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Tiger Woods returning to Buddhist roots

AFP

Tiger Woods pauses while delivering a statement to friends and family in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, 19 February 2010. Golf superstar Tiger Woods made his first public statement on Friday since taking an indefinite break from the game in December after admitting he cheated on his wife.Reuters/Pool/Lori Moffett/US

Superstar golfer Tiger Woods believes the Buddhist precepts he learned from his Thai mother, Kultida Woods, will help him right a life derailed by his now infamous infidelities.

“I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it,” Woods said Friday in his first public remarks since sordid revelations of his extramarital affairs surfaced in November.

“Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age.

“People probably don’t realise it, but I was raised a Buddhist and actively practice my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years.

“Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint.

“Obviously I lost track of what I was taught,” Woods said.

Woods said that 45 days of in-patient therapy — to which he will return on Saturday — had helped him realise that his life needed a spiritual element.

“In therapy, I’ve learned the points of looking at my spiritual life and keeping in balance with my professional life.

“I need to regain my balance and be centered so I can save the things that are most important to me, my marriage and my children.”

His mother was in the small audience at the TPC Sawgrass as Woods delivered his remarks, which were televised to a global audience of millions. She got a long hug from her son after he spoke, and later said she believed Buddhist tenets could help the superstar golfer put his life back together.

Copyright © 2010 AFP

Published in Herald Sun