Fine tuning
The wonder and the challenge of aspiring to be present again and again and again requires us to keep fine tuning. Again and again and again.
Fine tuning our speech, refining our understanding, re-connecting our feelings.
Because each moment (the present) is different from the one before and the next one. How you are (well-slept and cheerful? well-slept and cranky?), who you are talking to (a friend, someone on the bus, your manager, the unknown customer service person on the phone), the weather (blustery and bright? blustery and torrential rain?), the economy (you can provide your own examples), what time of day it is…. All these factors and more present ever-changing situations for us to try to show up more appropriately, skilfully, kindly, wisely.
To go back to the image of fine tuning, a stringed instrument might come to mind. For each practice, each performance, the instrument must be tuned to take into account the atmosphere, the piece being performed, how long it has been since it was last tuned, the age of the strings… It’s not a case of ‘got it right once, that’s it for a lifetime’. Things go out of tune (even with the best intention), strings break.
The Buddha used this image when talking about appropriately attuning our effort to each situation.* Making sure that our strings are neither too taut nor too loose, we suss out the right pitch for our performance (perhaps a conversation), attune the pitch of our 5 senses (forthright, gentle, energetic, slow-paced) and then pick up our theme (the information you are communicating).
May today’s tune play lightly and land well.
With a bow
Maitripushpa
*Sona Sutta (Anguttara nikaya 6.55)
