Raising the Tone
A musical meditation
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It’s easy to fall into slackness when there is not some sort of external stimulus or helpful habit, to motivate one to direct and keep a tight ship. And even helpful habits can wind down when they are not specially attended to. In addition, how easy to have a fine goal for a while, and then let it slip into forgetfulness and inertia. What is the antidote? What can I use that will help surmount and prevent such all-too-human tendencies? One could say that this is even a question upon which the value of one’s life depends. I could also ask it another way, for example, simply, How to raise the tone of my inner and outer life?
“Tone” is an interesting word to apply to the interplay between body and mind. Of its several interesting meanings, the first to come to mind for me is that of sound - the musical tone, that has a definite pitch, or, often, a definite combination of pitches within its make up. The tone of a vibrating string, for instance, is remarkable in its potential power, with or without combining in melody and/or harmony with other tones, in the way it can potentially rouse or lull various impulses within the human being, and even vibrations in other animate and inanimate bodies and materials.
If I also picture myself as a whole, having and emitting a particular “tone,” which expresses all that makes up myself at a certain moment, then this could be higher or lower, richer or poorer, depending on what I am doing and have been doing, in behaviour, emotion and thoughts, in attitude and in action, whether harmonious or cacophonous.
Sleep and relaxation also seem to have their own tone, dependent on my way of expending energy beforehand. Have I been living life to the full? If so, then the odds are raised for a restful sleep as a consequence, and a harmonious ground of refreshing rest.
Then what about the presence of other people? Do I depend on them for my own tone? Yes, perhaps in a way. However, if another’s tone is relatively low, I don’t have to join that level, but can even use a lower tone than mine to “feed” a higher vibration within me, which inevitably will then have its own effects beyond me. Alternatively, if there are inspiring people around me, I can use the presence of a “higher vibrational level” to increase my own tone, by working and attending in harmony with that.
Finally, what about a practice of listening for and to that fine, subtle sound, known through the ages, yet not known? A sound almost beyond silence, and whether within or outside oneself can be difficult to fathom, but once its ethereal quality has been caught, even for a moment, it compels the tuning of all other vibration in oneself towards it in sympathy and seeking.