Discussion: Orienteering and Spirituality

I am interested in Orienteering and Spirituality, and interested to hear what others have to say about it. I'm interested in looking at it in a couple different ways. First, Orienteering as an analogy for Spiritual Search, and second, Orienteering as Spiritual practice.

I don't want to direct the conversation by espousing my own thoughts right away. Anyone care to share their thoughts?

im a bit confused by what you mean?
I would say orienteering can take you to another place on some courses but i wouldn't say it conforms to my typical belief of spirituality.

It's easy to find analogies between O and all aspects of life, and spirituality could be one of those aspects. (The compass as moral direction, the map as your Bible, etc.).

As for O as a Spiritual practice, I try to get into a zen state when running, but I look at that as a way to improve my O result, and not an end in itself.

...But the wilderness is also more than just a place of utter darkness, despair and death. It is also a place not foreign to God. In that awful place, God is!
-- reflections on Mark 1:9-13

A very interesting "Off-course" thread topic. There are many liturgical references to the "wilderness" in the New Testament. You don't have to work too hard to develop some interesting orienteering parallels.

I think it is telling that the most popular time for orienteering meets....is on Sunday mornings. A time when many of us used to pause in our busy weekly routine for spiritual reflection and worship.

I think it is telling that the most popular time for orienteering meets....is on Sunday mornings.

and I just thought it was because most pubs were closed; thus, the orienteers would be available.

Not here in STL. We schedule our Sunday meets in the afternoon because we have quite a few regular churchgoers.

You might be interested in The Solace of Fierce Landscapes by Belden Lane. A fairly practical discussion of Mysticism (which sounds like a contradiction, but really isn't; even theory requires practice). Personally, traditional orienteering requires far too much focus for me to be thinking about anything other than orienteering, but in long (10-30 hour) races, when the body becomes depleted and is then fully exposed to the harshness of the elements, there can be some mystic moments for sure.

as long as the map is distorted, anachronistic, and somewhat fictional...

rogaine = vision quest

I believe most adventure race maps meet all of Neil's criteria.

Spiritual analogies can be made.

The inner peace of running a clean course.
The penalty to be paid for straying off the route.

Oringen is our Mecca.
(Attackpoint is our Bible? ...... Maybe not.)

Perhaps we need to gear some of our recruiting towards people who need to fill a spritual void.

The fact that every map is someone's interpretation of what they see the terrain as... and want others to?