Bear Bryant was the most winning coach in college football history. He was good.  He knew what was up. I am not sure he had much of a following among American Buddhists at the time. There might have been some serene, flexible, shaved headed folks in the stands at the ‘Bama games in the 70’s and 80’s leaping to their feet in exultation every time the Crimson Tide gained a few yards.  I never saw them. But it would have been as handy for them to have heeded Coach Bryant’s urgent advice about training.

 

He told his players this:

 

“The will to win is nothing. Everyone has it. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”

 

He was talking to extremely motivated high performers about the competition they would face at the top rank of collegiate athletics. Naturally, they would face people who had the will to win. That is how those people got to face them to begin with.

 

What Coach Bryant instilled in his players was the present-time awareness of the impending challenge. And the fact that in the immediate presence of that challenge, it would be too late to prepare. He made sure his players knew there would be no way to suddenly rise to the demand of that critical moment and somehow magically surpass anything you had ever done before.

 

It may be that a young mom will suddenly find it in her power to lift a car off her newborn baby. But you don’t see a lot of that. You don’t see the moms saying, no problem, if the baby is playing in the street, I will just go ahead and lift a car or other vehicle off the little fella in the event that one should roll on him.

 

And I would not count on pulling that off yourself. In competition. On the field of battle. On the street. Or in our own inevitable meeting with death. We cannot expect to rise to the overwhelming demands of that moment without the will to prepare to face it, and to prevail.

 

We need to have that will now, and act upon it every day.

 

There are forces arrayed around us now that would take away our freedom and our lives. Materialists, filled with envy at those who seem to get their money for nothing and their chicks for free. Willing to do anything from enslaving people to poisoning the world to step up a notch and get more. The ambitious, who rage and conspire against those who seem lightly poised on the rungs of status above them. The lonely, seeking community with a group of imaginary ideal strangers, but disappointed, finding people close at hand inadequate.  Sybarites, tearing down the walls of devotion and destroying the lives of children. Terrorists, delighting in the prospect of a crimson tide of their own making, delighting as they imagine it engulfing the cities of their enemies.

 

They all excuse themselves or justify themselves or make themselves heroes by saying that this is the way of the world. That this is a provisional state of unhappiness for some that will lead, long term, to happiness for me and mine. That the strong will survive. That it’s you or me. Good or evil. And I will be the one to decide.

 

We are facing those folks.

 

But by far the most serious threats we face are from our own heart and mind. These are more dangerous than a world of tyrannies and poisons.

 

We cannot eradicate them. But we can face them with courage and skill, and we can prevail.

 

We cannot do it by passivity, by saying, I will do nothing, or by hoping for the best. We cannot do it by engaging in the same mental poisons – envy, anger, desire – that are driving the destroyers. We can only do it by a kindness and strength which remain at the service of other beings and which are so powerful and skillful that they are not infected by agitation, madness, selfishness or the desire for revenge.

 

We can only accomplish that by consistent training in ethical conduct, clear mind, and deep understanding of what causes the trouble around us and within us and how we can combat it decisively.

 

Hope will not bring us to the threshold of enlightenment. We cannot wait until the moment of death to prepare for it. We cannot wait until the moment of temptation, despair or distraction, and just figure it out somehow. Those moments will come. We will face enormous challenges. Unbearable delights and difficulties are in store.

 

For real. For you and for me.  We are in this together. We need to prepare.

 

The will to triumph over these challenges means nothing.  The will to prepare to win means everything.

 

One of the names of the Buddha is The Victor. He prepared to win for infinite eons and for the first part of his adult life. He was not mellow or easy-going or just good with everything.

 

He had battles to win and enemies to destroy. They are the same ones we are facing, right now.