instruments

I have to do all the tuning of the violin and only then will it be fit to play.   What can one get from an imperfectly prepared instrument?

... In a practical and spiritual way, the less I am motivated by my ego in every way, in every form, the more I am able to become a receptacle, a vessel, for receiving what is there.   It is there.   It is something in the air.   I have to have an instrument that can pick it up.   We have a soul -- we have it all in us.   We make too much noise.   If I am always listening to myself, I cannot listen to any other thing that passes through me.

... More than that, sometimes I may be doing something that in itself is good, but it is not a thing that I should do.   Sometimes I am trying very hard to do something which is not necessary for me while neglecting to do something which is necessary.   I am speaking about instruments.   You see one person is a violin, another is a cello.

-- Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz  The Vertical Adventure