Meditation and the Monkey Mind
Most people who hear about the monkey mind have a deep connection to it, responding with a certain, uneasy recognition that is often accompanied by nervous giggles. Those who have spent any time in meditation have a much closer relationship to the idea, because it’s a central element that arises in any practice of meditation, and one that needs to be acknowledged. There are practices and schools of spiritual traditions that can help one to get in touch with the part of the self that is beyond language, or perhaps before language. The Sahaja Meditation Student Association is one organization that’s helpful in teaching people how to reach a state that is quite beyond thought.
Meditation is something that follows the breath, and learning how to meditate could be seen as nothing less than learning how to breathe for the first time. One can find philosophical paths, or intellectual paths, that are dedicated to facing the monkey in the mind head on, in order to overcome it through rational thought. However, it has a way of constantly reincarnating itself, and the worries that disappear one moment may come back the next. The key to living with this is truly found in the breath. When one can find a way to become focused on one’s own breathing, then the monkey does become quiet, and eventually attention to the breath fades away as well, and there is only sensation and being.


