I don’t remember when I first took notice of Taoism, but as long as I can remember I have found myself drawn to the poetic but inscrutable verses of the Tao Te Jing.
Long before I knew of flow states, I was attracted to the idea of some possible universal flow one could tap into and find ease with. I was raised in a contentious, striving culture though, and I deeply believed you had to push hard and fight for what you wanted. The deep acceptance asked for by Taoists, receiving and welcoming all things as they come, seemed too foreign to me. Even as I type this I know I still harbour lingering beliefs which compel me to resist and compete. The doctrine of non-action, Wu Wei, was about as far from my cultural background and personal leanings as a philosophy could be. But still, something seemed profoundly right in it.
Years of exploring these ideas and observing the world around me has furthered my understanding while wearing away my initial resistance to them. Exploring the psychology of flow states, the dynamics of systems theory and the emergent behaviours of ecology all have given me nudges in the direction of acceptance and accommodation.
Taoism is a lived and practiced wisdom tradition, with specific practical skillsets which help us to gain understanding of the philosophy and learn how the ideas can be applied to our embodied experience. Martial arts, qi gong, meditation, even tea drinking are vehicles of the transmission of these principles. I love the quote attributed to Gary Player, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” Through lucky moments of flow state I first experienced what I have come to call ‘Attunement’. I describe Attunement as the harmonious interaction of two or more dynamic systems, with each responding naturally and enhancing the performance of one or more of those systems. What was luck has become more consistent as I seek to recreate the conditions that offered this experience. ‘Lo and behold’, the more I experience Attunement, the more the works of Taoist authors seem to me to be providing clues to help us cultivate this experience.
I believe throughout nature systems are adapting to and accommodating one another’s behaviours and needs all the time, and this is itself key to the success of life.
As is often the case, as humans we may need to be more conscious of processes that are likely automatic for many other living things. This begins with developing a keen awareness of the behaviour of another dynamic system, such as another living being. If we accommodate to its changes and reactions rather than forcibly controlling or restricting its behaviour, we can with minimal force guide that other system and ourselves in the performance of a shared behaviour. The behavior can be beneficial for one or both systems, but critically it is not contending against the natural behaviours and reactions of either system.
There are innumerable examples of this in our lives and I would propose it is an essential expression of Taoist philosophy. Examine a conversation. If one party is speaking over another, not listening, forcing a particular line of thought, there is no attunement and poor communication. Likewise if someone is not engaged with listening, responding to, and flowing with the ideas and reactions of the other, they are not realising the highest expression of their interaction. Leadership, dance, fighting, love-making all exhibit easy to grasp expressions of this principle.
Going further from this perspective, I realised a crucial insight: attunement begins within ourselves. Other people and dynamic environments aside, just being in touch with the dynamic processes active in ourselves and working with rather than against them can dramatically change our relationship with our own practices.
I found this in parkour when I stopped seeking to force myself to do particular moves but let my training arise from the interaction of my environment with my own body’s feedback. If I want to try something, I create the conditions where my body will begin to feel curious and capable to do the movement, and wait for that moment, rather than forcing it with an act of will.
We talk about making something an extension of ourselves, especially with tools and instruments. Attunement really goes one step further, as we become an extension of something or someone else. Riding a horse or surfing a wave both exemplify the skillful engagement of one dynamic system with another non-human or even non-living example. Sometimes we can try to be coercive and force our way, but we will always have the greatest success when working with rather than against the other system. The highest performances in many disciplines arise from moments of dynamic attunement and seemingly effortless flow.
Personally, I think I’m a novice at this particular approach to attaining flow states; states where you lose a rigid idea of self as you become fully absorbed by the task you are performing and seem to perfectly adapt to every challenge as it arises. I have had enough experiences of it now to have a sense for how to put it into practice but ultimately many elements of attunement seem esoteric or ineffable.
I believe attuned states, as with many other exceptional states, engage intuitive pattern recognition in the brain at a level we’re not able to consciously understand or even recognise. This doesn’t require esoteric explanations but the experience itself feels like it should. By trying to ‘be one’ with someone or something else we may be priming our mind to engage much more sensitive and targeted pattern recognition. This will probably be more than we can process consciously, but we may find ourselves reacting to cues we can’t explain and reacting in ways that don’t seem to arise from our own ideas.
This is, I believe, a fundamentally creative state. Attempting to adapt to the subtle signals of another system, we have opportunities for creative and divergent exploration unhindered by what are normally preconceived notions and plans. This is common to many examples of flow state, where sometimes creative solutions to problems are found on the fly while in this intense state of concentration and response.
One possible key to this state is specifically attempting to let go of preconceived expectations and plans. The more we approach a situation with a fixed notion of how to act the less we will be able to attune to it as it actually is. A mantra I have used in parkour for a long time is “I have no idea what is going to happen.” For me this is often enough to trigger heightened awareness as my brain realises it needs to pay much closer attention.
Some Taoist concepts seem instrumental to understanding attunement. These three, often translated as non-doing, non-desiring, and non-knowing deserve to be unpacked. Based on the translation work of Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall these can be better understood as:
Wu Wei: Acting without forcing against the nature (De) of things.
Wu Yu: Desiring only what is present and available rather than what is absent.
Wu Zhi- Knowing intuitively without resorting to fixed concepts and intellectual frameworks.
These may be difficult to maintain all the time in full and I believe Taoists would consider such a state enlightenment. Still, during an act of attuned flow state this seems very reasonable. We don’t try to force the system we are working with; dynamic systems have complex feedback loops and a small amount of input can initiate the behaviour of that system to change dramatically so the slightest influence guides the system to behave naturally, aligned with its inherent tendencies. We don’t remain attached to any desired outcome, instead appreciating the opportunity afforded by each moment as the constantly fluctuating actions of both systems offer new possibilities to adapt to constantly. Finally we know in an intuitive way, not seeking to engage our intellectual mind, which would pull us from the flow-state. Instead as we react from cognitively deep and uncannily sensitive pattern recognition, we experience a sense of knowing the other system(s) more akin to how we normally ‘know’ ourselves.
I feel fresh on my journey to understand the concepts of attunement to the level of Taoist masters but even the small gains I have seen have had huge meaning in terms of the richness of my experience.
I invite you to question your own compulsion to control and coerce and experiment with guiding through accommodation. Let go of some of your fixed objectives and open yourself to the opportunities arising in the moment. May the winding words of Laozi and Zhuangzi grow meaningful for you as you find space in yourself to trust and attune.