In the harsh mountain plateaus of Tibet, a unique tradition of mental training developed—lojong, literally "mind training." These practices weren't created for comfortable monastery life but for the difficult path of the spiritual warrior: someone who faces suffering directly, transforms adversity into growth, and develops an unshakeable heart.
The Tibetan approach offers athletes something distinct from other contemplative traditions: specific techniques for converting challenges into advantages, building mental resilience through systematic training, and developing both fierce determination and open compassion.
The Tibetan Warrior Tradition
The Shambhala Warrior
Tibetan culture includes the ideal of the Shambhala warrior—not a fighter who harms others, but someone who faces fear and difficulty with courage and compassion.
The warrior's qualities: - Fearlessness: Not absence of fear, but willingness to face it - Gentleness: Strength without aggression - Genuineness: Authenticity in all situations - Sad and tender heart: Openness to suffering and joy
From Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche:
"The key to warriorship is not being afraid of who you are."
For athletes: This isn't the warrior who destroys opponents—it's the warrior who masters themselves. Competition becomes a vehicle for self-discovery, and challenge becomes opportunity for growth.
The Historical Context
Lojong teachings emerged in Tibet around the 11th-12th centuries, synthesizing Indian Buddhist practices with Tibetan character:
Key figures: - Atisha (982-1054): Indian master who brought these teachings to Tibet - Geshe Chekawa (1101-1175): Compiled the famous "Seven Points of Mind Training" - Atisha's lineage holders: Preserved and expanded the practices
The purpose: Life in Tibet was hard—extreme weather, political instability, physical hardship. The teachings were designed for people facing real difficulties, not comfortable intellectuals. They had to work under pressure.
The Seven Points of Mind Training
Point One: Preliminaries
The teaching: Before training the mind, establish the foundation—recognize the preciousness of this opportunity, the reality of impermanence, the nature of cause and effect.
For athletes: - This athletic career is precious and temporary - Each moment of competition is unrepeatable - Your preparation creates your results - Don't waste the opportunity
Practice: Contemplate the finite nature of athletic career. This isn't morbid—it creates urgency and appreciation. You won't always be able to compete. How do you want to use this time?
Point Two: The Main Practice—Awakening Compassion
The teaching: Develop bodhichitta—the awakened heart that works for benefit of all. This includes both relative practices (kindness, compassion) and absolute practices (recognizing the nature of mind).
The key technique: Tonglen
Tonglen (sending and receiving) is perhaps the most powerful practice from this tradition:
Basic tonglen: 1. Breathe in suffering, difficulty, darkness 2. Breathe out relief, goodness, light 3. Directly opposite of self-protective instinct 4. Builds capacity to face difficulty without flinching
Extended tonglen: 1. Start with your own difficulty—breathe it in, accept it 2. Extend to others with similar difficulty—breathe in their suffering 3. Breathe out relief, healing, goodness to all 4. Dissolve boundaries between self and others
Why this works: Tonglen reverses the habitual pattern of avoiding difficulty and grasping pleasure. By deliberately breathing in what we resist, we build capacity. The thing we feared loses its power.
For athletes:
Pain and fatigue: - Breathe in the burning in your legs - Accept it, don't fight it - Breathe out ease - The pain diminishes when you stop fighting it
Pre-competition anxiety: - Breathe in the anxiety - Accept its presence - Breathe out calm to yourself and all athletes feeling nervous - The anxiety transforms when embraced
Setbacks and failure: - Breathe in the disappointment - Accept that this hurts - Breathe out healing to yourself and all who have failed - The suffering becomes workable
Point Three: Transforming Adversity
The teaching: All circumstances—especially difficult ones—can be used for awakening. Problems become opportunities; enemies become teachers.
Key slogans:
"When the world is filled with evil, transform all mishaps into the path of bodhi." Every difficulty is training material. Nothing is wasted.
"Drive all blames into one." Stop blaming externals. Take full responsibility for your experience.
"Be grateful to everyone." Everyone—especially those who challenge you—is your teacher.
"Seeing confusion as the four kayas is unsurpassable shunyata protection." Even confusion and failure have their place in the larger pattern.
For athletes:
Injury: Not just setback—opportunity for mental training, recovery of perspective, development of patience. What can injury teach?
Bad officials: Not just injustice—training in non-reactivity, acceptance of what cannot be controlled. Can you maintain composure regardless?
Difficult opponents: Not just obstacles—teachers showing you where you need to grow. What are they revealing about your weaknesses?
Practice: When difficulty arises, ask: "How can this become my path? What is this teaching me? How can I use this?"
Point Four: Application Throughout Life
The teaching: Integrate practice into all activities, not just formal meditation. Every moment is practice opportunity.
Key slogans:
"Always maintain only a joyful mind." Not forced happiness, but underlying appreciation even in difficulty.
"Practice the five strengths." - Strong determination - Familiarization with practice - Positive seeds - Self-reproach (checking yourself, not guilt) - Aspiration
"All dharma agrees at one point." All teachings aim at reducing ego-clinging. Is this moment reducing or increasing your self-obsession?
For athletes: Every training session, every competition, every recovery period is practice. The mental training isn't separate from athletic training—it's woven through everything.
Practice: Before practice: "May this training benefit not just me but all athletes." During practice: Full presence, using difficulty as training material. After practice: "May any merit from this effort benefit all beings."
Point Five: Measuring Progress
The teaching: Progress isn't measured by experiences or states but by reduction of ego-clinging and growth of compassion.
Key questions: - Am I less reactive than before? - Do difficulties disturb me less? - Is my compassion growing? - Am I less self-centered?
For athletes: Progress isn't just performance metrics. Are you handling pressure better? Recovering from setbacks faster? Supporting teammates more? Competition revealing character growth?
Point Six: Commitments
The teaching: The practitioner commits to consistent practice and ethical conduct. These aren't restrictions but supports for development.
Key commitments: - Practice consistently - Don't seek recognition - Don't mock others - Don't wait in ambush (for others' failures) - Don't transfer burden to others
For athletes: - Train the mind as consistently as the body - Don't practice mental skills for appearance - Don't tear down opponents or teammates - Don't hope for others' failure - Take responsibility for your own development
Point Seven: Guidelines
The teaching: Practical advice for sustaining practice:
Key slogans:
"Train wholeheartedly." Full commitment, not half-measures.
"Train with impartiality." Apply training to all situations, not just comfortable ones.
"Don't expect results." Practice without attachment to specific outcomes.
"Abandon hope and fear." Hope and fear are two sides of the same coin—both involve not accepting present reality.
For athletes: - Commit fully to mental training - Apply it in practice AND competition AND recovery AND life - Don't practice only to get results - Let go of both hoping for success and fearing failure
Tibetan Techniques for Athletes
Tonglen for Pre-Competition
Practice: 1. Sit quietly before competition 2. Breathe in your own nervousness—accept it 3. Breathe out calm, groundedness 4. Breathe in the nervousness of all athletes everywhere facing competition 5. Breathe out calm to all of them 6. Continue for 5 minutes 7. Feel yourself part of something larger 8. Enter competition with transformed relationship to anxiety
Using Pain as Path
Practice (during difficult training): 1. When pain or fatigue arises, don't resist 2. Breathe it in fully—accept its presence 3. Recognize: "This is what effort feels like" 4. Breathe out ease, but don't escape the sensation 5. Work with the pain rather than against it 6. Notice how acceptance changes the experience
Transforming Opponents
Practice: Before facing a difficult opponent: 1. Visualize them as your teacher 2. What are they here to teach you? 3. Send them genuine well-wishes (this isn't weakness—it's freedom) 4. Recognize: defeating them serves your growth; their challenge is a gift 5. Enter competition without hatred, with appreciation
Working with Failure
Practice (after loss or setback): 1. Sit with the disappointment 2. Breathe it in—accept that this hurts 3. Breathe out healing 4. Extend to all who have failed—you're not alone 5. Ask: "What is this teaching me?" 6. Find the gift in the difficulty 7. Move forward without carrying bitterness
Daily Mind Training
Morning practice (5 minutes): 1. Set intention: "Today I use all circumstances as training" 2. Brief tonglen: breathe in any difficulty, breathe out benefit 3. Aspiration: "May my training today benefit all athletes"
Evening reflection (5 minutes): 1. Review the day: Where did I use difficulty as path? 2. Where did I resist, complain, avoid? 3. What can I learn? 4. Aspiration: "May tomorrow's practice deepen"
The Warrior's Heart in Competition
Fierce Compassion
Tibetan tradition includes wrathful deities—fierce expressions of compassion that cut through obstacles. The warrior's heart isn't soft in a weak way; it's soft and fierce simultaneously.
For athletes: You can compete with full intensity without hatred. You can fight to win without needing to destroy. Fierceness and compassion aren't opposites—they combine in the warrior who competes with everything while maintaining basic goodness.
No Enemy
The teaching: Ultimately, there is no enemy. Opposition is just form that training takes.
For athletes: Your opponent isn't your enemy—they're your partner in the training called competition. Without them, you couldn't test yourself, couldn't grow, couldn't discover what you're capable of. They deserve gratitude, not hatred.
Practice: Before competition, mentally bow to your opponent. "Thank you for being here. Thank you for challenging me. May we both perform our best."
Genuine Confidence
The teaching: True confidence doesn't come from accomplishment but from connecting with basic goodness—the fundamental worthiness that doesn't depend on results.
For athletes: Your worth isn't determined by wins or losses. Beneath all the performance and comparison, there's something basically good that competition reveals rather than creates. This is unconditional confidence.
Modern Scientific Parallels
Cognitive Reappraisal
Tibetan practice: Transform adversity by changing how you relate to it.
Scientific validation: Cognitive reappraisal—reinterpreting emotional stimuli—effectively regulates emotion. The brain responds differently to challenges framed as opportunities versus threats.
Compassion Training
Tibetan practice: Develop compassion through systematic cultivation.
Scientific validation: Compassion meditation changes brain structure and function. Compassion training increases positive emotions and reduces stress response.
Acceptance-Based Approaches
Tibetan practice: Breathe in difficulty rather than resisting it.
Scientific validation: Acceptance of difficult emotions is more effective than avoidance or suppression. Experiential acceptance reduces suffering.
Purpose and Connection
Tibetan practice: Training for benefit of all beings.
Scientific validation: Purpose and social connection improve well-being and performance. Prosocial motivation enhances outcomes.
Key Takeaways
- Transform adversity into path—every difficulty is training material
- Tonglen reverses avoidance—breathing in what we resist builds capacity
- No situation is wasted—all circumstances can serve development
- The warrior has a tender heart—fierceness and compassion combine
- Opponents are teachers—competition is partnership in growth
- Practice is constant—mind training weaves through all activities
- Basic goodness is unconditional—your worth doesn't depend on results
Return is a meditation timer for athletes walking the warrior's path. Build the fearless, tender heart that transforms challenges into strength. Download Return on the App Store.