“Behold the universe in the glory of God, and all that lives and moves on earth. Leaving the transient, find joy in the Eternal; set not your heart on another’s possession. Working thus, a man may wish for a life of a hundred years. Only actions done in God bind not the soul of man. There are demon-haunted worlds, regions of utter darkness. Whoever in life denies the Spirit falls into that darkness of death. The Spirit, without moving, is swifter than the mind; the senses cannot reach Him: He is ever beyond them. Standing still, He overtakes those who run. To the ocean of His being, the spirit of life leads the streams of action. He moves, and He moves not. He is far, and He is near. He is within all, and He is outside all. Who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own Self in all beings, loses all fear. When a sage sees this great Unity and his Self has be come all beings, what delusion and what sorrow can ever be near him?”
— Isa Upanishad
The text above is close to what modern psychology describes as a creative ‘flow state’: the merging of ‘subject’ and ‘object’, that is, our internal world and our external world. This is where ‘Spirit,’ ‘Prana,’ ‘Chi’, or our breathing-patterns, moves fast, swiftly, and flows naturally, both connecting and liberating our mind and body while allowing us to see things more clearly.
The requirements to reach this ‘flow state’, as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow, and supported by modern research, include:
1. Clear Goals with a Step-by-Step Plan: There must be clear objectives or a sense of purpose to guide your actions. You cannot be confused about what to do or what to focus on.
2. Immediate Feedback: You need to receive immediate feedback about your progress, helping you adjust and stay on track. If you are canceled or if the outside world, for some reason, does not communicate clear, relevant, objective and correct feedback to you, it becomes difficult to reach this state.
3. Balance Between Challenge and Skill: The activity should be challenging enough to engage you but not so difficult that it becomes frustrating, or so easy that it becomes boring. A demanding situation that requires your full focus helps maintain the balance.
4. Intense Focus: A high level of concentration and complete immersion in the task is essential. One cannot be distracted or misguided by other things.
5. Loss of Self-Consciousness: You become so absorbed in the activity that concerns about yourself and others fade away. The ‘doer’ becomes the ‘deed’, in a sense: *”I don’t play the piano; I am the music.”
6. Sense of Control: You feel a sense of mastery or agency over your actions. True Self-confidence emerges.
7. Timelessness: Time seems to either speed up or slow down; you lose awareness of its passage. Our deepest creative or creating aspect is often said to be experienced as ‘timeless’.
8. Intrinsic Motivation: The activity is inherently rewarding, and the motivation to continue comes from the experience itself rather than external rewards. You love what you are doing, and it becomes more about the journey than the goal. Nevertheless, when you can objectively measure progress and results, the dopamine reward system kicks in.
An interesting religious parallel is that, in Islamic tradition, Jesus is referred to as ʿĪsā (عيسى), the Arabic name for Jesus. Similarly, this Isa Upanishad, one of the central texts in Hindu philosophy, also bears the name “Isa.”
In Sanskrit, “Isa” translates to “Lord” or “Ruler,” referring to the divine essence that permeates the universe. While it might be a coincidence that this Islamic expression also refers to Jesus, He also symbolizes , as we all know, the Lord of all creation in Christian thought.
The first philosopher, Heraclitus, said: “Panta Rhei,” which means “everything flows.” He illustrated this idea with the statement: “A man cannot step into the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.”
In the Spirit of Discovery, The Guide
