projected a squeaky clean image as a family man. What masks do you
wear to hide your inner world from the outer world?

• The United States is the most prominent example of a world of being a

body of people with apparently limitless cravings. We are gluttons for
artificial, poor excuses for food and drink. We crave drugs, affection,
erection, release, fancier cars, TVs with bigger screens, and all kinds of
escapes that give us a very temporary and artificial sense of power or
happiness or calm.

• He has also reminded us of our capacity for blindness as a choice. If we

let the egoic mind run our lives, we can convince ourselves not to see
what is right in front of us. In taking on multiple sexual partners, given the
nature of his popularity and the nature of the media’s and public’s interest
in his personal life, he chose to be blind to the idea that his infidelity would
be exposed. He let the craving and the arrogance blind him to the
consequences of both.

- 1 - Showing Us Ourselves is The Greatest Gift of Tiger Woods By Carlo Ami © 2010
The Mirror in the Apology

• He sees himself as a victim of media invasiveness in his life. How often

do we see ourselves as victims of life, and what does that sense of
victimhood really do for us?

• Concurrently, he asks the media and the rest of us for his privacy, and that
of his wife and children. Can we respect this, or do we feel entitled to
learn what we want to learn of his private life. Is it our business? No. Yet
in this society of addicts that we are, we are also addicted to gossiping
about and judging others as a way of feeling falsely superior to someone
else. It is not anyone’s place to judge Tiger Woods or anybody else. You
may not want your son to emulate this man’s off-course behavior, but
damning Woods doesn’t do anything other than drain your own energy.

• He took responsibility for his actions. This is the mirror of positive

example. How often do we do the opposite, blaming our children, parents,
friends or co-workers for our challenges?

• He shared with us his perceived solution to his challenge with craving: the
learning of restraint. This is a teaching he had learned as a part of his
Buddhist upbringing. In this American age of excess self-indulgence, low
self-esteem and marketers hawking of all kinds of unnecessary “stuff” as
being important to buy and use, the realm of restraint is taboo. We want
more. What we get is an artificial sense of power that does not last long
before it needs to be propped up again.

It is curious, too, that many now seem to be wanting more from Woods. We want
to see him express remorse, which is defined as deep and painful regret. To
demand remorse from another is to demand that they have pain. This
requirement does not give one much of a boost in the positive karma department.
What good can come out of the intent for another to suffer? Do you really want
to emulate some wrathful god? Does that make you feel better?

Many do not relate to Buddhism. What we do not know, we often foolishly

attempt to belittle. Some news commentators have expressed disappointment
and surprise that Woods did not invoke Christian values, rather than what he
learned as a youth.

- 2 - Showing Us Ourselves is The Greatest Gift of Tiger Woods By Carlo Ami © 2010
While much of the Eastern world may be governed in harsh and godless
authoritarianism, the East has given the world so much of great value in many
arenas from the spiritual to healthcare innovations and philosophical insight.

In contrast, the vast majority of the Christian world---along with the Jewish and
Muslim religions---has devolved into the diametrical opposite of what any worthy
religion would be. Any religion with integrity is one which empowers and unites
people. Most religions today do exactly the opposite. It takes very little study of
the confirmed history of the Christian bible to understand how its most Christ-like
content has been removed over the centuries. There are so many contradictions
and so much unloving content in both volumes, that believers in the Christian
bible or the Muslim Qu'ran must fall into one of these categories:

1) They have not read it.

2) They believe in loads of blatant contradiction within these texts, which would
characterize them as schizophrenic.

3) They are OK with God, Allah or the authors of these scriptures being
dangerously schizophrenic.

When one studies the history of religion, the inescapable conclusion is that
religion has been developed as a primary tool of the wealthy to disempower the
majority of the population of our planet. If we are willing to wake up, there will be
no apocalypse, just an awakening to the potential we have to be a planet in
harmony.

Anyone paying attention today who is willing to see the history of religion and to
observe what is going on right now in the world comes to the most obvious and
truthful of conclusions: The most grave threat to the safety and peace of our
world comes in the form of our generally insane religious convictions: that
redemption can come from killing in the name of some god, that we might fry in
some eternal dungeon, and that we are unworthy or deserving of shame.
Communally, how stupid can we be to buy this stuff? What will it take to wake us
up?

As we communally move closer to the age of true harmony in the world, more
and more will see the destructiveness that defines most of today's popular
religion. Tiger Woods’ apology on the world stage may very well be a significant
step in that direction.

His greatest gifts to the world have nothing to do with the quality of his golf
swing. They have to do with the ways he is showing us to ourselves.

- 3 - Showing Us Ourselves is The Greatest Gift of Tiger Woods By Carlo Ami © 2010
We can spend the rest of our lives teed off and stuck in the bunkers of delusion
and self-destruction or we can open up to a more loving way of being. I think
Tiger Woods is giving a new way of living his best shot. And when it comes to
that, it may be wise for us to be like Tiger.

******************************************************************

Next in Part Two: Tiger Woods and the End of Golf

To learn how to create more

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- 4 - Showing Us Ourselves is The Greatest Gift of Tiger Woods By Carlo Ami © 2010