Categoria: English

Soccer players need mysticism as well as psychology

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

A constructive idea of the CBF and the technical group of the Brazilian soccer team was to invite Regina Brandão, a psychologist specializing in the field, to accompany the players to their games. Psychological accompaniment had already existed for several years with the German soccer team. The purpose is clear: to create an atmosphere of inner serenity, to celebrate victories in a controlled way and to create the conditions for sound resilience in defeat, that is, to know how to turn around, learn from the mistakes and improve performance.

But I think that is still not enough. Psychology can be enriched by mysticism. Please do not tell me that I am introducing religion into soccer. Before anything, we must demystify mysticism. Mysticism has many meanings, two of the principal ones being the sociological and the spiritual, but not confessional, meanings.

I will give two examples that will clarify it better than words: on May 17 and 18, 1993, Fray Betto and I organized an open reflection on mysticism and spirituality. It was during the week, morning and afternoon. More than 500 workers came, most of them from metallurgy. They wanted to know what the devil was that about mysticism and spirituality. We had two opening lectures and the rest was very interesting debates. It was all recorded and published in the book, Mysticism and Spirituality, (Vozes 2014), that already has gone through many editions.

Another example: every large gathering of the Landless Movement, in which hundreds of people participate, starts with a «mystic». What do they do? They act on problems experienced by the participants, create meaningful symbols, sing songs, listen to testimonies of struggle and life. God is not always discussed. What comes up is the meaning of life, a reinforcing of the will to carry on with the projects, to resist, to denounce and create new things. The final effect is a general enthusiasm, lightness of spirit, and harmony among all. Through these «celebrations» the most profound dimension of the human being is touched, that is where our finest dreams, our utopias, our determination for a better life, reside. That is the sociological meaning of mysticism, that is found in the famous talk Max Weber gave the students of Munich in 1919 about Politics as Vocation. To Weber, a politics worthy of the name (not living off politics, but living for politics), implies mysticism, otherwise it is trapped in the mud of individual and corporate interests. Mysticism, to Max Weber, is the collection of profound convictions, the grandiose visions and strong passions that mobilize people and movements, inspiring practices able to confront difficulty and hold on to hope when facing failure.

That type of mysticism can and should be lived by soccer players, particularly by those of the Word Cup teams, so that they may see that it is not only about psychology with its motivations. It is about values, good dreams, enthusiasm. The question is how to get there.

This is where the second meaning of mysticism, the spiritual meaning, comes into play. But a clarification is necessary: we have an external side, our body with which we enter in contact with the others, with nature and with the universe. Soccer trains every possible capability of the body to create the athlete, the star player. But that is not enough. We have our inner selves, that is, the psyche, inhabited by passions, loves, hatreds, profound archetypes, the dimension of light and shadows. Everyone’s task is to domesticate the demons, and activate the good angels in such a way that we may be at peace with ourselves, and not a victim of our impulses.

But we also have the profound, that is our spiritual side. In our profundity we find the inevitable questions that accompany us throughout life: Who am I? What am I doing in this world? What can I look for beyond this life? What is the meaning of playing in the World Cup? All things are interdependent, and help each other to exist. There has to be something that links and re-links them all. We also have a profound self, with the suggestions and projects that mobilize us.

Enthusiasm arises there. Enthusiasm in Greek means «to have a god inside»: the Energy that is bigger than us, that takes us and leads us through life. Without enthusiasm we approach the world of death. Modern science of the brain identified what scientists have called the God point, or the spiritual intelligence, in the brain. Always when we deal with the fundamental questions of life, or seek a more global vision, when the powerful and loving Energy that sustains all is asked for, there is a greater than normal acceleration of that neuronal zone. We are endowed with an inner organ by which we capture that which we call Tao, Shiva, Olorum, Allah, Jehovah, God. What is important is not the name, but the experience of a Totality within ourselves. To activate the «God point» makes us more sensitive to others, more careful, friendly, understanding, and courageous.

I think it would be good for a player, before training, to retire to a corner, concentrate and listen to that profound self where are born the good ideas, good feelings, and where «entusiasm» is strengthened. There are people such as Fray Betto, Marcelo Barros and others who could do that job magnificently. They would put the players in tune with the «God point» and do away with the magic of «Tois».

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.

L

Humor as an expression of psychic and spiritual health

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

All higher living beings possess an accentuated sense of play. We see it by observing our cats and dogs. But humor is proper only to human beings. Humor was never considered a «serious» theme in theological reflection, even though it is known that is found in all the saints and mystics, who are the only truly serious Christians. Humor had better luck in philosophy and psychoanalysis.

Humor is not synonymous with jokes, because there can be a joke without humor and humor without a joke. A joke cannot be repeated; if repeated, it looses its grace. A tale filled with humor always preserves its grace, and we like to hear it again and again.

Humor can only be understood from the depth of the human being. Its characteristic is to be an infinite project, the carrier of inexhaustible desires, utopias, dreams and fantasies. This existential fact causes there always to be an imbalance between desire and reality, between that which is dreamed of and that which is made real. No institution, religion, state or law can completely contain the human being, even though there exists just such a type of order meant to contain humans. But the human surpasses these determinants. Hence the importance of embracing the forbidden to experience liberty, and for there to be new things. And this occurs in art, literature and also in religion.

When we notice this difference between the law and reality — as for example, in the Catholic moral law prohibiting the use of condoms in these times when AIDS abounds — the sense of humor comes into play. It is laughable, because it makes little sense, and is like whistling in the wind, because no one either listens or pays attention, so that it only can provoke humor. Those people live on the moon, not on the Earth.

In humor is found a feeling of relief from the weight of these limitations, and the pleasure of seeing them in a relative sense, without the importance they give to themselves. For a moment, the person feels free from the debilitating super egos, from the impositions the situation demands, and feels a sense of freedom, as a means of defining his time, of giving meaning to what the human being is doing, and of building something new. Behind humor exists the creativity proper to human beings. Regardless of the natural and social limitations that may exist, there is always space to create something new. If it were not so, there would be no geniuses in science, in art or in thought. At first, they are considered «crazy», eccentrics, abnormal. Much later, a second look discovers the genius of a van Gogh, the fantastic creativity of Bach, almost unnoticed in their time. It is said of Jesus that his friends came to take him away, because they said, “He is crazy” (Mk 3,21). The same was said of Saint Francis of Assisi: he is «pazzus», crazy, something he accepted as an expression of God’s will. And he was a saint, filled with humor and joy, to the point that he was called «the always happy brother».

In more pedestrian terms: humor is sign that it is impossible to define the human being within an established framework. Within his more profound and true self is a creator and a free being.

This is why the human being can smile and look with humor at the systems that try to imprison him within established categories. And the ridicule with which we observe serious gentlemen (for example, professors, judges, school principals and even monsignors) who try, solemnly and with airs of a superior authority that is almost divine, to make others blind and submissive, or to obey their orders like sheep. That also causes humor.

The philosopher Th. Lersch, (Philosophie des Humors, Múnich 1953, 26), got it right, when he wrote: «The secret essence of humor resides in the strength of the religious attitude, because humor sees the human and divine things in their insufficiency before God». From the seriousness of God, the human smiles at human gravity, with its pretensions of being absolutely serious and truthful. They are nothing before God. And there also exists a whole theological tradition that comes to us from the Fathers of the Orthodox Church, that speaks of Deus Ludens (playful God), because God created the world as a game for His own entertainment. And God did so wisely, joining humor with gravity.

Those who live centered in God have methods of cultivating humor. They make the earthy seriousness relative, even their own defects, and they are beings free from worries. Saint Thomas More, condemned to the guillotine, cultivated humor to the end: he asked the executioners to severe his neck, but not to touch his long white beard. Saint Lawrence smiled with humor at the executioners who broiled him on the grill, and invited them to turn him over, because one side was already well cooked; and Saint Ignatius of Antioch, the old bishop of the first Church, pleaded with the lions to come devour him so that he might go quickly to eternal happiness.

To preserve this serenity, to live in a state of humor and understand it from the point of view of human defects, is a grace for which we all must search, and ask for from God.
Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Rites and play: things very much forgotten

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

In the weeks of the Soccer World Cup we are experiencing moments full of rites, celebrations and symbols. The opening ceremony was a sequence of rites and symbols linked to soccer, principally the presentation of the teams, and the singing of the national anthem. An environment of celebration filled the cities, adorning the streets and the windows of the houses.

Here we tackle the theme of rites and celebrations, whose human and social meaning not always is thought about, and often is forgotten. First, without rite there is no celebration, because a celebration moves within the symbolic world of rites and symbols. We eat and drink in a celebration not to satisfy hunger or thirst. For that, we eat at home or in a restaurant. Rather, it symbolizes the friendship and joy of the encounter and of participating together in an event such as a soccer match. Singing in a celebration is not intended as a display of music as art, but as a ritual expression of exuberance and existential relief. And how we celebrate and drink when our favorite team wins a match or the championship!

«What is a rite?» the Little Prince asked the fox who had captured him in the famous book by Antoine de Saint Exupery of the same title. And the fox responded: «it is something very much forgotten, it is what makes some days different from the others, one hour different from the others. There is a rite among those who hunt me, they go to dance with the girls of the town on Thursdays, and therefore, Thursday is a marvelous day! I can stroll up to the vineyard. If the hunters danced on just any day, all the days would be the same and I would have no rest» (p.27).

A rite is, then, what makes a celebration different from other days. But it only gains expressive strength if there is preparation and inner anticipation, as occurs before a soccer match between two famous teams. This is why the fox advises the Little Prince: «it would be better if you always came at the same time, if you would come, say, at 4 in the afternoon; at three I would already start to be happy… but if you were to come at any old time, I would never know how to prepare my heart. The rite is necessary» (p.71).

Only with the rite will there be celebration, because then everything loses its natural consistency, taking on a profoundly human symbolic value. Things lose their actuality (are useless), in order to gain their true meaning. The sound of footsteps would never scare away the fox, they are like music that portends the proximity of the Little Prince. The wheat fields do not remind him of bread (actuality) but of the golden locks of the Little Prince (meaning).

Besides in the afore mentioned events, the presence of rite is generally strong in religious celebrations (marriage, for example, or priestly ordination). The rite expresses the meaning of things better than language, which, as the fox comments, «is full of misunderstandings». Therefore a rite is particularly expressive when it comes from the depths of our beings, from our deepest archetypes, where our personal identity is found.

Every human being, including the most secular and rational, is mythical, in the sense of ritual and symbolic expression. Humans who want to express their inner selves, their joy, their sadness, their passion, or their love, do not use cold concepts, but metaphors or life stories, that are the true myths. Through them, the mystery of the personal journey of each one emerges without violating it. Rites and celebrations always demand seriousness and concentration.

Everything we speak of about rites also has much to do with play. I am not thinking of the play that has become a profession and big international business, such as soccer and others. They are more sports than acts of play. Play, as it occurs in popular environments, on an improvised site or on the beach, has no practical utility, but it carries profound meaning as an expression of the joy of being, and of having a good time together.

There is an old tradition of the two sister Churches, the Latin and the Greek, that references Deus ludens, homo ludens and even eccclesia ludens (playful God, man and church). They saw creation as a great game of a playful Divinity: God launched from one side the stars, from the other the Sun, below, the planets and, with tenderness, the Earth, at just the right distance from the Sun, so that she may have life. Creation is a kind of all embracing happiness of God, a theatrum gloriae Dei (a theater of the glory of God).

In a beautiful poem the great theologian of the Greek Orthodox Church, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (c.330-c.390), says: «The sublime Logos plays, adorning the whole cosmos, for pure pleasure and in every way with the most varied images». In effect, play is a work of creative fantasy, as children show: it expresses a freedom without coercion, creating a world without practical end, free from profit and individual advantages. One of the finest theologians of the XX century, the brother of another eminent theologian, who was my professor in Germany, Karl Rahner, strongly recommended that «because God is vere ludens (truly playful) everyone must also be veres ludens».

These considerations show how our existence here on Earth could be serene and without anguish, especially when it is transformed by the jovial presence of God in His creation. So we do not have to be afraid. What takes away freedom is fear. The opposite of faith is not so much atheism as fear, especially fear of solitude. To have faith, more than to adhere to a series of truths, is to be happy, feeling oneself in the palm of the hand of God, and being able to live before the Divine like a child who plays with utter abandon.

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Rites and play: things very much forgotten

Leonardo Boff2 Comentários

In the weeks of the Soccer World Cup we are experiencing moments full of rites, celebrations and symbols. The opening ceremony was a sequence of rites and symbols linked to soccer, principally the presentation of the teams, and the singing of the national anthem. An environment of celebration filled the cities, adorning the streets and the windows of the houses.

Here we tackle the theme of rites and celebrations, whose human and social meaning not always is thought about, and often is forgotten. First, without rite there is no celebration, because a celebration moves within the symbolic world of rites and symbols. We eat and drink in a celebration not to satisfy hunger or thirst. For that, we eat at home or in a restaurant. Rather, it symbolizes the friendship and joy of the encounter and of participating together in an event such as a soccer match. Singing in a celebration is not intended as a display of music as art, but as a ritual expression of exuberance and existential relief. And how we celebrate and drink when our favorite team wins a match or the championship!

«What is a rite?» the Little Prince asked the fox who had captured him in the famous book by Antoine de Saint Exupery of the same title. And the fox responded: «it is something very much forgotten, it is what makes some days different from the others, one hour different from the others. There is a rite among those who hunt me, they go to dance with the girls of the town on Thursdays, and therefore, Thursday is a marvelous day! I can stroll up to the vineyard. If the hunters danced on just any day, all the days would be the same and I would have no rest» (p.27).

A rite is, then, what makes a celebration different from other days. But it only gains expressive strength if there is preparation and inner anticipation, as occurs before a soccer match between two famous teams. This is why the fox advises the Little Prince: «it would be better if you always came at the same time, if you would come, say, at 4 in the afternoon; at three I would already start to be happy… but if you were to come at any old time, I would never know how to prepare my heart. The rite is necessary» (p.71).

Only with the rite will there be celebration, because then everything loses its natural consistency, taking on a profoundly human symbolic value. Things lose their actuality (are useless), in order to gain their true meaning. The sound of footsteps would never scare away the fox, they are like music that portends the proximity of the Little Prince. The wheat fields do not remind him of bread (actuality) but of the golden locks of the Little Prince (meaning).

Besides in the afore mentioned events, the presence of rite is generally strong in religious celebrations (marriage, for example, or priestly ordination). The rite expresses the meaning of things better than language, which, as the fox comments, «is full of misunderstandings». Therefore a rite is particularly expressive when it comes from the depths of our beings, from our deepest archetypes, where our personal identity is found.

Every human being, including the most secular and rational, is mythical, in the sense of ritual and symbolic expression. Humans who want to express their inner selves, their joy, their sadness, their passion, or their love, do not use cold concepts, but metaphors or life stories, that are the true myths. Through them, the mystery of the personal journey of each one emerges without violating it. Rites and celebrations always demand seriousness and concentration.

Everything we speak of about rites also has much to do with play. I am not thinking of the play that has become a profession and big international business, such as soccer and others. They are more sports than acts of play. Play, as it occurs in popular environments, on an improvised site or on the beach, has no practical utility, but it carries profound meaning as an expression of the joy of being, and of having a good time together.

There is an old tradition of the two sister Churches, the Latin and the Greek, that references Deus ludens, homo ludens and even eccclesia ludens (playful God, man and church). They saw creation as a great game of a playful Divinity: God launched from one side the stars, from the other the Sun, below, the planets and, with tenderness, the Earth, at just the right distance from the Sun, so that she may have life. Creation is a kind of all embracing happiness of God, a theatrum gloriae Dei (a theater of the glory of God).

In a beautiful poem the great theologian of the Greek Orthodox Church, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (c.330-c.390), says: «The sublime Logos plays, adorning the whole cosmos, for pure pleasure and in every way with the most varied images». In effect, play is a work of creative fantasy, as children show: it expresses a freedom without coercion, creating a world without practical end, free from profit and individual advantages. One of the finest theologians of the XX century, the brother of another eminent theologian, who was my professor in Germany, Karl Rahner, strongly recommended that «because God is vere ludens (truly playful) everyone must also be veres ludens».

These considerations show how our existence here on Earth could be serene and without anguish, especially when it is transformed by the jovial presence of God in His creation. So we do not have to be afraid. What takes away freedom is fear. The opposite of faith is not so much atheism as fear, especially fear of solitude. To have faith, more than to adhere to a series of truths, is to be happy, feeling oneself in the palm of the hand of God, and being able to live before the Divine like a child who plays with utter abandon.

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar,
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.