Hola!
To answer my own question of
>>So what makes a genuine spiritual context? What meaning, vision and
value defines it?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has just released a new book which to my mind
perfectly answers this question for the modern age.
Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670031968/ref=pd_pym_rvi_1/103-8
626908-9123816
As he points out in this book, zen/tao/I ching (among other cultural and
religious "ways") have long been saying the same things that his
"theory" of Flow expounds.
Might be worth a trip to the bookstore:-)
Best,
pc
: -}==& (Happy face with learner embouchure and short breath playing
shakuhachi!)
(modified from Alcvin Ramos)
-----Original Message-----
From: shakuhachi [mailto:shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu]
Sent: Saturday, 10 May 2003 5:40 PM
To: shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu
Subject: shakuhachi V1 #309
shakuhachi Sat, 10 May 2003 Volume 1 :
Number 309
In this issue:
Spirituality in music, Qi, Flow...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 22:26:02 +1000
From: "Paul Cohen" <paulcohen@ozemail.com.au>
To: <shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu>
Subject: Spirituality in music, Qi, Flow...
Message-ID: <000301c31626$2804d700$dee966cb@deltab>
Hi...new member and beginner Shakuhachi player here.
I found the various recent discussions on the spiritual aspect of
shakuhachi very interesting.
My 0.2 cents...
I think you need to define "spirituality" as it exists in the 21st
century a little more closely, given the wide range of interpretations
possible nowdays...from fuzzy new age to crisp religious fundamentalist.
For my purposes I'll use Danah Zohar's defintion of SQ (Spiritual
Intelligence) from http://www.dzohar.com/bk_sq.htm
"SQ is what we use to develop our longing and capacity for meaning,
vision and value."
This is an extension to the well known IQ and EQ (Emotional
intelligence) models of how we work as (ir)rational and social animals.
SQ, or spirituality, is what really "makes us human" (then again, maybe
it just makes us realise we really are just a temporary aggregation of
vibrating particles in a bigger sea of them...)
Currently, I find the IQ-EQ-SQ model of personal development a handy
framework to make sense out of what are the "interesting times" we are
now living in.
Going outside the context of evolving shakuhachi technical
devlopment,culture, and tradition for the moment(important as this is),
I was more interested to see Steven Casano's post on Flow states and Qi
(http://communication.ucsd.edu/shaku/Mail/0170.html). I've experienced
flow states in areas as diverse as competitive extreme sport (being "in
the zone"), music, and some other more mundane activities. I have not
experienced it with Tai Chi as yet (I'm still a beginner) but hopefully
will do so in the next 20 years or so. The most intense flow states I
remember were in competitive sport, in actual competition
(national/world level) after long periods of "technical" training and
heavy immersion in sports psych visualisation/relaxation techniques
(which are very similar in some ways to meditation). Time dilates,
everything is in synch, and you feel you are "are moving in complete
harmony and naturalness".
Mihaly Csikszentmihaly
(http://www.cs.nyu.edu/courses/spring03/G22.2280-001/csikszentmihalyi.ht
m) work on creativity and flow is worth checking out, especially the
diagram that illustrates the various zones within the challenge/skill
quadrants. I think it has a lot of application to the study of
shakuhachi practice.
As Steven says "...to attain this state one needs to have enough
technical control of what they are doing to eventually transcend the
technical aspects of the piece". This is supported by Ralph Samuelsan
(Annals of ISS Vol 1 pg 33) when he identifies the primary elements of
spiritual honkyoko performance as "through breath, body and finger
posture, and mind-set, the shakuhachi player brings himself to the music
and pursues his practice of suizen in playing honkyoko". IQ, the
rational mind, would relate to musicians mind in attaining a technical
grasp of the instrument...or at least enough of a grasp to start
expressing him/herself. EQ, emotion, relates to the interpretive
performance of pieces, and it is also interesting to note samuluelson's
observation that "Today, many players favour a highly dramatic and
interpretive perfomance style which may, unfortunately, lead them away
from the source - depth - and true beauty of the music".
I'd be very surpised if anybody could obtain a genuine Flow state with
shakuhachi just by noodling around, unless you have already mastered
some deeper aspect of it. Just like Tai Chi (and anything else for that
matter) it's the disciplined framework of learning "something" which
eventually leads to a higher state and finally the ability to perform
"in the zone", and possiblly outside style itself.
Which leads me back to the SQ.
Riley's point of:
"Music making can be spiritual practice, and spiritual practice can
include the making of music. They are, nevertheless, two distinct
activities. They work under different rules. Confusing the two can
result both in bad music and ineffective spiritual practice."
http://communication.ucsd.edu/shaku/Mail/0058.html
I'm not saying that Flow states equate to spiritual "enlightenment", but
I think that there is evidence that they are an indication that some
sort of synergy is happening with the individual based on the
acquisition of a difficult challenge/skill balance. However, it's the
spiritual context of this acquistion which will lead to "enlightenment",
and perhaps ability to enter Flow states readily may be an indication of
good progress along the path. But without a genuine spiritual context it
does not really mean anything beyond a great experience (great as it
is!).
So what makes a genuine spiritual context?
(and personally I don't think instrument type enters the argument at
all). What meaning, vision and value defines it?
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End of shakuhachi V1 #309
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