Questioner: When I’ve felt a real sense of joy, where there’s been, I guess, a slight switch in my experience, or at least a different kind of experience, has been what sports people might call being in the…
Sadhguru: In the zone.
Questioner: In the zone, of course, yeah. And it may be an overused expression, but at least there’s an experience that where, momentarily, you feel a little bit – so, your influence is reaching further out than your sports.
Sadhguru: See, you may be in the zone, and throw this, what do you call that one?
Questioner: Which one is that?
Sadhguru: The pear.
Questioner: The rugby ball, yeah.
Sadhguru: It’s not a ball.
Questioner: Yeah, yeah, it’s a ball, yeah.
Sadhguru: But it’s not round.
Questioner: No, it’s still a ball. Still a ball, yeah.
Sadhguru: Okay, when you’re in the zone, and you threw it perfectly well, and I’m on the other side, and open my hands, or butter on my hands, and ‘chukuchuku’ it just went off – zone doesn’t work, isn’t it? Hmm? You may be in the perfect zone, but it’s a team sport, everybody’s got to be in the zone. There might have been situations where everybody were ‘boom!’ at one moment, all right?
So, why is it it’s happening only once in a way? Because for most human beings, their genius sparks once in a way. Suppose the sun, which is a living source of energy for all of us – it’s the only source of energy for this planet – if the sun came up once in a way, not every day, what would be life? Right now that is what it is even with the individual. Every day or maybe the English won’t agree with me, every day the sun doesn’t come up for them, but it’s coming up, it may be shrouded by the cloud, but it is coming up all the time.
I’m saying, everything that’s life process here – let’s say, like your zone, if your heart beat once in a way, what would happen to you?
Questioner: Yeah, it wouldn’t last long.
Sadhguru: Yes. So, this once in a way you’re in the zone, is something that must go. “Oh, can somebody be in the zone all the time?” Of course! You must be in the zone you want to be, because when it comes to physical performance in the world, there are many factors, okay? There are many factors, which all of it may not even be in your perception. But when it comes to inner nature, being in the zone must be every moment of your life, isn’t it?
Questioner: Absolutely, yeah.
Sadhguru: Because there’s only one ingredient – just you. Outside, see, there’s many people there in the room – if this room, this atmosphere, has to be pleasant, all these people must cooperate, otherwise if she starts freaking, what do I do? We can manage her, but still, the atmosphere in the room will go. But my inner atmosphere, there’s only one person. Is that person willing, I’m asking? Is a willing person, or unwilling person? You must make him willing, that’s all it is. Because the only and only thing that you have is life. And how wonderful you keep it within you is all you can do. Rest of it in the world, we do something.
Questioner: It’s really interesting, because my position specifically – there’ll be moments where it’s absolute chaos, and you’re performing the most difficult, challenging skills, with all kinds of interfering factors coming in from opposition teams to everything, and you do it effortlessly, in a flowing, beautiful way, and then the referee blows his whistle and says, “Right now you have a penalty,” which involves me having to kick a ball through the post in a kind of golf fashion.
I would go from being that genius kind of version of myself, to suddenly, to something I had practiced so many times and felt like I knew so well, and yet I’ve moved from chaos, and all kinds of complexity externally, to simplicity externally, and make it so complex. Because suddenly for that moment, you go from a clarity, like you said, a simplicity, to an absolute complexity internally whereby it’s suddenly about what will people think if I miss this, what if I – heaven forbid – I let my team down, etc, etc?…
Sadhguru: If you think what people will think, the ball will go into the people only.
Questioner: Yeah.That’s true. Very true. Yeah.
Sadhguru: So, I could tell you one secret but I’m on camera – what to do? I’ll tell you anyway.
Questioner: Please.
Sadhguru: But the opposition may also learn this.
Questioner: That’s okay. We’ll work that out when we come to it.
Sadhguru: When you want to kick that dead ball, what you do is, you exhale with your mouth open ‘huuuu’ and use this as a way [pointing away from the forehead] approximately 17 to 20 inches, somewhere there, you focus your eyes there, that empty space, okay? You can do this 3 times. ‘Huuuuu…’ There is something else which is called as Akash, which gets activated because of this. In this, you are naturally in the zone.
See, there are 3 ways to function in a way that other people think is miraculous. One thing is to become all body, that you don’t have a mind at all, just all body. Like, I don’t know, I shouldn’t use names, probably. There are some great players in soccer where you see them, you can see they don’t have a mind, they’re just all body, and they’ll do miraculous things that nobody ever thought they could do at that moment, when they’re like that. And they’re getting into that zone more often than others, so they become the great players that they are.
Another way is a very powerful mind, which visualizes and creates what it wants. That’s another way to be there, which is powerful, but I don’t know how many people have the necessary discipline and focus to do that. A few do that, some people who build the game, have this thing. They’re even mentally deciding, how the other guy should act. Many times you’ve seen this in rare moments, particularly in soccer and also in cricket game, the bowler decides how the batsman should act.
Questioner: Yeah.
Sadhguru: You know?
Questioner: I recognize that.
Sadhguru: It’s really wonderful to see that, because like Sachin Tendulkar was saying, you know, he was asking me a question in a conference, he says, “Sadhguru, you know, right now this is the last ball of the game, and, you know, I need to score a century, or something important need to happen. Even before I play the shot, I see that this is the ball that the bowler will bowl, and I’m already ready with that shot, and that is how he will bowl, and that’s how I will hit.” So, this is using the mind to see that guy does what you want, all right? That’s another way.
Another way that I just now told you is, to not worry – anyway body is well-trained, mind is trained for the game, don’t mess with that in the game itself. That preparing the body and mind should happen before the game, okay? You don’t go and train on the match pitch. So, there is another type of intelligence called consciousness.
Consciousness is that intelligence which is unsullied by your memory. Body is full of memory, it’s taken this form only because of its evolutionary memory, genetic memory, karmic memory, like this, because of memory this body has formed this shape. Because of memory your mind has taken a certain shape. But there’s another intelligence which is untouched by memory, which is the fundamental and the most powerful form of intelligence in the universe. If you touch that, your body and mind should be well-trained anyway to play that game, otherwise you cannot play – but once you touch that, you play in such a way which is magical for other people. There is no answer, with anybody around you.
There are many times certain sport reaches that place. Knowingly or unknowingly, the player gets in, and they themselves are surprised. I’ve seen this, sometimes the tennis players, they’re surprised, “Did I make this shot?” They can’t believe it themselves because they got into that space.
Questioner: That’s, for me, beautifully explained. Thank you. Sadhguru, thank you very much for being part of the “I am…” podcast.
Sadhguru: Thank you very much.
Questioner: And we couldn’t wish you better with the Conscious Planet and the Save Soil movement, and for sure we will be there and support.
Sadhguru: For 100 days, get all the sports people in this country to say something about soil.
Questioner: We shall definitely push that message, for sure. And I will be involved, too.
Sadhguru: Thank you very much.
Questioner: Thank you.
