The Monkey Mind (Kapicitta):
“Shut up, she tells her monkey mind. Please shut up, you picker of nits, presser of bruises, counter of losses, fearer of failures, collector of grievances future and past.” ~ Leni Zumas Buddha likened these sometimes agitated, or emotionally manifested, and ever changing thoughts in our mind to that of a monkey swinging through the trees.
Developing peaceful Existence With Your monkey Mind.
What is the Monkey Mind?
The Monkey Mind is a very interesting concept in Buddhist teachings. This voice that is lurking inside all of our heads is always speaking to us. It is guiding our destiny, and can be tamed through meditation. Taming our Monkey Mind should be the goal for all of us. Like a monkey swinging through the jungle clinging to one branch and then releasing it before randomly grasping and clinging onto another, so too are the random thoughts in our mind that manifest and linger in our head for a moment only to disappear, and then be replaced by another.
Your goal, or challenge young neophyte apprentice, is to calmly tame your mischievous Monkey Mind, and guide this voice inside of you to bring you the peace you seek, let go of your attachments, and Embrace Nirvana.
Not only are you a victim of your monkey mind. Your monkey mind is a victim of you. Chew on that concept for a moment Sotapanna . Meditate on it you should.
Your lack of mindfulness and ignorance feeds your monkey mind everyday.
What does the Monkey mind like to Eat?
Like Zombies, it likes to eat your brain. Your monkey mind will consume you, and hungrily devour your mind and senses if you merely step back and allow it to happen.
You who are reading these words now are not the observer. You are the master of your thoughts, and of your life. Don’t let a mischievous monkey run the show. This is your house, you are the boss… own it.
Worries about the future, and regrets about the past are the prime diet of our Monkey Minds. If you want dominance over your monkey mind, you must first cut off its ample food supply.
Stop feeding your mind a steady diet of worries and regrets, and your monkey mind will no longer guide your thinking. The only one who determines your thoughts is you. Be mindful of the present, and guide your own thoughts without the interference of your monkey mind.
What do our Monkey Minds overthink about?
Our monkey minds dwell on our past mistakes . Our minds will replay our mistakes in our heads over and over again. We must realize, Unless we make peace with our past, we wont have a future.
The only time that we have to live our lives is right now in the present. We cannot change the past, and our future is just a probability. Understanding this simple truth will help alleviate us from the constant chatter of our primate companion.
Five Ways to Tame Your Monkey Mind.
1: Observe your thoughts:
Observe your thoughts as they come into your head. Where are they emanating from? Are they coming from your true self, or is your true self just the helpless observer watching reality unfold around you.
You my intrigued neophyte are not a helpless observer watching the show. You are the director guiding the show that encompasses your life. Your monkey mind unfortunately has an alpha mindset.
Your monkey mind wants your job. The monkey mind wants to dominate your ego, and if you are ignorant, and lacking wisdom, than your monkey mind only has to convince you of one thing to win the game.
Your monkey mind only has to convince you through gaslighting that, he is you. If you believe him, than the monkey has won, and you will remain a helpless observer for the rest of your lifetime, until you understand the truth.
The truth is you are the master. You direct it all. You decide the vibration of your reality, not some imaginary monkey. Do you understand?
Observing your thoughts leads to mindfulness.
2: Mindfulness:
Mindfulness means focusing our attention on the present moment. This has a much deeper meaning than many people think. It means to focus your attention completely on the present moment to the seclusion of all else.
If you are walking in the park, than be only in the park. Listen to the sounds of nature. Feel the sun, or the wind against your skin. What do you smell? How do you feel? Where are you?
You are not in the past disgruntled about your past mistakes that you made, you are not in the future worrying about the outcome. You are in the present enjoying the now.
If you are living in the now, than your monkey minds constant chatter is just a passing thought. Let the thought go, do not entertain it and invite it for lunch. Be mindful of impermanence, and embrace nirvana.
Be mindful of your breathing to draw your focus away from the endless monkey talk going on inside of your head.
3: Breathing:
The one thing we all do is breathe. Awake or asleep our subatomic nervous system keeps our lungs breathing day and night without the necessity of conscious thought.
Breathing however is one thing that our conscious thought can take creative control over. With one simple decision we can take control of our breath, and cause our lungs to breathe slowly and deeply, or in an instant change our breathing to quicker shallower breaths.
Breathing is the prerequisite to meditation.
4: Meditate:
Meditation is a great way to peacefully tame our monkey mind.
Meditation teaches us to focus the thoughts in our head being lead astray by the monkey mind, and guide them back to the present moment. The simplest way to accomplish this is to think only about your breath.
Focus your attention on your lungs. Feel them inhaling, and exhaling as the air goes in and out of them. Just breathe. If your thoughts stray away from your breathing, acknowledge them, and let them pass without feeding them the power of your attention.
The purpose of this is to guide your attention to the present moment. This is in conjunction with the Zen saying, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
Contemplating that phrase is meant to draw your attention away from your random thoughts, and redirect those thoughts to imagining what the sound of one hand clapping sounds like. This is to guide you to focus on just one thing.
That one thing is the present moment, we must let go of the past.
5: Let go of the past.
Let go of your past, it has nothing new to offer you. Stop dwelling on the past, it will only contaminate your present moment, and bring you suffering. ~Lama Anagami
The past is the realm that our monkey minds dwell in. More often than not our mental symphony is composed of thoughts, and memories about our past experiences.
Our monkey minds will grab ahold of our past experiences, toss them around and jumble them up before replaying these memories in our minds nothing like they originally unfolded.
We will then have negative energy emanating from us, and negative thoughts running through our heads based upon the actions of our monkey mind. We believe the evil monkey is telling the truth. Even though we know the monkey is feeding us lies.
We must let our prank loving monkey know that we are the director of our thoughts, and not the monkey mind. Give your monkey mind a time out while you practice the five steps above.
Make peace with your monkey mind, for it is only a diversion to your enlightenment on the human realm of SAMSARA.
There is one last lesson I have to teach you my curious apprentices. That lesson is about the anxiety that will befall you if you allow your monkey mind to predict your future.
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Do not allow your monkey mind to anxiously decide your future.
Only your true self can decide what the future has instore for you.
If you are reading these words, than you are the true self.
Be present in the current moment, not in the alternate reality that your monkey mind narrates to you… Do you understand?
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