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A Spirit of Excellence?
rocala
Explorer
Some time ago I attended a Buddhist talk on the subject of influences on our lives. The speaker referred to the everyday influences from the material world and then moved on to Karma. He also touched on a third force which seemed to be some sort of spirit of excellence. It was described as something known to some sportsmen and musicians for example. It is when ones performance seems to be a flow of perfection.
I have not since come across this in my reading, does anybody know what is being referred too? It sounded somewhat like Awen from the literature of modern druidry . Could they be the same thing?
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Comments
It's an interesting one. You do hear sports people talk about being in "the zone" i.e. everything just flows perfectly and time almost seems to slow down.
I can remember back in my running days I would often experience what can only be described as a "runners high". I once trained for about a year in Denver, CO at high altitude then visited San Francisco. I can remember going out for a run one morning and just sprinting mile after mile after mile without feeling tired. I distinctly remember a guy stopping in his tracks and just staring at me. I was like a machine! It was the perfect run. I felt total joy afterwards!
It's well known in computer programming circles, as flow, it usually refers to a state of perfect focus and in-tune execution which seems to inspire a sequence of good decisions. You end up being amazingly productive and the work is of high quality. From my experience in the field, you need a solid chunk of quiet, uninterrupted time, a piece of inspired thinking to kickstart the process, and a bit of luck. Sometimes people in programming just refuse to be interrupted because they are in a state of flow.
But I've never heard it referred to as a "spirit of excellence", I would have characterised it more as a mind state, perhaps a little closer to cosmic consciousness than most.
There is a decent Wikipedia article on it here. It seems to have a surprisingly long history going back some thousands of years. This is more specifically about flow in programming.
Article about mindfulness and flow here: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/2016/08/7-characteristics-of-flow-states-how-mindfulness-brings-us-there.html
Is this similar to the renaissance?
I used to get that "in the zone" feeling with sailing sometimes, everything set just right, feeling one with the boat, a strong connection with the wind and water.
Yes it is similar to Awen, Sport Samadhi, holy spirit, flow, zone, being in the moment, mindfulness etc ...
It is intense or focussed mindfulness. In other words a higher form of mindfulness, trance like except one is more aware rather than unaware ...
Excellence has no need to speak of excellence -- of what is different or what is the same. Excellence is in this way ordinary, don't you think?
Sort of "nifty" without the nifty.
Thanks to everybody for the input and the links.