February 05, 2004

Monkey mind Thoughts pull attention here and there and may seem to take us out of meditation altogether; they become obsessive. Feeding the monkeys is buying into the show of proliferating thought, reifying it, being led off by it. [...] How does reflective awareness of thought and ideas differ from tossing bananas to the monkeys? If you don't meditate, feel free to substitute in its stead any activity that demands focus.
posted by goetter 20 years ago
  • that monkey on your back has crawled into your brain!!
  • Wow. The pictures on that site are awesome--especially the sumie. Gorgeous. I have found the best way to focus (while doing whatever) is to concentrate on my breathing for a while. I suppose that's a form of mediation, but I learned it when I was learning yoga. If I just watch the breath go in and out of me while I'm performing a task, the task fills my head instead of all the random things my brain wants to jump to.
  • "The untrained mind has a mind of its own."
  • There's a lot of great stuff on this site. Thanks, goetter.
  • Hmm, my second comment got placed in front of my earlier comment. Some monkey must be playing with the site.
  • I meant to say: time travel in action.
  • ...om monkey paw me hum...
  • [sound of one banana peeling]
  • Famous quote: The mind is a monkey.
  • Groups of rheumatoid arthritis patients are being trained in "mindfulness," a form of stress reduction meditation developed 30 years ago at the University of Massachusetts. Actually it was developed 2,500 years ago at Bodhgaya, but close enough.
  • I find very little to be funnier than Westerners claiming ancient arts and techniques as something new and revolutionary. See the recent trend of Buddhist Objectivists. "You've got selfishness in my mindfulness! You've got mindfulness in my selfishness!"
  • homunculus, this 'mindfulness', is being beaten half to death, i find. my psychiatrist has become a rabid instructor, complete with tapes and gongs, as she teaches how to count one's breaths repeatedly up to ten and achieve such state. however if one tries to discuss the state of mindfulness she has a rather concrete idea of what it means. an open and shut case, to her mind. she no longer pursues this treatment course with me after i stated that mindlessness is the same thing. /i tried to introduce the tao. the concept is a wonderful goal, but it seems that the practitioners regard it as another form of 'hard science' now they have a dictated mode of implementing it, without any regard for the individual grasp of such.