Tuning Up

As a singer-songwriter who often plays a 12 string Taylor acoustic in a variety of climates, ranging from a controlled environment of 45 percent humidity, to the full-on Hawaii wetness; I am accustomed to the frequent need for playing that famous Chinese piece, “Tu-Ning” before and after each song I perform. Reflecting upon this reminded me of how we have a similar need to continuously monitor our thoughts (like listening for the strings to go out of tune), and make adjustments in the focus of our conscious attention (like tuning up a guitar); based on the changing situations of our lives. Developing the self awareness it takes to continuously monitor ourselves like this is the first step in spiritual growth, and also a primary part of being able to hold on to the progress we have already made (like keeping one ear on the tuning of the instrument at the same time we are performing with it). Otherwise, it would be like tuning up my guitar once, and then expecting it to always stay in tune, no matter how hard I played it, or what conditions it was subjected to. Spiritually, this would be like making a little progress in life, allowing our ego to inflate because of it, and then believing that we had it all figured out, and needed no further self monitoring, balancing, or growth. This would be like roughly tuning my guitar, and then, when it went further out of tune, saying that it was all the other instruments that were outn (because I would have an ego investment in believing that mine was in tune). So if we make a little progress, overcome an obstacle, or master a particular challenge; and then encounter problems in life; our ego may go looking for someone else to blame, rather than encouraging us to take a good long look inside.

Roughly Tuning

Continuing on with our musical metaphor, roughly tuning a guitar would be like shifting from Survival Mode to Safe Mode. Here we would be raising our vibration by leaving the stress, worry, and limitations of this lower vibrational place behind. From Safe Mode we would be able to perceive the full range of thought, possibilities, and courses of action available to the human mind. The highest of these is human happiness and those things that flow from it. Like all other mind-based things, it is subject to the situational instability of fluctuating internal and external circumstances. It is, however, much better than the depression, anxiety, and limitations created by Survival Mode. To move from Survival to Safe Mode, we must convince our brain that we are not in danger. For a more thorough explanation, and fairly comprehensive set of recommendations, please read “Stress No More: Natural Ways to Shrink Hypertension.” This will help you get your mind roughly in tune, which is a prerequisite for the fine tuning of the spirit.

Fine tuning

Once we have roughly tuned up, by shifting from Survival to Safe Mode, we can do the fine tuning, which involves moving from Safe to Spiritual Mode. When we have successfully made this transition, what we perceive will come to us, through our spirit, directly from universal consciousness. We will no longer be limited by our human mind and sense perceptions. If we had stress and issue triggers we will now rise above them, as we will be perceiving life at frequencies that are higher than they are. We will be able to vulnerably love and prioritize from spirit. We can remove the barriers to love. We will perceive the higher vibrational forms of love, joy, peace, and truth free from the instability created by the human mind and sense perceptions. We will be free to perceive the supernal choruses of light streaming through the limitless pools of coexisting possibilities forming the sub-stratum of the universe; Her conscious infinite light. So to be finely tuned is to perceive and live from spirit. And since we live in the human world, we will need to continuously monitor ourselves in order to maintain this higher vibrational tuning.