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ideas:monkey_mind [2023-03-29 14:05] – created awfkiideas:monkey_mind [2023-12-25 00:42] (current) – added an a awfki
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 ======  Monkey Mind ====== ======  Monkey Mind ======
-FIXME+The monkey mind is that busy little beaver (?!) that's always chattering away in your head. You were trying to meditate and up pops  
 +thoughts of lunch or that person who didn't say hi in the hall or that (gender neutral) hotty you interacted with three weeks  
 +ago or dinner or how you're a terrible meditator or that really funny joke you heard the other day or how it should have pooped  
 +before sitting down to meditate. 
 + 
 +The point is not what the monkey is currently obsessing over, the point is THERE'S A MONKEY IN YOUR HEAD!   
 + 
 +What?  How did it get there? How do I make it go away? 
 + 
 +The answers (which I have because I made the questions) are: 
 +  * There's a monkey in your head. (Or an [[The Elephant and the Rider|elephant]], but right now I'm talking monkeys.) 
 +  * You were born human. 
 +  * You don't. 
 + 
 +Now, this monkey is  very clever.  It can live your entire life with no intervention from you.  In fact, you will likely assume that  
 +the monkey is you and helpfully give it a hand when it needs to do math or fill out a tax form or something complicated, and as you  
 +do this you will never ever suspect that there's a monkey in head.  And the monkey might do a fine job of living your life, but, it's  
 +a monkey.  Consequently it will often make monkey decisions which are not always the best decisions for a human. There's also  
 +the added complication that the monkey is like 50,000 years old and doesn't really understand the modern world. 
 + 
 +So one day you sit down to meditate and you find these thoughts popping up. I've already told you that this is the monkey and  
 +now you've confirmed that it's there. I also told you that you can't make it go away, so what do you do?  Train the monkey. 
 + 
 +Meditation and [[mindfulness]] add a trainer to the mix. The monkey doesn't have to do what the trainer says but the trainer  
 +can point out when the monkey is going off track, about to make a bad decision.  This isn't an evil monkey, it wants to be happy 
 +and live a good life that it can be proud of, but it's a monkey. It wants to learn, but it's a monkey, and it's probably pretty set in it's ways.  
 +And depending on how old you are you may also be set in your ways, which, since you didn't know the monkey was there, are probably 
 +it's ways.  
 + 
 +Adding the trainer doesn't immediately fix anything, but just knowing the monkey is there gives you a new perspective for 
 + looking at things and maybe, for noticing that the monkey is getting up to hijinks and taking it in hand. 
 + 
 +FIXME  
 +//- this is off track as it runs off with the monkey and not the basic monkey mind// 
 + 
 +//better as now starts from the basic monkey mind but maybe it goes too far?    
 +I can also see overlaps but I think those will just be a thing.//
  
-The monkey mind is very clever and it can live you're entire life with no intervention from "you".  In that case you will likely assume that  
-the monkey is you.  But, it's a monkey.  Is it going to make the best decisions for a human or is it going to make monkey decisions? 
  
-Mindfulness adds a trainer to the mix. The monkey doesn't have to do what the trainer says but the trainer can point out when the 
-monkey is going off track, about to make a bad decision.  
-