Mindfulness Provides the Harmony of Our Lives.
A concert violinist expects their instrument to go out of tune during a concert.
If a string tightens, the tone becomes sharp - if it slackens, the tone becomes flat.
In the same way, when our lives tighten, we become filled with judgment and anxiety. When they slacken, they become muddy and depressed.
When we are constantly distracted by the stress of disharmony, we make mindless mistakes that cause more disharmony.
Mindful Valley provides a training community that enables people to first balance the mind and heart - with scientifically proven exercises that cultivate mindfulness of the present moment, reducing stress and developing a calm awareness.
Once grounded in a clear, kind and non-judgmental awareness, we can begin to hear and identify the areas of our lives that are in or out of tune.
Finally, we learn and practice the skills that enable us to act in tuning our lives when they go out of tune, bringing them mindfully back to harmony, leading to a dependable happiness and well-being.
On Music and Meditation, from "Wings to Awakening, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu:
". . . we can say that the Dhamma — in terms of doctrine, practice, and attainment — derives from the fully explored implications of one observation: that it is possible to master a skill. This point is reflected not only in the content of the Buddha's teachings, but also in the way they are expressed . . ."
"On the implicit level, the passages dealing with meditation are filled with terms derived from music theory. In his younger days as a prince, the Bodhisatta — like other young aristocrats of his time — was undoubtedly a connoisseur of the musical arts, and so was naturally familiar with the theory that lay behind them. Because the terminology of this theory is so pervasive in the teachings he formulated as a Buddha . . . "
"The first step in performance was to tune one's instrument, "establishing" one's tonic note (literally, "base," thana) to make it on-pitch ("even," or sama), then to fine-tune or attune ("ferret out" or "penetrate") the remaining notes (again, "bases") of the scale in relation to the tonic. This required a great deal of skill, sensitivity, and some mathematical knowledge, as the well-tempered scale had not yet been developed, and many different ways of calculating the scale were in use, each appropriate to a different emotion. The musician then picked up the theme (nimitta) of the composition. The theme functioned in several ways, and thus the word "theme" carried several meanings. On the one hand it was the essential message of the piece, the image or impression that the performer wanted to leave in the listener's mind. On the other hand, it was the governing principle that determined what ornamentation or variations would be suitable to the piece . . . "
"There are enough passages to show that the Buddha used this terminology conscious of its musical connotations, and that he wanted to make the point that the practice of meditation was similar to the art of musical performance. We should thus try to be sensitive to these terms and their implications, for the comparison between music and meditation is a useful one.
"In the most general sense, this comparison underlines the fact that the knowledge needed for release from suffering is the same sort as that involved in mastering a skill — a continued focus on the present, a sensitivity to one's context, one's own actions, and their combined consequences, rather than a command of an abstract body of facts."
". . . the Buddha says that one should establish one's persistence to the right pitch, attune the remaining faculties to that pitch, and then pick up one's theme."
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