MONKEY MIND REVISITED

“Monkey mind,” a Buddhist expression, refers to how the typical human mind jumps from one thought to the next to the next like a monkey swinging from branch to branch in the jungle.  The goal of Buddhism is to get the monkey out of the trees, to quiet the mind.

In a blog posting here on 11/25/12, three techniques were described for achieving this.  The first is looking closely at what is causing the mind to be restless, and if it is something of no great significance, it can be set aside, or dismissed altogether.

Another way to get the monkey out of the trees is through meditation, by centering the mind.  Traditionally this is done by focusing on one’s breathing, or by chanting, or by striking a gong, or bell, or chime.

A third method is suggested by the contemporary spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle.  He said one should focus his attention on the present moment, by, for example, feeling the life force in the body.  Feel the tingling in the finger tips, for instance, or the beating of the heart, or the heat or coolness of the body.

There is, however, another way to quiet the mind.  Swami Sarvapriyananda, in a lecture on concentration, was less interested in getting the monkey out of the trees than limiting the monkey to only one tree.  To do this a person needs to fix his attention on just one thought, become utterly absorbed in that one thought, which will counter the mind’s temptation to find something else to think about.

An idle mind is what gets us in trouble most often, Swamiji emphasized.  Plus, many of us have never learned how to concentrate really, for, let’s say, more than fifteen minutes at a time.  But like anything else, the more we do something, the better we will get at it, the Swami said.  Learn to concentrate and there will be no more monkey mind.