A traditional meditation instruction in Buddhism is to tune our attention as we would tune a string on a music instrument.
If it’s too lose, our attention wander, and if it’s too tight, we effort too much and the efforting itself becomes distracting.
This general instrument-string pointer applies to a lot of different practices.
I notice it these days in the dynamic between allowing contractions to be as it is, and inviting it to realign with reality.
I can rest in the allowing, and that in itself is healing in many ways. It helps me heal my relationship with the contraction and see it’s OK for it to be here, and it does help the contraction relax. And yet, if that’s all I do, not much more may change.
I can invite the contraction to align with reality (oneness, stillness and silence, love), and if that’s all I do, it can become a bit heavy handed. It can become, or come from, another contraction, which reinforces the whole contraction dynamic.
So it’s helpful to tune this string too, not too lose (onesided allowing) and not too tight (onesided encouragement to change).
When there is more clarity, both are here. I notice the contraction is already allowed, and consciously align with that allowing.
At the same time, I notice the distortions and confusion within the contraction, and in how I may have habitually related to it, I notice what’s more real and true, and I invite the contraction to align with reality, and also intend for it to align with reality.
In practice, I emphasize one more than the other, while both are here.
And in reality, all of this is a bit more messy and approximate, and an exploration, experiment, and learning.
INITIAL NOTES
Gentle and firm
In practices, I sometimes tend too far in the gentle side, in terms of allowing what is as is, sometimes need a bit more firmness in the sense of intention, exploring what leads to a change
Sometimes, be firm with old patterns, delusions, confused love – not follow, invite them to shift, recognize their nature etc.