Buddhism in Volleyball
By Josh McKinney | He/Him/His | Seattle Betsuin
Originally Published: January 18, 2020
What is Buddhism and how does it help us?
In my opinion a pretty good definition of Buddhism is that it’s “a religion that was founded by the Buddha to help people overcome their suffering.” In other words, Buddhism is a religion that was made to try and help people live their best lives. Because Buddhism has such a large goal, it can often, if not always, apply to everything we do. I know right? You already spend every Sunday learning about Buddhism and now I’m telling you that you can learn about Buddhism every single day! You’re welcome. But it’s true. Can anyone tell me a hobby you have, one that you might not guess has Buddhist principles just waiting to be learned.
“In other words, Buddhism is a religion that was made to try and help people live their best lives.”
A favorite hobby of mine that makes me think of Buddhism lot is playing volleyball. Do you guys know the rules of volleyball? Pretty much there are 2 teams of six people, each on one side of the net. And the goal of the game is to work as a team to keep the ball from touching the ground on your side of the net while passing it back over the net to the other team, but you can’t catch the ball, you can only hit it. And no one can hit it twice in a row. Now, one way to get the ball over the net is for only one person to hit the ball and send it over the net. This means that not only is the ball not going over to the other side very fast, but also, only one out of the six people get to touch that ball, so it’s not a ton of fun either. The other way to get the ball over the net is to have three different people on the team work together to hit that ball back and forth and give themselves the best position to score a point, while the other teammates support them. This method is by far the most effective but it requires everyone to hit the ball well to each other. If the first person messes up, it makes life more difficult for the second person, which makes it more difficult for the third person. Playing volleyball is an example of how I’m interconnected with the people on my team and how we rely on each other to play a good game.
Volleyball is just one of the many things in my everyday life that reminds me of the impact Buddhism has on me. Buddhism has slowly become a part of everything I do in my life. How has Buddhism impacted your life?
