Buddhism and the Philly Eagles

Well, whaddaya know? The Eagles blew it again! And so did the Ravens, making way for a Super Bowl not worth watching. I was convinced that the Birds would pull it off this year, especially since I won't be able to watch the big game in two weeks. I figured not watching the Super Bowl might be my role in breaking the Eagles cycle of playoff anticlimax (the Phillies won the Series just before I last returned from India, and just before I was born in '80)--and a way of turning my back on one of the things that gets me most worked up. This all reminds me of Buddha's second Noble Truth, which says that suffering is caused by attachment. This applies to anything really: attachment to life, which will inevitably end; attachment to pleasurable experiences (also impermanent); attachment to a particular philosophy bound to be disproved or regarded as irrelevant in time. Attachment yields disappointment is what Buddha meant. The Eagles playoff run (and all the others) was impermanent, bound to come to an end. Even a Super Bowl win would produce only a 'temporary ultimate satisfaction.' Take Giants fans, less than a year after their championship--did they not suffer when Philly eliminated them from the playoffs this time around? But even attachment to detachment will yield dissatisfaction. Denying oneself of life's little pleasures altogether will not work either, for that is sad within itself. And that brings up Buddhism's Middle Path (everything in moderation). Maybe I'll write about that another time, in terms of the Flyers or the Sixers.

Viva Philadelphia!