Monkey Mind: An Ayurvedic Perspective on Stilling our Busy Minds
The Monkey Mind is a Buddhist concept that describes the highly mobile quality of our mental landscape. It alludes to the monkey-like quality of a mind that jumps from thought to thought, just as a monkey leaps from branch to branch; only letting go of one as it grabs onto another.
In Part 1 of this exploration titled, Awareness: Doorway to a Better Life (see preceding article), we looked at the relationship between awareness and our monkey mind. We saw that, until the monkey mind is quieted, cultivating awareness of ourselves and the world around us proves challenging.
How can I quiet or still the restless monkey mind?
Ayurvedic scholars identified 20 Gunas or Qualities that are found in nature and the human physiology and psychology. These qualities are generally presented and studied as 10 pairs of opposites.
Mobile and Stable (also called Static) compose one of the pairs.
The monkey mind quality of our mental landscape is, in Ayurvedic terms, a manifestation of the mobile principle (in an aggravated state). Hyper-mobility of the mind - and its various side effects, such as anxiety, agitation, restlessness, indecision and, in the extreme, insomnia - is one of the most well-known afflictions in Ayurveda. As such, Ayurveda has a number of recommendations for taming the monkey mind and reducing the incidence of anxiety and other common symptoms of excessive mobility.
One of the two fundamental principles of Ayurveda is, Like Increases Like.
This means that, when we already have a lot of certain quality - either naturally occurring in our physiology and psychology or acquired through lifestyle choices - we don’t want more of that quality.
The monkey mind is exacerbated by a lifestyle of constant stimulation, multi-tasking, inadequate physical and mental rest; some foods can also increase the mobile quality in our minds.
The second of the two fundamental principles of Ayurveda is Opposites Decrease Each Other.
This means that, when introduce stillness and stability into our lives, we reduce the mobile quality in our psychophysiology, thus quieting the monkey mind.
Whether we use mediation (of which there are many types), Tai Chi or Yin, Restorative or slow Hatha Yoga, when we spend more time moving slowly - or remain in complete stillness - the activity of the monkey mind is reduced by the introduction of its opposite.
Are you ready to make a commitment to stillness to quiet your monkey mind?