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When it comes to quieting your mind, there are a few ways to go about it. But before we get into the “how”, let’s start with the “why”.
Learning to quiet the “monkey mind”.
As I mentioned in the signal article, it’s hard to get down to the point if there’s a lot of noise, or “static” getting in the way. Zen Buddhists refer to the noise, or “static” that you get as being the “monkey mind”. Just as it sounds, this is a part of your mind that jumps up and down, chattering and trying to get attention, like a little monkey. When most people try to meditate, this is what they run into, and it leaves them feeling discouraged. That was one thing I liked about the Inner Temple course, as I had never been able to get past that in a traditional meditative environment, much less guided imagery. But I digress.
When it comes to seeking stillness, the basic method is to give the “monkey” a “banana” to keep it quiet.
Yes, we have no bananas today!
I couldn’t resist the title, but if you’ve ever experienced frustration when meditating because the monkey kept messing things up, then you know how difficult it can seem. Fortunately, there are some tried and true ways of quieting the monkey mind:
- Mandalas/Yantras:
A Mandala is typically a graphical representation of the universe, and are rather well known.
Yantras seem to hail from Hinduism, but serve much the same purpose as mandalas. Yantras seem to be more geometric in nature, and less symbolic but none-the-less the basic idea remains the same. By giving the monkey mind a visual to hang on to, it is kept occupied while you proceed with your meditation.
Interestingly, I had been using a yantra since middle school, though I didn’t know it. I loved geometric shapes, but I especially loved to draw an octagon, with all the points connected to each other. I would draw it as carefully as I could, and let the stillness come over me. I didn’t realize until years later the connection. The icon in the address bar is a tiny version of that image:
- Chants/mantras
Think of the last time you saw meditation portrayed in a movie. Odds are that they were chanting. By using a chant, you are keeping the monkey mind busy and out of the way, similar to having it fixated with a mandala or a yantra.
Here’s an exercise to try: Pick a word. Any word. Now say that word to yourself over and over and over. Don’t even bother to count. Just keep doing it. Pretty soon, the word will start to sound funny, and the “meaning” of the word will have become detatched from the sounds that your mouth is making. Keep going. Eventually, your monkey mind will be so occupied that you will find yourself in a meditative/”trance”-like state.
- Music
Music has long been an established means of setting your mind free of its physical surroundings. Quite often, when people will meditate together, there will be soft instrumental music playing. This music does not have much structure, but merely a pleasant sound. Many people, when listening to this music for itself don’t like it because it’s not supposed to be too interesting, just enough to keep the monkey mind busy.
Do you have some favored means for reaching that inner stillness and shutting off the noise? Please share them in the comments!
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