108 • FLOWOn a day like this, or days when it’s crystal clear, I just sit in the train
and look over the roofs of the city, because it’s so fascinating to see the
city, to be above it, to be there but not be a part of it, to see these forms
and these shapes, these marvelous old buildings, some of which are
totally ruined, and, I mean, just the fascination of the thing, the curiosity
of it. ... I can come in and say, “Coming to work this morning was like
coming through a Sheeler precisionist painting.” Because he painted
rooftops and things like that in a very crisp, clear style. ... It often
happens that someone who’s totally wrapped up in a means of visual
expression sees the world in those terms. Like a photographer looks at
a sky and says, “This is a Kodachrome sky. Way to go, God. You’re
almost as good as Kodak.”Clearly, it takes training to be able to derive this degree of sensory
delight from seeing. One must invest quite a bit of psychic energy in
looking at beautiful sights and at good art before one can recognize the
Sheeler-like quality of a roofscape. But this is true of all flow activities:
without cultivating the necessary skills, one cannot expect to take true
enjoyment in a pursuit. Compared to several other activities, however,
seeing is immediately accessible (although some artists contend that
many people have “tin eyes”), so it is a particular pity to let it rest
undeveloped.
It might seem like a contradiction that, in the previous section,
we have shown how Yoga can induce flow by training the eyes not to
see, whereas we are now advocating the use of the eyes to make flow
happen. This is a contradiction only for those who believe that what is
significant is the behavior, rather than the experience to which it leads.
It does not matter whether we see or we not-see, as long as we are in
control of what is happening to us. The same person can meditate in
the morning and shut out all sensory experience, and then look at a
great work of art in the afternoon; either way he may be transformed
by the same sense of exhilaration.
The Flow of Music
In every known culture, the ordering of sound in ways that please the
ear has been used extensively to improve the quality of life. One of the
most ancient and perhaps the most popular functions of music is to
focus the listeners’ attention on patterns appropriate to a desired mood.
So there is music for dancing, for weddings, for funerals, for religious
and for patriotic occasions; music that facilitates romance, and music