How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | Page 96

Religion and spirituality
Csíkszentmihályi may have been the first to describe this concept
in Western psychology, but as he himself readily acknowledges
he was most certainly not the first to quantify the concept of flow
or develop applications based on the concept.
For millennia, practitioners of Eastern religions such as
Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism have honed the discipline of
overcoming the duality of self and object as a central feature of
spiritual development. Eastern spiritual practitioners have
developed a very thorough and holistic set of theories around
overcoming duality of self and object, tested and refined through
spiritual practice instead of the systematic rigor and controls of
modern science.
The phrase being at one with things is a metaphor of
Csíkszentmihályi's flow concept. Practitioners of the varied
schools of Zen Buddhism apply concepts similar to flow to aid
their mastery of art forms, including, in the case of Japanese Zen
Buddhism, Aikido, Cheng Hsin, Judo, Honkyoku, Kendo and
Ikebana. In yogic traditions such as Raja Yoga reference is made
to a state of flow in the practice of Samyama, a psychological
absorption in the object of meditation. Theravada Buddhism
refers to "access concentration," which is a state of flow achieved
through meditation and used to further strengthen
concentration into jhana, and/or to develop insight.
In Islam the first mental state that precedes human action is
known as al-khatir. In this state an image or thought is born in
the mind. When in this mental state and contemplating upon an
ayat or an imprint of God, one may experience a profound state
of Oneness or flow whereby the phenomena of nature, the
macrocosmic world and the souls of people are understood as a
sign of God. Also, the teaching in the Qu'ran of different nations
of people existing so that they may come to know each other is

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