Neither too Tight nor too Loose

“Stay focused on the object” is the instruction we get, but it’s hard to follow because we don’t know how. Focused like gripping a rope? Like ensuring planes don’t crash into each other? Like watching the back of my eyelids as I drift off?

Buddha Shakyamuni answered it with a musical instrument. The strings of a sitar sound beautiful only when the instrument is in tune — when they’re neither too tight nor too loose. Too tight and the note goes thin and sharp, and the string is one turn from snapping. Too slack and there’s no note at all, just a dull thud. The range where it rings is narrow, and you find it by ear.

You know both of these from the cushion.

Too tight is the morning you bear down. You are going to hold this object. Ten minutes in you’re tired, your jaw aches, and the mind has started skittering off in every direction — and the harder you clamp, the more it jumps. That’s agitation, and effort is feeding it.

Too loose is the pleasant morning. You’re settled, comfortable, vaguely in the neighborhood of the object, and it’s all quite nice. Afterward you’ve forgotten where you focused. That’s laxity, and it’s the one that’s easy to mistake for progress, because it feels good while it’s happening.

Chandragomin, who knew this territory well, put it plainly: If I apply too much intensity, agitation appears; if I let go too much, laxity appears. Meditative equanimity is a difficult state to obtain.

So tomorrow morning, try this. If the mind is tense, ease off slightly and let the object simply sit there in front of you. If the mind has gone soft, brighten the image a little — more vivid, more precise, more actually there. A quarter turn of the peg, then listen again.

Even if you’re not a musician, you know a right note from a wrong one. You’re looking for a degree of effort that you find, lose, and find again — checking by ear, adjusting by small amounts, the way anyone tunes anything.

Gradually you come to know instantly when the string is well tuned. That’s what you’re looking for.

We practice together in Chattanooga, in person and online. Bring whatever your string is doing this week.