Closing Ceremony

Series: Summer 2024

Closing Ceremony

After playing all summer long, the closing ceremony is bound to be spectacular, as the flag-bearers of the participating nations enter the arena, followed by the athletes. The flags of the host countries, foreshadowing the relay for the next games, are hoisted. Then, to the sound of the Olympic anthem, the flame born of the Olympian sun is extinguished, to be rekindled in 4 years’ time by the power of the same sun [1]

It reminds me of something…

A flame that goes out… without really going out, says the Great Perfection.

As we come to the end of our existence, if we look back, these games of life have been quite varied! A little marathon to keep us going, from the first bottles to the choice of college, team soccer with friends to organize the best concert in school, rifle shooting to find a new job, show jumping when health problems came closer and closer together at the end of our lives, a little apnea to dive into the deep absorptions of meditation, and hip hop when it came to integrating them into everyday life. Yes, hip hop has entered the Olympics.

“We hang ephemeral medals on the board of our existence, before a new closing ceremony, a new chance for recognition, and a new oblivion.”

As the Olympic Games draw to a close, the reality of our world vanishes like a fading dream. The sensations of the body come to a halt as breathing stops. Our grasp of emotions gradually returns to its base, and our awareness is reduced to unconsciousness or recognition, depending on our level of training.

A fundamental Tibetan text of the Great Perfection, “Liberation through hearing during the intermediate state” (tib.: bar do thos grol), describes the different stages of the moment of death with even more precision than a choreography by Thomas Jolly. Sounds, lights, heroes and extras, the program is colorful. We’re talking about a red experience, then a white experience, then a black experience, and finally an experience that allows us to recognize our own nature if we’re trained, or a new unfolding of phenomena if the recognition hasn’t happened.

This is why a practitioner of the Great Perfection trains all his life for this moment, so that the recognition of his true nature remains stable and returns to its primordial essence when everything else has faded away.

Without proper training, we’ll go from fearing the moment when everything seems to disappear, to the great confusion of the moment when everything unfolds once more. We’ll be drowned in the ballet of flags and pushed by the crowd of our thoughts that send us here and there, from the hot dog stand to the public restrooms… The flame of our consciousness flickers, recognizing nothing.

This wandering moment is traditionally called the intermediate space of becoming. Tossed about by the recurring tendencies of our emotions and thoughts, without direction, what we think of as a small, isolated flame becomes exhausted and seems to die out. Not recognizing its origin, the flame thinks it’s all over. But the sun of Olympia is always present, and the desire to return to the Games will rekindle a new flame that will cross the oceans and mark the start of the next celebration, a new marathon, a new soccer, shooting, jumping, unexpected disciplines, new medals and a new closing ceremony. And on and on.

If you have to wait 4 years in Olympia, tradition speaks of 49 days between the end of a life and the next birth. At the end of these 49 days of wandering, the (illusory) games of life unfold once more, and we cling to them as if they were real. Our lives depend on each trial, and we alternate between great joys and immense disappointments. We hang ephemeral medals on the board of our existence, before a new closing ceremony, a new chance for recognition, and a new oblivion.

But existence after existence, game after game, with the right instructions and training, it’s possible to learn to recognize each stage of this closing ceremony, from its flags to the nature of its flame, and no longer be the plaything of its infinite reflections.

Then the flame will never be extinguished. And the game will unfold in great perfection.

[1] Olympic flame – Wikipedia                   BACK

You can read the other articles in the series : Opening ceremony – Nenikekamen! –  Hammer throw – The deep end – High diving  – Great Perfection Rowing – Marksman – The art of sword