religion. The apostle Paul compared religious discipline to
sport on several occasions. In his first epistle to the Corinthi-
ans he writes, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners
compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you
may obtain it” (I Cor. 9:24). Later he includes the metaphor
of boxing: “I do not run aimlessly,” he writes, “I do not box
as one beating the air; but I pummel my body and subdue
it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disquali-
fied” (I Cor. 9:26–27). In summing up his evangelical career,
Paul writes, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished
the race, I have kept the faith” (II Tm. 4:7).
Sport involves an all-out effort toward achieving an elu-
sive goal. Thus, it is an appropriate metaphor for the spiritual
quest or for the often elusive goals of life itself. The Persian
poet Nizami (c. 1141–1203 or 1217) compared life to a polo
game: “The Horizon is the boundary of your polo ground,
the earth is the ball in the curve of your polo stick. Until the
dust of non-existence rises from annihilation, gallop and urge
on your steed because the ground is yours.”
HINDU DOCUMENTS. The R:gveda, perhaps the oldest of
Hindu documents, draws on the chariot race as a metaphor
for the pursuit of immortality. Hymn 3.31 of the R:gveda
says: “Soon, Indra, make us winners of cows.” Winners of
chariot races won prizes of cows, whose milk is a symbol of
immortality. This verse, which asks “Make us victors among
men; make us more like you, O powerful one; and bring us
immortality,” can be interpreted, and no doubt was intend-
ed, to evoke multiple levels of meaning. In the R:gveda, milk
is associated with seed, semen, and rain, all life-giving forms.
The Upanis:ads are Hindu sacred documents, the oldest
of which may date from as early as the sixth century BCE. The
Mundaka Upanis:ad urges readers to aim for unity with
Bra ̄hman:, the creative energy underlying the universe:
Affix to the Upanishad, the bow, incomparable, the
sharp arrow of devotional worship; then, with mind ab-
sorbed and heart melted in love, draw the arrow and hit
the mark—the imperishable Bra ̄hman:. OM is the bow,
the arrow is the individual being, and Bra ̄hman: is the
target. With a tranquil heart, take aim. Lose thyself in
him, even as the arrow is lost in the target.Though this translation by Swami Prabhavananda and Fred-
erick Manchester refers to Bra ̄hman: as “him,” Bra ̄hman: has
no gender, since it is the source of all being, male and female.
JAPAN, THE UNITED STATES, AND EUROPE. In the preceding
examples, sport is a metaphor for religious striving. However,
Zen archery, or kyudo, is a ritual, a religious act. In the Japa-
nese tradition of Zen Buddhism, the object of kyudo is to
achieve a balance among mind, body, and bow, which gives
rise to a unity that links the spirit to the target. Achieving
this balance is more important than hitting the target,
though hitting the target is expected to follow naturally from
achieving a balance among mind, body, and bow. The ritual
includes practicing correct breathing techniques to control
the mental and physical force—or ki— believed to be cen-
tered below the navel. Proper technique ultimately leads to
perfect serenity. Zen archery proceeds through eight smooth-
ly executed stages which seem to flow as a single unit. At the
sixth stage, the body of the archer is on a line with the target.
The name of this stage is kai, or “meeting.” Release of the
arrow at the seventh stage is seen as an act of volition by the
arrow rather than the archer:
Like a heavy drop of water... that decides to be free,
the arrow liberates itself.
The term for the seventh stage is hanare, or “release.” At this
point, it is believed that there is an explosion of energy flow-
ing through the body of the archer.
The martial art of kung fu was believed to have been de-
veloped by the Bodhidharma (d. c. 530), the legendary
founder of Zen (Chan) Buddhism at the Shaolin Monastery
in China. It is said that the Bodhidharma meditated for long
hours in a cave and developed kung fu as a means of keeping
his body flexible after long, motionless meditation.
In his book Mountaineering Essays (1980), John Muir
(1838–1914) describes his explorations with religious fervor,
often using religious terminology. He writes of Cathedral
Rock in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains:
No feature, however, of all the noble landscape as seen
from her seems more wonderful than the Cathedral it-
self, a temple displaying Nature’s best masonry and ser-
mons in stones. How often I have gazed at it from the
tops of hills and ridges, and through openings in the
forests on my many short excursions, devoutly wonder-
ing, admiring, longing! This I may say is the first time
I have been at church in California, led here at last,
every door graciously opened for the poor lonely wor-
shiper. In our best times everything turns into a reli-
gion, all the world seems a church and the mountains
altars. And lo, here at last in front of the Cathedral is
blessed cassiope, ringing her thousands of sweet-toned
bells, the sweetest church music I ever enjoyed. (p. 19)
This passage is comparable in religious fervor to writings of
such mystics as Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582), who describes
her feelings after a vision in which she was cautioned against
her longing to escape city life for meditation in the desert:
Here suddenly came upon me a recollection with an in-
terior light so great it seemed I was in another world.
And my spirit found within itself a very delightful forest
and garden, so delightful it made me recall what is said
in the Song of Songs: Veniat dilectus meus in hortum
suum. (From Song of Solomon 5:1: I am come into my
garden, my sister, my spouse....)
MODERN SPORTS. In his book From Ritual to Record: The
Nature of Modern Sports (1978), Allen Guttmann describes
the secularization of sport as though it were a fall from grace.
When it had its original close link to religion, Guttmann
suggests, sport was a meaningful enterprise that upheld the
noblest ideals of a group and was integral to other activities
of the group. Modern sports, Guttmann writes, have become
centered on the quest for quantification in the form of set-
ting distance or other records and evaluating performance in
terms of statistical data:8724 SPORTS AND RELIGION