Monkey Mind and Mindful Meditation

In silence and with compassionate presence I observe my thoughts each day and ask myself "are they pure?  If my thoughts are unkind, angry, jealous, resentful then they are not supportive of compassionate presence and the silence is drowned out by the chatter in my mind.  When meditation is filled with thoughts and feelings I am obstructing my path to inner peace.  

Getting free of mind chatter/monkey mind is done by becoming aware when it happens and then sitting with this mental noise until it exhausts its voice.  Resistance is futile.  Allowing monkey mind to chatter I find that it grows tired when I do not resist.  Rather than resisting I explore this chatter in an attempt to uncover its origin. Knowing the origin of this the chatter becomes still and I return to my path to inner peace.

Thinking and opinions are considered important in human development.  We are encouraged to have thoughts and opinions on everything, so in meditation when the body is stilled it is a natural reaction that thoughts become more active.  Often the quieting of the body will trigger monkey mind.  When we can't distract with physical movement our minds take on this frenetic activity and chatters  endlessly.  

I have found that a great  preparation for meditation exercise is to observe this endless mind chatter, not engage in or respond to it; become the witness to this phenomena and let it play itself out.  Monkey mind has a short attention span, and if we don't engage with it and only observe it begins to tire of the game.  If we only observe it will change topics and chatter on for awhile, but if we don't engage it soon looses interest.  It becomes quiet and respectful when met with quiet, non-judgmental observation.  

Unkind, angry, jealous, and resentful thoughts are the product of monkey mind. They creep in as our meditation unfolds.  Telling them to stop or go away does not work.  When I am told not to think about something that often is the one thing I think about.  Telling mind chatter to stop only increases its insistence to interrupt our meditation. Sitting quietly as the observer and simple watching this unfold we learn a great deal about the web of illusion we have woven around ourselves. Recognizing this illusion is the first step in moving beyond its limitations of it defining who we are. 

Rather than seeing monkey mind's chatter as an enemy to our meditation we might see it as a help in revealing the self illusions we harbor.  In allowing it to be present in our silence we may develop compassionate presence for our human condition.  This allows us to explore our total being without judgment, criticism, or prejudice.  When our self judgment ends our prejudice and criticism of others cease.  

Peace, love, and acceptance always begin within.  Our meditation practice is where this begins.  Like a ripple in a pond, when something disturbs the surface calm, so does our sitting silently with compassionate presence and monkey mind produce the same effect on our psyche.  As monkey mind is allowed to still of its own accord this ripple effect moves outward from where we are and impacts our inner states as well as touching all others in our daily outer life....  In this way we begin to impact peace one moment at a time.  From monkey mind we as the objective observer can move into mindful meditation.