An Interesting Exercise - Taming the Monkey Mind
Why don't you try an interesting exercise? Sit down with your back straight, relax, keep your hands in your lap and close your eyes. Now simply watch your thoughts floating in your mind as you would the moving pictures on a TV screen. Do this for just two minutes. Did you notice how many thoughts flitted in and out?! Did you also note how your mind jumped from one thought to another? This shows that it is not only the body that works.The mind also does a lot of work (thinking, picturing, judging, planning etc.) Think for a moment... Even if we want the mind to stay on a single thought, it keeps leaping from one thought to another. Can you name something that jumps around restlessly all the time? Yes! A monkey. This is why sages often compare the mind to a monkey. Disciplining the monkey mind... Firstly, why should we discipline the mind? Let us take the example of watching TV. We enjoy watching TV because it has lots of channels; and we can watch one o...