Second Essay:
I want to talk about the agon, a word used by the Greeks in days of old that is the root to the word agony. Agon is the Latin word meaning struggle, combat, contest, agony. When I talk of agon, I am not just talking of punishing our physical bodies into submission; yes that is part of it, the training of the body, but that is not the whole of it. Greeks were glorious with training their body; the Greek runners would train until their bodies worked with a speed and a grace that matches the well oiled machines of today. But agon goes beyond training of the body; it is also training of the mind and soul! The idea that you can train the body and not the mind and soul is a false dichotomy. We can not build one up to the neglect of the other and still hope to be full and complete. What we do instead is raise our physical self on a false pedestal that the slightest breeze emotionally or spiritually will nock down to the ground. And the Greeks new this! Their training was not only in the physical realms of their lives, but the spiritual and mental as well. They knew that to be a complete human being, they could not neglect any of the other aspects. The body, mind and spirit have to be built up continually to the potential that each one of us has.
The potential for spiritual, physical and mental growth in me will be different than that of you. I have a friend who is far my superior in mental and spiritual potential, but I have more physical potential. But we do not look at it as a competition of who can achieve more, because that is not what the focus should be on. It is not about achieving more than the ones around you, it is about achieving all that you are capable of achieving. There is no competition except that which is the truest competition of all, competition of self.
And this is where we must seek out the agon. Every decision we make has an effect on who we are to be, in who we are becoming, if we choose to lie when we could have told the truth, or if we choose to forgive when we wanted to avenge, then we are taking steps to becoming the person we are to be. But what must be understood, even up to death, we are always becoming the person we are to be, we are always improving, always being tested, and the choices we make in the little agons day by day, are the things that shape who we are.
George Sheehan once said that the agon is daily, every day we face it. A strain of thought that follows along well with that of Epictetus: “If anything laborious or pleasant, glorious or inglorious be presented to you, remember now is the contest, now are the Olympic Games and they cannot be deferred.” We are continually being tested, we are continually being refined by a refiner’s fire, and it is only through this process that we can become the person we are meant to be. But God has an attention to detail matched by no other, and if we fail a test, we are bound to repeat it again and again and again until we pass it. Only then will we move on.
The Greeks did not just focus all their time and attention on the physical agon of training their bodies though, the also tackled the spiritual and mental gymnastics as well. And truly so must we.
Through bettering our selves mentally by not hiding from the deep questions, but embracing them, by reading the classics, the works of the great minds before us, by asking questions, we open the doors to better ourselves physically and spiritually. Socrates in his day, held a regular meeting with other great minds of his time that later became known as Socrates’ Café. In these meetings they would get together with the soul intent of talking, asking questions, challenging themselves mentally so that they may begin to get insights spiritually. Socrates chose to meet with the greats of his day, but I find that what makes a mind great to me may not meet the same criterion that was required in the days of Socrates. To me a common mind is just as great as one of superb intellect. The great philosophical truths of Plato can be found in the simple heartfelt lament of the loss of a loved one from a friend. Some times the more eloquent something is put, the more its meaning is lost in just that eloquence. With the great truths it is not eloquence that comes forth in our daily agons, but simple rock hard nuggets of truth that we take with us day by day and add to each time a new one is found.
Just as it is important to challenge ourselves physically, we need to put the same effort into challenging ourselves mentally. We may not be good at math, but knowing that, we should seek to be the best at it that we can. We do not have to enjoy it, when I am training for a race, I do not enjoy the training its self as much as I do the results that occur because of it. I feel no love for running when I am doing 8 X 800’s while trying to maintain a sub three minute pace. And so it will be at times, when we tackle the agon of mental betterment. It will not be easy, it will make us think; keep us up at night with questions we have long avoided.
The questions I have long avoided, due to the fact that I may not know the answer to until the very end, if then, is “why.” Not “Why is the sky blue.” Though to be honest I do wonder the same simple questions I asked as a small child, but why’s that make me question my motives whys that shake my faith. Such as; “Why did I say what I said?” “Why should I believe that my view of Christianity is any more right than say the Mormon’s sitting across from me having lunch?” Why’s are my mental agon, my daily challenge to myself to reach my mental potential.
We all must have our mental hurdle so to speak, that we must daily meet. If we do not meet it, if we shrink from it, we neglect the growth of our mental potential, if we neglect the growth of our mental potential, we can not have any lasting growth in our spiritual or physical potential either. All three are tied into a kind of human trinity; we can not have the one with out the other.
With out striving for our spiritual potential our physical and mental strength is worthless. If our physical potential determines what we do, and our mental potential determines what we know, our spiritual potential determines who we are. When George Sheehan learned he was dying, and through the course of his impending death, he talked of how, any day he was not moved to laugher and tears was a day that is wasted. He did not neglect his spirit, he embraced it, and as much time and effort that went into his physical and mental self, he put into his spiritual self as well.
This is an example we can all follow. Even with death looming over him, he continued to strive to be the best him he could be. He struggled in agonia his very being, or for the mastery of himself.
The trials of the spirit are sometimes the hardest trials we can face, though they all go together, and one can not grow with out the other, spiritual trials seem to be the ones that hit below the belt. With out once having a crisis of faith, can we really say that our faith is genuine? With out knowing the sorrow of pain and want, can we really say that we know joy and fulfillment? Even as we strive to face our physical and mental agons, we must also consciously seek out our daily spiritual agon. We must allow our faith to be tested and to test us, to challenge it against the faith of others, not so we can come out superior, for if that is the result you are seeking, then you are doing more harm to yourself and little good, but to better understand our own beliefs and why we hold them so close, or not so close as the case may be.
If we blindly only look to right beliefs then we will fall into an endless circle of reaffirmation without ever actually challenging or testing what it is we really believe. We can not just wait for life to test us in this, we must daily test ourselves. If you are Christian, read the Koran, or the Satanists Bible, learn what it is that they believe, ask questions of what they believe, compare it to what you believe, see what is similar and what is different. I would challenge anyone of any belief to do this. If we can not read the beliefs of others, how can we know we believe what we do? For, if we were really certain of what we believed, we could read the Tao Te Ching and not fear that it will bring our whole belief system crashing down on us. The same can be said for a Zen Buddhist reading the Bible.
Beyond that, we need to challenge our friends and families to become the best that they can spiritually as they challenge us. By seeking out people who will encourage us to grow in our faith, as well as encouraging them to grow in theirs, we stretch and challenge our spirituality.
We can only achieve so little if we focus on one or two of these things at once, but if we focus on our Physical, Mental, and Spiritual potential as one whole and healthy complete thing, then we are free to become the full person we have the potential to be.
The potential for spiritual, physical and mental growth in me will be different than that of you. I have a friend who is far my superior in mental and spiritual potential, but I have more physical potential. But we do not look at it as a competition of who can achieve more, because that is not what the focus should be on. It is not about achieving more than the ones around you, it is about achieving all that you are capable of achieving. There is no competition except that which is the truest competition of all, competition of self.
And this is where we must seek out the agon. Every decision we make has an effect on who we are to be, in who we are becoming, if we choose to lie when we could have told the truth, or if we choose to forgive when we wanted to avenge, then we are taking steps to becoming the person we are to be. But what must be understood, even up to death, we are always becoming the person we are to be, we are always improving, always being tested, and the choices we make in the little agons day by day, are the things that shape who we are.
George Sheehan once said that the agon is daily, every day we face it. A strain of thought that follows along well with that of Epictetus: “If anything laborious or pleasant, glorious or inglorious be presented to you, remember now is the contest, now are the Olympic Games and they cannot be deferred.” We are continually being tested, we are continually being refined by a refiner’s fire, and it is only through this process that we can become the person we are meant to be. But God has an attention to detail matched by no other, and if we fail a test, we are bound to repeat it again and again and again until we pass it. Only then will we move on.
The Greeks did not just focus all their time and attention on the physical agon of training their bodies though, the also tackled the spiritual and mental gymnastics as well. And truly so must we.
Through bettering our selves mentally by not hiding from the deep questions, but embracing them, by reading the classics, the works of the great minds before us, by asking questions, we open the doors to better ourselves physically and spiritually. Socrates in his day, held a regular meeting with other great minds of his time that later became known as Socrates’ Café. In these meetings they would get together with the soul intent of talking, asking questions, challenging themselves mentally so that they may begin to get insights spiritually. Socrates chose to meet with the greats of his day, but I find that what makes a mind great to me may not meet the same criterion that was required in the days of Socrates. To me a common mind is just as great as one of superb intellect. The great philosophical truths of Plato can be found in the simple heartfelt lament of the loss of a loved one from a friend. Some times the more eloquent something is put, the more its meaning is lost in just that eloquence. With the great truths it is not eloquence that comes forth in our daily agons, but simple rock hard nuggets of truth that we take with us day by day and add to each time a new one is found.
Just as it is important to challenge ourselves physically, we need to put the same effort into challenging ourselves mentally. We may not be good at math, but knowing that, we should seek to be the best at it that we can. We do not have to enjoy it, when I am training for a race, I do not enjoy the training its self as much as I do the results that occur because of it. I feel no love for running when I am doing 8 X 800’s while trying to maintain a sub three minute pace. And so it will be at times, when we tackle the agon of mental betterment. It will not be easy, it will make us think; keep us up at night with questions we have long avoided.
The questions I have long avoided, due to the fact that I may not know the answer to until the very end, if then, is “why.” Not “Why is the sky blue.” Though to be honest I do wonder the same simple questions I asked as a small child, but why’s that make me question my motives whys that shake my faith. Such as; “Why did I say what I said?” “Why should I believe that my view of Christianity is any more right than say the Mormon’s sitting across from me having lunch?” Why’s are my mental agon, my daily challenge to myself to reach my mental potential.
We all must have our mental hurdle so to speak, that we must daily meet. If we do not meet it, if we shrink from it, we neglect the growth of our mental potential, if we neglect the growth of our mental potential, we can not have any lasting growth in our spiritual or physical potential either. All three are tied into a kind of human trinity; we can not have the one with out the other.
With out striving for our spiritual potential our physical and mental strength is worthless. If our physical potential determines what we do, and our mental potential determines what we know, our spiritual potential determines who we are. When George Sheehan learned he was dying, and through the course of his impending death, he talked of how, any day he was not moved to laugher and tears was a day that is wasted. He did not neglect his spirit, he embraced it, and as much time and effort that went into his physical and mental self, he put into his spiritual self as well.
This is an example we can all follow. Even with death looming over him, he continued to strive to be the best him he could be. He struggled in agonia his very being, or for the mastery of himself.
The trials of the spirit are sometimes the hardest trials we can face, though they all go together, and one can not grow with out the other, spiritual trials seem to be the ones that hit below the belt. With out once having a crisis of faith, can we really say that our faith is genuine? With out knowing the sorrow of pain and want, can we really say that we know joy and fulfillment? Even as we strive to face our physical and mental agons, we must also consciously seek out our daily spiritual agon. We must allow our faith to be tested and to test us, to challenge it against the faith of others, not so we can come out superior, for if that is the result you are seeking, then you are doing more harm to yourself and little good, but to better understand our own beliefs and why we hold them so close, or not so close as the case may be.
If we blindly only look to right beliefs then we will fall into an endless circle of reaffirmation without ever actually challenging or testing what it is we really believe. We can not just wait for life to test us in this, we must daily test ourselves. If you are Christian, read the Koran, or the Satanists Bible, learn what it is that they believe, ask questions of what they believe, compare it to what you believe, see what is similar and what is different. I would challenge anyone of any belief to do this. If we can not read the beliefs of others, how can we know we believe what we do? For, if we were really certain of what we believed, we could read the Tao Te Ching and not fear that it will bring our whole belief system crashing down on us. The same can be said for a Zen Buddhist reading the Bible.
Beyond that, we need to challenge our friends and families to become the best that they can spiritually as they challenge us. By seeking out people who will encourage us to grow in our faith, as well as encouraging them to grow in theirs, we stretch and challenge our spirituality.
We can only achieve so little if we focus on one or two of these things at once, but if we focus on our Physical, Mental, and Spiritual potential as one whole and healthy complete thing, then we are free to become the full person we have the potential to be.