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∵ Mari-chan ∴ 2023-06-12 ∞ 2'
I've just finished reading "The Inner Game of Tennis" and I really recommend it!
As someone who has never held a tennis racket before in life and has no interest in playing Tennis, you might be surprised when I tell you this is one of my favorite books.
"The Inner Game of Tennis" is definitely a book about Tennis. It has a whole chapter talking about things you should do when playing, how to move your feet, and hold the racket, etc. However, it's not only about Tennis. It's about the "Flow". The mysterious state in which our consciousness bends space-time, and being completely absorbed in an activity, we forget the universe is composed of anything else but what we're immersed in.
It's about what seems to be the universal knowledge attained by the sages of all the religions I've ever pursued. The book discusses ideas of non-duality, emptiness, and form within the context of Tennis. The whole time I was reading it, I could picture myself sitting under a scraggly tree overlooking a beautiful valley, and Timothy, the author, wearing a long white robe, with long plaited hair telling me about the mysteries of the mind and how to harness its potential.
Timothy talks about things I've read and heard in my sanghas, from parents, on TV. It's all common knowledge, but like every single other complicated piece of information I've ever heard in my life, I needed to hear it in the right way at the right time to make sense of it. I feel like this book gave me a deeper understanding of non-duality and how obtaining is about letting go. Not only for sports and the physical, but for the mind and the intellectual.
It's hard to put these concepts into short sentences without sounding corny, or offering you a shallow version of something you've heard countless times before in your life. That's precisely why I recommend the book. I believe it puts your mind in the right place to be able to hear and accept these teachings. The book is extremely kind and self-love inducing. It's also pretty short and honest! If you're in Berlin I'll be delighted to lend you my copy.