In the Zone

by Gregory Allen Butler

In the zone, everything flows. We get beyond the mind and our preconceptions of how things are and we become participants in the flow of life, or perhaps you might call it, the dance of life. The Indian sage Patanjali is credited to having said over 2000 years ago, "Dormant forces, faculties, and talents come alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be." He was referring to what we now call "The Zone," or effortless mastery.

This dancing with the universe is possible when your intuition takes over from the mind. You forget the self and tune into the flow of the Universal Self. There is no self-consciousness at these moments because your consciousness is so overwhelmed by the presence of this all-knowing presence. When we surrender to this, an intelligence beyond imagination takes over. In the zone is mysticism blended with peak performance.

It's like Albert Einstein dropping in to help a high school student write a physics term paper on relativity. Or in real life, Mozart "taking dictation" as he composed his music, or Michael Jordan hitting six straight 3-pointers in the 1992 championship series game against Portland, or Johnny Vander Meer throwing two consecutive no-hitters for the Cincinnati Reds in 1938. Two straight no-hitters! In his case, being in the zone almost became an addiction.

One of the most consistent people in sports, as far as getting in the zone, was Bill Russell. In his book, Second Wind: The Memoirs of an Opinionated Man, he shares with his readers, "It was almost as if we were playing in slow motion. During those spells I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken. Even before the other team brought the ball in bounds, I could feel it so keenly that I'd want to shout to my teammates, 'It's coming there!'--except that I knew everything would change if I did. My premonitions would be consistently correct, and I always felt then that I not only knew all the Celtics by heart but also all the opposing players, and that they all knew me."

So how do we get in the zone? It can't be forced or demanded. It seems to happen to athletes, performers, writers, and artists who are proficient enough in their chosen field that they don't have to think. It is thinking that gets in the way.

Harmony with the present moment is the key. When the artist can lose himself in his art (get beyond the mind) then a work of genius can be created. But who is the genius?

Although we can't demand this inspired effortless mastery, we can create the conditions that are required for it to manifest in our life. The first one is the absence of fear. Fear is a product of the mind and the mind needs to take a back seat for The Zone to take over. "Non-attachment is also a prerequisite. When our mind identifies with the "doing of the impossible" it is over. We can't say "look at me, look at me."

The following story is a perfect illustration of what it means to be in the zone: The German philosopher, Eugen Herrigel, studied archery with a Zen master in Japan, and was told to wait while drawing the bow until something beyond his normal reflexes released the arrow. One day after Eugen made a perfect shot the Master made a deep bow and acknowledged the shot with a few words, "Just then, 'It' shot." After Eugen made a whoop of delight, the Master responded: "What I have said was not praise, only a statement that ought not to touch you. Nor was my bow meant for you, for you are entirely innocent of this shot. You remained this time absolutely self-oblivious and without purpose in the highest tension, so that the shot fell from you like a ripe fruit. Now go on practicing as if nothing had happened."

Herrigel said about this phenomenon after more shots occasionally came off perfectly: "Only unbroken equanimity can accept it in such a way that it is not afraid to come back."

It's as if this super-conscious presence that takes over is repelled by the noise that our mind makes. Only when it is quiet will it dare show up.

The psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi studied these experiences for years, doing research with elderly Korean women, Indian and Thai adults, Tokyo teenagers, Navaho shepherds, farmers in the Italian Alps, and workers on assembly lines in Chicago. He said the main dimensions of being in the zone were "deep concentration, clarity of goals, loss of a sense of time, lack of self-consciousness, and transcendence of a sense of self…recognized in more or less the same form by people the world over."

In other words, the experience of being in the zone comes when we are connected to our source of being, free from the distractions and clamoring of the mind. It is a state of being truly alive. This state of receptivity to the divine, to that Presence, is a state of being that gives one the conviction that they are no longer the doer. Words of Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita come to mind: "It is an eternal portion of Me that has become the living being in a world of living things."

Being in the zone happened to me once when I was a music student. I was in a solo competition with musicians that were lifetimes ahead of me in talent. There were about 40 of us. I was in awe of most of them. But something happened when it was my turn to perform in front of the judges (members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.) I forgot myself. Time stood still, and the performance was beyond anything I ever dreamed possible. Technically, the piece was very demanding but everything fell into place. I won first place. I was a little bit embarrassed when I accepted the award because I knew I was not in the same league with these other musicians. I had to just accept that it happened. I had told my girlfriend the night before that my only goal was not to embarrass myself too badly.

When you have this experience, follow the advice of the Zen Master: "Go on practicing as if nothing has happened." Now that is being in the zone!