Boxing our way to enlightenment

Series: Summer 2024

Boxing our way to enlightenment

In boxing, as in Dzogchen, you have to get used to taking punches – metaphorical punches, of course! After all, we are not masochists… “Although…”, say some people joking in the audience. In Dzogchen, powerful hits are dealt to our habits of all kinds.

Beware, these impacts are always well placed – and sometimes completely unexpected. It’s hard to know where they will come from and how we will react to them. But the “blows” in the Dzogchen – the lightnings bolts of compassion – are there to help us walk the path: to refine our vision of the ultimate nature of reality – free and dynamic, empty and luminous, pervading greatness. And when we play the great game that is the Dzogchen tradition, they enable us to speed up or get back on track. Because our deep-rooted habits and the far-niente of the summer always have a slight tendency to linger, and thus to drag us along – moving forward in slow motion – haven’t you noticed?

“The match is then at its peak. On both sides, between the players, we recognize everything that is going on and progress together. The continuous flow of dynamic play takes place…” 

And bang! A big uppercut to the face, as soon as I step into the ring. It wakes me up. It’s like a foretaste of the introduction to the nature of the mind: unspeakable shock, abysmal surprise, loss of all reference points. The jaw snapped. The whole sull resounded. Stunned! I can hardly see. Sounds reach me like distant echoes. My legs wobble, but I hold on. And then the famous “thirty-six candles” my grandmother spoke of appeared! No time to count them…

And bing! A hook right in the stomach – breathtaking. An immense force that I didn’t see coming. I bend in two. I try to regain my composure. I’ve got to pull myself together or it’s going to end badly… The impacts are raining down. I duck, pull back, keep my guard up. I dodge, absorb and then return the blows. That’s what I’m aiming to do to keep the fight going. 

Without going back to the pugilat (from the Latin pugilatus, from pugnus, “fist”) or the pancrace (from the Greek παγκράτιον – pankrátion – : “all in force” or “in power”) of our Greek ancestors – here we are again at the historical origins of the Olympic Games! – we will stay with their principal and worthy descendant: English boxing. Introduced and codified in England in the 18th century, as its name suggests, each impact, whether delivered or received, has its own name and specificity.

Just for fun – yes, it’s summer and the Olympics are finally here! – we could compare the main types of punch with experiences on the Dzogchen path: bliss (bde ba), clarity (gsal ba) and absence of conceptuality (mi rtog pa). But it’s up to you to decide which of the direct, hook and uppercut corresponds to which experience. Suspense… In any case, you will have to practice first, and repeat the experience over and over again – but in the end, you will see how powerful it is!

So, from stroke to stroke, from experience to experience – or from dive to dive, to use another metaphor – you learn to recognize the nuances, to better anticipate how to position yourself, how to receive and respond, until the two become one. The match is then at its peak. On both sides, between the players, we recognize everything that is going on and progress together. The continuous flow of dynamic play takes place…

 The first directs to the face that left us completely stunned and speechless, unable to react – the first characteristic experiences of being introduced to the primordial nature of reality – were gradually integrated into the course of the fight. They continue to awaken us and allow us to develop great clarity, so that we can continue on our way, supple and lively, alert and vigilant. Loaded with our unfailing motivation, Victory beyond all victory awaits us, with certainty – the great bath of spontaneous presence!

It’s up to the master-trainer, the friend of good, who has already been there and knows all the tricks by heart, to give us the right training exercises, to adjust their frequency and then to adapt the power of the impacts – those of the teaching and those of our illusory opponents, because in Dzogchen we are only fighting against ourselves, and an illusory fight at that! All this to lead us, together with all beings, to the ultimate Victory, to the perfect plenitude of pure awakening!

You can read the other articles in the series : Opening ceremony – Nenikekamen! –  Hammer throw – The deep end – High diving