Saturday, August 23, 2014

The Authentic Swing of Bagger Vance (1 of 2)



Huggybear's Stories
August 23-29 Edition

The Authentic Swing of
Bagger Vance 

I am a young man in search of meaning. Yet I know I am more than who I am. I came here to find my way back. The most profound revelations that transformed my life came from within. I had it all, all this time, but I have been blinded by illusions. I thought I needed to learn, until I realized that all I had to do is to remember.The real me transcends time and space. My greatest agonies came from forgetting my true nature. This is what happened to Rannulph Junah as he competes in the game that will define him forever.

"Junah's problem is simple," says his caddie, Bagger Vance. "He thinks he is Junah."

I have read more books that a lot of men in their lifetime, though only a few have moved me to the core of my being. One is The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield (Harper Torch, NY). I identified with Junah, and never have I found a character as true and mesmerizing as Bagger Vance.

"This battle, like Reality itself, takes place in a higher plane," says Bagger. "That higher battle is the one you are losing, Junah. It is why you are losing here."

Spiritual Journey.

Junah was forced to join the historic match between golf legends Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen to bring honor to his hometown. As a testament of hope at the height of the Depression, the game was held on May 1931 in the new course built in Krewe Island in Georgia. Junah is a war hero and scion of one of the most revered families in the South, but he is tormented by his own private demons.

His search for inner peace is a mirror to my own quest for enlightenment. Junah had traveled to Tibet and India on a spiritual journey, seeking that elusive Oneness with the Source of All Life. I have felt that ephemeral sense when I dive alone deep in the sea.

"All sport is holy, for it embodies the objectified search for the subjective experience of yoga, meaning union, union with the divine," says Bagger. Golf "more closely mirrors the Reality of the way to Self-realization."

(To Be Continued)

Seeing The Field
From The Legend Of Bagger Vance movie



2 comments:

Jonathan Aquino said...

“The disunited mind is far from wise; how can it meditate? How be at peace? When you know no peace, how can you know joy?” ~ Bhagavad Gita

Jonathan Aquino said...

"Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do." ~ Bhagavad Gita