Monkey Mind

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the course blog of CBI! Here are two articles for you to read and comment on. Please open the links below, read and share your analytical and innovative opinion.

https://badlamaguide.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/enter-the-monkey/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/07/03/most-men-would-rather-shock-themselves-than-be-alone-with-their-thoughts/

Thank you!

Both of the two article are indicated how we deal with ourselves especially alone.  
 The author of "Enter the monkey" like a venerable old man who tell you what happened to you are normal and everyone can overcome the agitated feelings and calm down (taming the Monkey Mind) , the way we synchronizing mind and body is the same way of transforming our mind into wisdom(training the Monkey Mind).
 The latter article named "Most men would rather shock themselves than be alone with their thoughts" use experimentation to demonstrate how difficult in sitting alone in isolation  for 15 minutes . It is not hard to believe that in nowadays especially social media available anywhere anytime.
 For me I have experienced to sit on a cushion to meditate. I believe in such situation the inner peace comes forth and the nature happiness become true. There are many hyperlink under the article "Enter The Monkey" also let me known so many people have been interested and taken practiced with the methodologies. Formal study is a way to learn methodologies but more important is  to passionately practice with it .

Both of the article states the escape of wander thinking by people, which happen a lot in our life.
"Monkey Mind" tells why it happens, how it comes and how to deal with it. At last gave the solution of synchronizing wild mind into body to balance our action.
The another article "Most men would rather shock themselves than be alone with their thoughts", this phenomenon sounds crazy, but through the research it really approved most people would rather choose this way instead of alone with their thoughts. Imagine how scare people face to their own mind.
After reading these two articles, we can try to deal with ourselves when we alone, even enjoy this mind wandering and collect the positive energy from it.

Very interesting topics. The two studies started with peaceful subjects, I noticed that not only in still state, but also in daily life, my mind wandering here and there. An example, are you aware how focused you are while driving? Monkey mind may trigger dangers in such cases.
The other scenario, when you are in a discussion/brainstorm with your colleagues, I believe wandering mind can help the candidate thinking out of the box and generating good ideas.
Enter the monkey tells us the process to tame and train the monkey mind, I’d like to try and see how it helps.

“Monkey mind" tells us a very interesting point. Actually, when I sit in front of the screen, it is difficult for me to focus on this article in a long period. Sometimes, the naughty monkey makes us feel relaxed, but in most cases it may have an adverse impact on our daily life. It is not a good idea to fight with "Monkey mind", we can find many peaceful solutions to cope with it. For instance, we can set every 25 minutes to an interval, make our work and study more regularly and effectively.
“Most men would rather shock themselves than be alone with their thoughts” also shows us an interesting point. Nowadays, people become more superficial, it is difficult to calm down to finish the work seriously. maybe it is benefit for us to pay more attention on reading and deep thinking.

Now I know what is Monkey Mind ( "Enter the Monkey Mind") and how it influences us ("Most men would rather shock themselves than be alone with their thoughts"). The experiment result really surprised me that so many people were disturbed by Monkey Mind so may times in 15 minutes.
To tame the Monkey Mind looks not easy, especially nowadays we have lots of high technology distractions like social media and smartphones. But I will have a try.

In today’s world where there are hundreds of distractions, we are almost connected to the outer world anytime anywhere. It has become more and more difficult for us to meditate alone and achieve the inner peace. Although conceptual mind and association contribute greatly to creativity and imagination, we still need to balance ourselves to focus on “here and now”, synchronizing mind and body, and learn to disengage mentally. Only if we escape from this crazy world occasionally, could we filter the unnecessary and recharge our mind.

All of us may have to deal with Monkey mind, and I have my own way to deal with it. I’ve found that talk to the monkey can sometimes calm them down. Instead to leave it I prefer to face it.
For example, nerves monkey. People who prepare for an examination usually have to deal with the nerves monkey. Of course I deal with it when I am apply for the IMBA. I just talk to the monkey and dig out what is it nerves about.
The following is our conversation.
I: The admission interview is still weeks, what are you nervous about?
Monkey: You may failed the admission interview?
I: What if I failed? What’s the worst that can happen?
Monkey: You will wait for a year to get the chance again.
I: So anyone will die if I have to wait for a year?
Monkey: Of course not.
I: So you made me nervous will help me pass the interview?
Monkey: No
I: So what should I do to help me to pass the interview?
Monkey: You should focus on your preparation work
I: So that’s the best way to help me pass the interview, right?
Monkey: Right.
I: Can you live with the possibility that I may failed the interview?
Monkey: Yes
There is an old proverb:
Don't cross a bridge before you come to it.
So just enjoy your life NOW!

As for the second passage, I felt that it is quite hard for me to accept the experimental result. I am a person that can stay alone with myself quite well.

Agree with you. And we can see people are getting to realize the importance of stay with yourself alone, or be told, be educated to take it into account. From the movie <Kung Fu Panda 2>, the word "inner peace" became popular along with Chinese Kung Fu and the cute panda. Meanwhile, the popularity of Yoga and Zen culture of Buddhism let more people know the concept and benefits of Meditation, although may be overstated by commercial promotion. More and more people join Yoga studios or go to temples to take meditation classes or so called spiritual formation. Even some companies organize this kind of classes for their staff. But to now, there is little regulation or standard for "meditation industry", may I call it like this? I guess it's a market with big business potential. And to be honest, I'm surprised to see that large proportion of people cannot stay with their thoughts for only 15 mins. But it also reminds me an article I've read. The author considered people as two groups by the way they get refreshed when exhausted, inward people who get their energies back by staying alone, thinking or reading, while outgoing people by social, party, talking to others. So it's just different people live in different ways.
And now, look back to my post above. It's a kind of presentation of monkey mind, keep jumping from one topic to another. Quite interesting ha.

Chenchen Guo wrote:In today’s world where there are hundreds of distractions, we are almost connected to the outer world anytime anywhere. It has become more and more difficult for us to meditate alone and achieve the inner peace. Although conceptual mind and association contribute greatly to creativity and imagination, we still need to balance ourselves to focus on “here and now”, synchronizing mind and body, and learn to disengage mentally. Only if we escape from this crazy world occasionally, could we filter the unnecessary and recharge our mind.

Monkey mind . This article is most like a psychology study and it is quite useful to me . Actually, my mind always fill into the monkey mind and cannot bring me out . Such kind of non result thinking always made me tired . But I never realize it is just because the monkey mind itself caused the uncomfortable situation and I haven’t get a good method to stop it ever . The good news is , this article show me a guide and it is definitely worth to try to be a monkey mind hunter to make some change .
Stop the monkey mind and manage my mind to be more clear and ordinary perhaps could make me more focus ,more efficient ,more wisdom .
But why the monkey mind occurs ,is that a natural function of our brain ? Or it is just the brain it self wants to create something to play with ? Or it is the a habit of the brain ? Currently we are not only face with monkey mind ,Monkey hand also stay with us . When I use the smart phone to mail some one ,I find the application be opened is not what we want ,it’s WeChat ,after killing all the alter bubbles , I forget why I opens the WeChat and which application should I open initially ….
Let’s fighting with the monkey mind and the monkey hand !

sophiaguo wrote:All of us may have to deal with Monkey mind, and I have my own way to deal with it. I’ve found that talk to the monkey can sometimes calm them down. Instead to leave it I prefer to face it.
For example, nerves monkey. People who prepare for an examination usually have to deal with the nerves monkey. Of course I deal with it when I am apply for the IMBA. I just talk to the monkey and dig out what is it nerves about.
The following is our conversation.
I: The admission interview is still weeks, what are you nervous about?
Monkey: You may failed the admission interview?
I: What if I failed? What’s the worst that can happen?
Monkey: You will wait for a year to get the chance again.
I: So anyone will die if I have to wait for a year?
Monkey: Of course not.
I: So you made me nervous will help me pass the interview?
Monkey: No
I: So what should I do to help me to pass the interview?
Monkey: You should focus on your preparation work
I: So that’s the best way to help me pass the interview, right?
Monkey: Right.
I: Can you live with the possibility that I may failed the interview?
Monkey: Yes
There is an old proverb:
Don't cross a bridge before you come to it.
So just enjoy your life NOW!

As for the second passage, I felt that it is quite hard for me to accept the experimental result. I am a person that can stay alone with myself quite well.

you should really try to stay alone , without books,music,smartphone, and just keeping thinkinf for a while. Maybe you will get another answer .

Instead of getting rid of the Monkey Mind, to tame and manage the monkey is actually a more feasible way. The article gave us a good solution for how to deal with the monkey mind during the meditating. We may apply this case to other situations when many monkeys are jumping around. We may observe which monkey is most active, i.e. angry monkey, and try to talk to it, find out what makes it angry, and think about whether these things really so important to you. In most cases, the answer would be no. Then the monkey could be calm down and we could enjoy the present in here and now, having inner peace without being distracted by outer world. From now on, I think I will try to tame the monkey mind from the meditation.

hengchao wrote:Monkey mind . This article is most like a psychology study and it is quite useful to me . Actually, my mind always  fill into the monkey mind and cannot bring me out . Such kind of non result thinking always made me tired . But I never realize  it is just because the monkey mind itself caused the uncomfortable  situation  and  I haven’t get a good method to stop it ever . The good news is  , this article show me a guide  and it is definitely  worth to try to be a monkey mind hunter to make some change .
Stop the monkey mind and manage my mind to be more clear and ordinary perhaps could make me more focus ,more efficient ,more wisdom .
But why the monkey mind occurs ,is that a natural function of our  brain ? Or it is just the brain it self  wants to create something to play with ? Or it is the a habit of the brain ? Currently we are not only face with monkey mind ,Monkey hand also stay with us   . When I use the smart phone to mail some one ,I  find the application be opened is not what  we want  ,it’s WeChat  ,after killing all the alter bubbles , I forget why I opens the WeChat and which application should I open  initially ….
Let’s fighting with the monkey mind and the monkey hand !

‘The habit of brain’ grabs my attention. During the orientation training session, the innate reaction to trainer’s task is to raise your questions or solutions, which habit, such a quick react, especially among a group, is most likely not efficient enough.
The other writing below on this website tells how to free thoughts from self and vice versa, good for reading.
Freeing Yourself From Thoughts; Freeing Thoughts From Yourself

Meditation is a kind of art to let one get rid of all the messy things in the brain. Actually meditation also need instruction and practice to make it more effective. After effective meditation, you will feel much less stressed both mentally and physically. You will be able to find the inner peace and perhaps some of the problems haunted in your mind for a long time suddenly get solved or no longer seems to be a big issue.
I personally highly recommend the breath medication way, for it's easy to learn and practice as you wish.

Interesting article, it reminds me think of a special experience activity about 2 years ago, attended a meditation class in a temple, indeed, such activities like this have been popular nowadays in some big cities, some dozens of people sitting in a temple hall, no music around us but burning incense. I believe everyone, including myself, try to release own mind out of self, as far as possible to reach a state of "EMPTY" that indicated in Zen Buddhism.
How did it come out? Is really failed for me, one result is apt to asleep, another distracting thoughts is feeling hungry because of vegetarian food of temple is too light.

People like to be alone, but don't like be really "alone". Physical or mental accompany is a must need for normal human being. When you are away from noise and people, so called meditation, our mind will try to seek something to play with. So I did a small experiment to see how my mind performs.
My mind was distracted several times when I read these two articles at first time. Especially when I read about "Monkey Mind", my mind started to mimic what the article said. I took 20 minutes to pull back my mind from surfing on internet and checking WeChat moments. Things get better for second time I read the articles because I intentionally controlled reading time. I found myself more focused on the article and my thinking. Through this small experiment I admitted I need shock when I do something, which is setting an aim or deadline. When I tell myself “You need to finish this within 20 minutes.”, money mind calms down. And I keep telling myself the remaining time, so my mind focuses.

I read these blogs a few days before the first sessions. At that time I felt it was not true that monkey mind could beat my brain. But during the sessions, well...monkey mind seemed never lose. In the old school days, it was very common that me and my classmates were easily distracted from the class by small distractions. Parents always thought this was because lack of self-discipline of the youth. But now, even we are grown-ups and have our own kids, we are still easily flying our mind out of the class. It is a life-time course to learn to focus.

The thing I get from "Enter the Monkey" is you need to focus on your body sensation to overcome monkey mind. The thing I get from "Most men would rather shock themselves than be alone with their thoughts" is that "focus on thinking" itself is really difficult.

Putting yourself into an empty state is preparing yourself to receive more. The information out there is growing in a accelerated velocity, even if we don't sleep, we are not able to get them all. Conversely, if we can slow down, empty our mind for a second, we might surprise ourselves how it will lead us to creativity and efficiency.

After I read the first article, a question came up in my mind: are all monkey minds bad? As everything has two sides, there may be something useful brought by monkey minds. And luckily I found the answer in the second article and the answer is yes. "The ability to let the mind wander has been linked to great working memory and the increased creativity." I fully agree with this saying by Professor Smallwood.

The learning from the both articles are that we should learn how to live with our monkey minds. When we need focus and concentrate, we could "taming" the monkey minds. When we need brain storm and think out of box, we could also take advantage of the monkey mind.

When I am alone and sit down to meditate, my mind always goes elsewhere. I haven’t know what it is until I read the first article “Enter the Monkey” . It is called monkey mind. I agree with that we don’t need to worry about the monkey mind, it is a natural component of our own mind and might give us many excellent ideas that could make us more wise. In the other hand, I think we also should tame the monkey mind, because our bodies need “just sit” to relax completely.

About the second article, though a bit exaggerated, I think it is a fact that more and more people think mind wandering is not a good thing. When we focus on something, we should try our best to do without thinking any other thing, but it doesn’t mean we needn’t mind wandering.

In a word, I think we should try to take good use of monkey mind to make our mind wander when we are alone and have time to think about something that might make our life more creative.

From my own experience, yoga is a good way to tame monkey mind. Monkey mind can not exist in the present moment, but rather is constantly distracted by the thoughts that pass through. And frequently it leads to agitated state. Learning to recognize this tendency and disengage from it helps us be calmer, less stressed, and more productive. By doing yoga, I become entirely focused on what my body is doing without thinking about anything else. Gradually I can better manage my mind than before and reduce the time for monkey mind. In addition, my mind tends to become more peaceful and less stressed.

Yes, there always is a mankey in your mind, when you are concentrated in thinking something. Maybe everyone have the same experience of being defeated by the monkey mind ,when trying to catch and control it.
But now ,I have developed new way for that. If I want to focus on thinking or planning something，I offer did some other things that I was so familiar with, such as running or playing vedio games. By this way ,I could thinking well and get along with the monkey mind well. I foud this way was very effective and productive.

Mankey mind is a contradiction to me. Most of the time, I shall concentrate on something without mankey mind. But some times, I need it also. Maybe it will bring me creative ideas to jump out the box where I am in. How to handle it well is a challenge.

After reading these two articles, I cannot agree any more. When I was reading the articles, I suddenly found my minds went somewhere else and I should go back to the paragraph where I lost again. Monkey mind is natural, we should not suppress it, and it will appear over and over. All we can do is to learn to work with monkey mind, calm it down and bring it back to the body, finally, it will become into wisdom.

I once read a book named "Finding Peace with Your Inner Child", which is actually a book of meditation on buddism. It basically shared the same idea that it is impossible to find peace of mind by suppressing the ongoing hustle and bustle. So you have to let go for a while. The world of thinking is so vast that it allows meandering of mind. Maybe it is part of how the brain functions as the neuros stretching out to connect with each other. However it could be easy to lose track. I think the difference between "control" to "tame" the monkey mind is that you take the time to listen to yourself, rather than being anger or frustrated by yourself. The result may lead to the so-called "state of flow", where you are capable of pulling yourself all toghether and fully immersed in the moment.

The report says that people even preferred pain to letting alone with their own thoughts. It is easier to engage with external distractions than to engage with inner thoughts. I think it is because that we are used to being busy, filling ourselves with blogs, reports, pop musics, etc. It is not unusual that I am finding myself going through all the posts in Wechat, ending up without real input. But I keep on doing the same almost when I have some time. Professor Ali used "hijack" in the class and it is the exact status me and quite a number of people around me are in.
It is so easy to build up the habit as it provides easy access and disguised with the neccessity of communication. It also gives a false comfort that you are engaged in the world while you are actually doing nothing. Shall really try to detach from such habits...