Resonant Maneuvers as Space: An Aspect of Cultivating Collective Power as the Mandala
Recognition of Transformations as a Bridge to Behendigkeit
This article presumes familiarity with the foundation of the series, Resonant Maneuvers: Introduction
Tempo-fluidity-spaciousness (Behendigkeit) is the ability to break out of currently effective patterns before they lose traction with reality.
It stands above all the other maneuvers: without it, a previously successful pattern carries its own momentum into changed conditions and skids, as a fast car does on a sudden curve.
To improve our ability to stay in contact with shifting circumstances, we can tune our perception. When we see the transformations that are latent in the situation, we see more directions in which it might shift on its own, and in which we might shift it. This is independent of the question of how the shift occurs, which can only be answered with highly contextual action.
Recognitions of Transformation
The transformations:
Initiation: A seed lands in soil. An entrepreneur launches a business.
Ramification: Roots spread and shoots branch outward. The business spawns new product lines and reaches into new markets.
Cohesion: The trunk thickens and bark forms around the branches. The business settles into shared culture and stable processes.
Refinement: The tree is pruned to promote its health. The business sharpens distinct roles and specialized expertise.
Reservoir: Leaves fall and decompose into a soil that can nourish not only its own seeds, but also other plants. Capital and knowledge depart from the business, available to deploy elsewhere.
The recognitions:
Presence: What transformations are in process right now?
Potential: What transformations could arise out of the current conditions?
Intensity: Where is too much transformation is happening, and where is too little?
Contradiction: What is eroding current ongoing processes of transformation?
Limit: What transformations can no longer occur, or no longer be stopped/reverted?
A Matrix of Reflections
The reflections below can be brought to any circumstance to recognize the nature of transformations in a situation. They are better thought of as curious gazes rather than as prompts for discursive answers.
Recognition of Presence
Initiation: What is starting here?
Ramification: What is branching or complexifying here?
Cohesion: What is unifying, aligning, or structuring here?
Refinement: What is being selected, sharpened, or cut away here?
Reservoir: What resources or possibilities are accumulating here?
Recognition of Potential
Initiation: What might be initiated here that would open a direction the whole arrangement needs?
Ramification: Where are different motives bundled in a way that inhibits their motion, and so would benefit from ramification?
Cohesion: Are there paths so diverged that, instead of complementing one another, they counter one another, and so might benefit from cohesion?
Refinement: What might be refined here so that less energy is dissipated away from the central direction?
Reservoir: What is being created right now that could be accumulated for future use?
Recognition of Intensity
Initiation: What has too many beginnings? What has failed to begin?
Ramification: What has ramified past its purpose? What has failed to ramify?
Cohesion: Where is stability creating rigidity? What has failed to cohere?
Refinement: What has become over-refined to the point of impotence? What sprawls, having failed to become refined?
Reservoir: What has remained undeployed potential for too long? What resources have failed to accumulate?
Recognition of Contradiction
Initiation: What is starting that is undermining what is already working?
Ramification: What ramification is diffusing the energy of action?
Cohesion: Where has stability created a bulwark against flow?
Refinement: What refinement has made the system fragile?
Reservoir: What untapped potential is rotting into something else?
Recognition of Limit
Initiation: What is starting that cannot be stopped? What can no longer be started?
Ramification: What complexity cannot be simplified? What branching can no longer happen?
Cohesion: What is stable that cannot be made fluid? What wholeness can no longer be restored?
Refinement: What has been refined beyond reintegration? What distinctions can no longer be drawn?
Reservoir: What potential cannot be actualized? What reserves can no longer be replenished?
You can exercise recognition of transformations in ordinary circumstances, and the same gaze will travel with you into larger ones. Take a walk and adopt one gaze, for example: “where has stability has stopped flow?”
Leaves filling a drain causing a puddle to back up onto the street
A mailbox jammed shut with weeks of mail that no one is collecting
A gate with a padlock on it that looks like it has not been unlocked for a very long time
Over time, every situation becomes abundant in recognitions of transformation, creating manifold affordances for Behendigkeit: actions that break out of currently effective patterns before they lose traction with reality.