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Everyone agrees that when we have a lot of thoughts while swinging, poor results follow. Why wouldn’t we want to be thinking during our swing? Why wouldn’t thinking help our body to do what our mind wants it to do? To understand this dynamic, we need to understand different aspects of mind and how they relate to the action of our body swinging a golf club. The many expressions of mind can be described in various ways.

The best preparation for any shot is to have an image that is as complete and precise as possible. For putting, imagine the ball rolling the full distance to the hole. See in your mind’s eye the way it will change speed and direction. See the path it will take all the way to the exact point on the edge of the hole where the ball will fall in. In the following pages are techniques, exercises, and routines that will help you feel confident over any putt.

Chris, a good junior golfer, came for a lesson. He complained that his swing gave him trouble when he “got quick at the top.” That usually refers to an especially quick start to the downswing. It sometimes reflects a premature transition, starting the downswing before the backswing is complete. He showed me his swing routine, how he approached and set up to the ball, then how he swung.

Playing the game of golf can inspire us to embody gentleness, inquisitiveness, and fearlessness. Gentleness means being kind to ourselves and considerate of others. We can take delight in conducting ourselves as gentle men and gentle women in golf and in life. Fearlessness means being more curious than afraid, trusting in our basic goodness and manifesting unconditional confidence in every situation we encounter.

I’d like to congratulate you. You have a perfect swing. Now, you’re probably thinking, “What’s that about? He’s never seen my swing.” Well, I don’t need to, because I didn’t say the perfect swing (which, by the way, doesn’t exist, since we are all as different as snowflakes). I said a perfect swing, and everyone has one. Your perfect swing is the best one you can make today.

Everyone has comfort levels. They are the levels of performance or spheres of activity that are familiar to us. We’re comfortable playing in the B-flight, we’re comfortable chasing the leader from behind, or we’re comfortable just making the cut. We’re comfortable playing our usual game. Sabotage is the undermining (through underhanded interference) of a project or mission. Self­-sabotage doesn’t make sense—why would we undermine our own work to reach an important goal (like breaking 80)?

There is a very clear correspondence between our state of mind and how our body manifests. When our mind has anxiety or fear, our body feels tight and agitated. When we are discouraged or depressed, our body feels heavy and sluggish. When we are confident and at ease, our body feels energetic and responsive. Our mental state affects our posture, how our body looks as we stand or walk.

Every golfer has had the experience of setting up to a shot and not feeling completely comfortable with some aspect of it. We might have a vague feeling that something is not quite right, or we might know what’s wrong but not bother to do anything about it. In either case, when we “go ahead and hit it anyway,” the result is usually terrible. I call that kind of shot an “anyway.” Anytime we can reflect on a shot and say, “You know, I knew better,” that was an anyway.

A man from town asked an old farmer to be on a citizens’ committee that would work on improving the town. The farmer asked, “Do you want me to be involved or committed?” Puzzled, the man asked, “What’s the difference?” The farmer answered, “It’s like a bacon and eggs breakfast. The chicken is involved, but the pig is committed.” Commitment involves believing without a doubt that the plan you’ve made is the best one.

A musician came for instruction from the Buddha in practicing meditation. He asked, “How should I hold my mind when I practice? Should I try to concentrate hard and keep it under tight control, or should I relax and let it wander wherever it wants to go?” The Buddha answered the musician with a question. “When you tune your instrument, do you make the strings too tight or too loose?” The musician replied, “Neither too tight nor too loose. I make them just so.”

Our actions are shaped by our intentions. When I ask golfers the purpose of making a golf swing, most of them answer, “To hit the ball.” Yet focusing on the ball as the target is a problematic perspective. Thinking of their job as “hitting the ball” instead of “sending the ball to a target” is probably why you see some high handicappers make quite acceptable practice swings and then get up to the ball and swing like they’re chopping wood.

Shambhala is a legendary kingdom that is a model of enlightened society, like the story of Camelot and its ideals of genuineness, confidence, and dignity. Shambhala warriorship is not about conquering others and wreaking destruction. It is about having the bravery to overcome aggression, to manifest fearless gentleness. The fundamental training of a Shambhala warrior is based on the Buddhist practices of mindfulness and awareness in action.

After taking your seat with good posture, direct your attention to your breathing. Notice the feeling of your torso expanding and contracting, the sensation of the breath flowing through your nostrils. It is important that you don’t manipulate your breathing. However your breath flows, whether deep or shallow, short or long, just notice it with bare attention.

Often a golfer will have a bad start to a round and get completely depressed, assuming that the day will go that way. His discouragement creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. But since each hole is physically independent of the others, isn’t it possible that the rest of the round will be the best he ever played? Sometimes we struggle and struggle until late in the round when we say, “Oh, I give up. I’m just going to get up there and hit it.” And to our surprise the shot comes off well.

A young monk was spending some time each day in meditation and contemplation. He wondered how many of his thoughts during those sessions were virtuous (about doing good deeds) or non-virtuous (about deeds based on hatred, greed, or prejudice). He collected a pile of pebbles and put them in front of himself, and he placed a bowl to his left and another to his right. As he meditated, he would put a pebble in the left-hand bowl when he recognized a virtuous thought.

This is one of the many paradoxes of golf. The control we want to get refers to consistent accuracy, control over where the ball will go. The control we have to give up is the kind we exercise when we “steer” a shot. Steering is an expression of the thinking mind trying to control the swing to make sure we get the results we want. Paradoxically, the results we get usually range from not very good to terrible.

Once there were two monks walking along a path through the woods. When they came to a stream, they encountered a young woman dressed in fine silks, unable to get across without ruining her clothes. One of the monks offered to carry her on his back. She climbed on, they all crossed the stream, and on the other side he set her down. She thanked him, and the two monks continued on their way. The monastery to which these monks belonged had a rule prohibiting them from touching women.

Players often rely on swing thoughts, but as we discussed earlier, thinking while swinging isn’t such a good idea. It’s preferable to have a swing image, one that includes at least the path and finishing point of the ball, but can also include the feel of the swing. For players who need a swing thought, it is better to have one that describes what you intend to do rather than how you intend to do it.

Author Michael Quetting shares the hilarious and moving true story of how he became a father to seven rambunctious goslings - and the surprising things he learned along the way. Starting right at the beginning, with the eggs, his journey takes him from the incubator all the way to the airstrip, where he must attempt to teach the geese to fly as part of an ambitious scientific research initiative for the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, which tracks animal migrations around the world.

From being nicknamed 'God of offside' to charting the future of team India, Sourav Ganguly is undoubtedly one of the greatest captains to have played for the country. His records speak for himself: 18,000+ international runs and 11,000 runs in ODI matches including 22 centuries with an average of 41.02! Moreover, Sourav still has the highest win/loss ratio (even higher than M.S. Dhoni’s) and also holds the record of the highest number of wins overseas as a test captain. What makes Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, the 'Prince of Kolkata', such a winner?