Although he figures in the story, Tiger Woods is not the subject of this post. Self indulgent personal foibles of celebrities do not interest us. What strikes me as more interesting are the liberties that others take in spinning and analyzing the all too common clueless conduct of the privileged, in order to make agenda driven cultural points. The media frenzy that ensued following the sleazy disclosures about Tiger's sex life was wholly expected. But still, I found it strange that the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, was asked to comment on the golf legend's fall from grace and his subsequent apology invoking his Buddhist roots. To his credit, the septuagenarian monk did not know anything about the tawdry tale of Tiger. After being "illuminated" by his inquisitors, he graciously said the following, defending the lessons taught by all faiths and not just Buddhism.
...the Dalai Lama agreed with Woods in that he should rely on his faith to help repair his marriage. He added, “Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that’s important. Self-discipline with awareness of consequences.”
Contrast that with some self appointed moral arbiters of the right wing media whose finger wagging at Tiger Woods included derision for Buddhism and the exhortation to embrace Christianity as a path to redemption. With such surefooted folks (of any religion, by the way) when one of their own fails, it is because he / she was not faithful to the message of the true god, but missteps by others are the consequence of adherence to a false faith (or no faith). Which is why the transgressions of Christian men of god like Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker and pedophile Catholic priests are deemed personal sins, not the indictment of the church or its doctrines whereas a Muslim terrorist or a Buddhist philanderer has to have been led astray by his respective faith. Particularly vituperative (and actually quite funny) is this Fox News report which made fun of Tiger and the Buddhist-Tantrik route to salvation.
If, as Samuel Johnson noted, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, then religion is the emergency contingency plan of the discovered philanderer.
Whether it's a president redefining "sexual relations" or a governor redefining "hiking the Appalachian Trail," you can bet there will be a huddle with a religious advisor followed by proclamations of rediscovered faith.
So it came as no surprise as Tiger Woods wound down his prepared statement Friday that he invoked his Buddhist upbringing, lamented straying from its Eightfold (Cart) Path and vowed a return to adhering to the tenets of his religion.
"Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security," said Woods. "It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."
And lost track. And lost track. And lost track. Presumably to the point of chafing.
Tiger, you see, is Siddhartha, the Buddhist seeker accumulating human experience on his way to enlightenment. Dominating at Augusta, breaking Rocco Mediate's heart in a playoff, clandestine assignations with Jaimee Grubbs, Holly Sampson, Joslyn James, et al., were all part of his spiritual journey.
How can you know where the Tantric Path leads if you don't go down it again and again and again? (And one has to admit there is an allure to a belief system that posits, "The hidden potency of sexual union is the seed of all creativity.")
In Hermann Hesse's novel, young Siddhartha begins his journey by leaving the comforts of his Brahmin family and becoming an ascetic, denying himself all worldly pleasures.
These are Tiger's solitary hours, days, years on the range, monotonously perfecting his game through mind-numbing - mind-clearing? - repetition. Self-denial and discipline, combined with his extraordinary talent, made Tiger the greatest golfer of all time.
In Hesse's novel Siddhartha strays from the ascetic life of a Samana and indulges in matters of the flesh with the prostitute Kamala.
"Siddhartha said nothing, and they played the game of love, one of the thirty or forty different games Kamala knew. Her body was flexible like that of a jaguar and like the bow of a hunter; he who had learned from her how to make love, was knowledgeable of many forms of lust, many secrets. For a long time, she played with Siddhartha, enticed him, rejected him, forced him, embraced him: enjoyed his masterful skills, until he was defeated and rested exhausted by her side."
(Kamala wore out Siddhartha the way Hesse wore out commas.)
Siddhartha emerges from this self-debasement, no doubt wobbly in the legs, and returns to the righteous path.
And so, too, did Tiger disappear into a lust as deep as a St. Andrews pot bunker.
Tiger didn't want to cut any corners on this leg of his journey. So he lay down repeatedly, exhaustively with, what, 14 Kamalas just to make sure the self-debasement took. This is not a guy who was ever going to be satisfied by a medium bucket.
Okay, perhaps an apt and clever analogy. But Hesse's Siddhartha (a namesake of the Buddha) is a fictional character, the product of a German novelist's overheated imagination and obsession with spirituality. Hesse described an almost identical path to self realization by a Christian seeker, a novice in a seminary, in another novel, Narziss and Goldmund. Hopefully, the next time a celebrity tomcat cries tears of contrition and takes "Jesus into his life," we will see a similar satirical comparison with Goldmund (and Christianity) who, having strayed from the straight and narrow of his Christian faith, "learnt" just like Tiger, from not just one Kamala, but a series of enticing lasses - in fact, almost each and every one that crossed his path.
I am all for mocking hypocrites, including those who seek cover in religion. But let it be an even playing field for all prodigal children of god(s).
(Thanks to Sujatha for the link to the Fox News Sports report)
It's interesting to see how rapidly the Woods press conference faded into the woodwork, once he brought up the B word. He may have just saved himself from endless slavering by the networks over his 'apology' by mentioning his faith in Buddhism. If it doesn't suit their narrative of the 'repentant sinner', it might as well not have happened at all. ( Although Buddhist tales aren't without their 'repentant sinners', viz Chandalika, Amrapali, Angulimala, Devadatta, etc. etc. - Buddham Sharanam Gacchami ('I take refuge in the Buddha') is as valid in that context as "my Savior Jesus'.
Posted by: Sujatha | February 28, 2010 at 03:57 PM