training can be satisfying and rewarding of itself, having a contest coming up makes the athlete feel special but its nearly always a let down. When we train with the thought of that one special day in mind, eat with that day in mind it becomes invested with so much psychic energy, then the thing is over before you know it, win or loose, winning feels better of course, but regardless there is an emptiness inside which questions the validity of valuing the stage high above everything else and making it the pinnacle of life experience.
Being fully in the Now is the highest discipline and reward simultaneously. Making one day out of the year more special than another and devoting all ones actions towards that future date makes being present very difficult.
Is it really the flowering of ones individual potential to become great at something (like bodybuilding in my case) at the expense of the flowering of the 'heart' 'mind' and 'consciousness' ?
the competitive lifestyle revolves around the most physical layer of our being. training it, feeding it, supplementing it, assessing and pinching it in the mirror etc when the mind gets absorbed in body identification it makes itself a slave to limitation and division, whereas the flowering of spiritual potential makes one identify with the eternal ground of being, the cosmic whole, not a small corporal part.
Ideally the body and mind should be like cloaks we put on to play out our part on the stage of life. To be liberated we need to be like the projector (soul) and know the body and mind to be projections dependent upon it. To the extent our physical training, athleticism and sporting hobbies can get us more in touch with the now where soul always abides then they are aiding us and others in living with more freedom and less suffering. If they become absorbing obsessions split off from everything but the goals we wish to obtain through them then they are like prisons and set imprisoning examples to others.
