Chattering Monkeys and Meditation

The Buddhists tell us we think with a Monkey Mind. In the simplest way, I will explain it like this.

Everyday all day from birth to death an infinite number of thoughts become part of our life. We can choose to make them part of our story.  Thoughts are the chattering Monkeys or the Monkey Mind. What we do with these thoughts is up to us. We can pay heed to some of these thoughts, we can dwell on some of these thoughts or we can acknowledge them and let them go.

It’s impossible to stop them. Death to my present knowledge is the only way we can stop the Monkeys. Having no experience of death I can not be certain that this will happen.

What we do with the chattering Monkeys becomes our feelings and our behaviour.

Buddhists will tell you that meditation or Mindfulness is how we can deal with the Monkeys. When we meditate the chattering Monkeys come unbidden into our mind. We can choose to give them life by focusing on them or we can ignore the Monkeys by coming back to the breath.

A state of prolonged enlightenment comes when we can acknowledge the monkeys but pay no attention to them. The way to enlightenment is how you respond to the Monkeys.

Think about it.