Resonant Maneuvers as Air: An Aspect of Cultivating Collective Power as the Mandala
The Hunt, or nebulosity of purpose
This article presumes familiarity with the foundation of the series, Resonant Maneuvers: Introduction
In Himalayan frameworks of interiority, Air is the element of vision-as-interaction. Auftragstaktik is the approach of directing a military force by declaring a clear objective with the how wholly delegated to those in the field.
Actionable-waveguide-vision: Auftragstaktik resonating with Air
(OWF-trahks-TAK-tik - literally “mission tactics”)
(1) a clear vision of the future to live into (2) constrained only by the possibility of a path there (3) held individually and collectively.
Relational dispositions: Autonomy, Clarity, Improvisation
The aspect of Auftragstaktik considered below is nebulosity in purpose.
Coupling in the Mandala
There are two forms of coupling in the mandala: the inner cohesion that arises from Einheit (Trust-context-cohesion), and the outer cohesion that comes from Auftragstaktik (Actionable-waveguide-vision):
Trust-context-cohesion: Einheit resonating with Fire
(EYEn-hite - literally “one-ness”)
(1) human trust and (2) sufficient overlapping orientation to (3) allow high-bandwidth dynamic communication.
Relational dispositions: Empathy, Warmth, Rapport
Einheit and Auftragstaktik both create couplings, relational forces among individuals, which in turn generate degrees of alignment in disposition and action. While Einheit cultivates a disposition to act in coordinated ways, Auftragstaktik prescribes form and direction.
Coupling of purpose can range on a spectrum from non-existent through loose and tight to high.
When there is no coupling of purpose, each person acts without external coordination. Consider a group of college friends who have great intimacy and warmth and then go on to live separate lives after graduation, while remaining in contact. You might still find patterns in their individual actions that resonate with their collective past. For example, you might see trends diffusing with no explicit coordination: it seems to each individual that now is the time to get married or have a child, as they see these happen in their friend group.
When there is loose coupling of purpose, we have a lean collective mission, with little guidance as to how to accomplish it. For example, in a hunting party, there can be roles spontaneously taken on, such as the scout observing the landscape, the beater flushing out the animal, and the archer taking the shot. In a loosely coordinated hunting party, these roles are expedient; they shift as the circumstances change. At the start, everyone is a scout, but sighting an animal may reorganise the party into differentiated roles.
When there is tight coupling of purpose, we may find such roles formally assigned rather than spontaneously assumed, but without specific instructions as to how to execute them. The role-bearers are left to their own judgement. Unlike the expedient taking on of roles, here we find weak protocols, which yet allow some personal discretion.
When there is high coupling, we find strong protocols that dictate exactly what form of action takes.
Nebulosity of Purpose
Purpose can vary in nebulosity from a general directionality to a highly specific goal. At the more nebulous end, we find the merest hint of constraint: “We hunt for boar.” At the other end, we find detailed specifications, such as formal assignment of roles in a hunting party and protocols for action.
Purposes act as a waveguide for coupling. They do not strictly dictate how loose or tight the relational coupling is in the mandala, but they do affect the distribution of available couplings. Nebulous purposes make loose couplings more available, well-defined purposes make tight couplings more available.
Purposes, Coupling and Schwerpunkt
A specific, well-defined goal supports Schwerpunkt, an exploitation of an opportunity by concentrating massive force. A nebulous directionality allows possibilities not aforethought to be discovered though dispersed exploration (see Resonant Maneuvers as Water for more on concentration and dispersion.
Regime-change-flow: Schwerpunkt resonating with Water
(SHVARE-poongkt - literally “heavy point”)
(1) energetic concentration that (2) provides sufficient activation energy to (3) change the situation into a new world.
Relational dispositions: Boldness, Vitality, Composure
High coupling forms the mandala into a battering ram. It withdraws energy from the broad environment and focuses it on one place. When the Kairos (the opportune moment) for Schwerpunkt has arrived, concentrating into high coupling accomplishes the change of world the Schwerpunkt aims at.
Loose coupling is generally more appropriate for situations with volatile meanings, implications, and context; tight coupling when these are more stable.
The loosest coupling before coupling dissolves is mere directionality: the vaguest gesture as to what is to be done. “There has been a hurricane, let us all go into the streets and help people”. The tightest coupling is protocol, such as a strict municipal disaster response plan.
Coupling, however, cannot be controlled solely by directive. Auftragstaktik shapes the purposes. Einheit shapes the cohesion. Coupling is a function of both of these in combination.
Reality Rotation
Auftragstaktik gives a purpose with a certain view (salience landscape of affordances). Fingerspitzengefühl can reveal that the landscape has changed. Behendigkeit grants freedom for meaning to rotate into a new reality.
Feeling-contact-participation: Fingerspitzengefühl resonating with Earth
(FING-uh-shpitt-zen-guh-FYOOL - literally “fingertip-feeling”)
(1) intuitive situational awareness that (2) arises from open awareness and (3) active participation.
Relational dispositions: Movement, Curiosity, Transparency
Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness: Behendigkeit resonating with Space
(buh-HEN-dikh-kite - literally “nimbleness”)
(1) ability to break out of currently effective patterns (2) before they lose traction with reality.
Relational dispositions: Skepticism, Play, Relaxation
In its proper working, Auftragstaktik moves by punctuated equilibrium, requiring Einheit to supply the cohesion in which there can even be loose or tight coupling in the mandala. Nebulous purposes within a view suddenly coalesce to a clear goal to create Schwerpunkt, and then often dissolve and re-coalesce under Behendigkeit to reflect the new reality made apparent through Fingerspitzengefühl.
The Hunt
Auftragstaktik: we set out to hunt boar, loosely coupled, no fixed roles.
Einheit: we can move as a hunting party with gaze and tacit communication, knowing each other well.
Fingerspitzengefühl: the bark rubbed off at the base of trees tells us that a herd might be over the hill.
Behendigkeit: fresh tracks and scat reveal a new reality, that a herd may instead be among the trees on the knoll.
Auftragstaktik: we organize ourselves into tightly coupled roles of beaters and archers.
Schwerpunkt: the boars are flushed out, and the archer fires.
Conclusion: Appropriate Nebulosity of Purpose
Auftragstaktik shapes the purposes. Einheit shapes the cohesion. The coupling of the mandala is a function of both, a primary control lies in varying the nebulosity of purpose. Boars are sighted in an unexpected location; roles temporarily become more determinate; the hunting party’s coupling masters the situation. There will be hearty fare tonight.