It is an incredible life skill to become a disciplined master of your monkey mind.
What is the monkey mind?
The monkey mind as described by the Buddhists is the constant chattering of the mind when trying to be silent for meditation or any time a quiet mind is needed. A chattering mind is endlessly thinking of trivial things with constant repetition such as, what will I wear tomorrow? What’s for dinner? I wonder what they are saying. I have to pay my rego. What is the meaning of life? Why is a tomato a fruit? What is the square root of 9? Gee, an ice-cream would be good right now, why do I only get one sock back when I put two in the dryer? Shall I go to the party on Friday? What are dogs thinking when we pick up their shit? Red, I wonder how many likes I got on my last post...
You get the picture; well, actually you get about 60,000 pictures like this daily. As humans we are bombarded with this kind of chattering in our heads constantly.
Buddhists liken this chattering to countless monkeys swinging from branch to branch on trees, hence the term, monkey mind. And like a monkey that won't let go of one branch before it grabs another, your mind generally won't let go of one thought until it has another. It can get very loud and chaotic indeed.
Paying attention to and giving time to all these thoughts and countless monkeys, no matter how entertaining it can be, would be a fruitless exercise and may even send you insane.
Thoughts coming and going in rapid succession is part of life and the nature of being human. Your Monkey Mind has no intention of slowing down; in fact, it is only going to increase with the high influx of mass media, news and advertising. We constantly find our minds bombarded with billboards, TV screens, mobile devices, magazines, newspapers and the airwaves during our daily lives commuting on trains, planes and automobiles. Our mind is even bombarded during our leisure time at sporting, entertaining, drinking and dining venues.
Experts estimate that the mind thinks between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. That's an average of 2,500 – 3,300 thoughts per hour. That is a lot of thoughts and a lot of information my friends. As a Master Mind Ninja you must acknowledge this chattering and learn specific techniques to decipher what is relevant and necessary to your survival and in the best interest for your mental health and spiritual well-being.
A vigilant Mind Ninja must always stand guard on the gate to your mind, which is connected to the most impressive and powerful firewall ever imagined, a firewall that you have built for your mind. With practiced repetition your Mind Ninja and this incredibly powerful firewall will protect your mind, body, spirit and temple with unmatched velour.
Imagine the constant thoughts and feelings you have of fear, anger, grief, jealousy, criticism, and victim being a monkey and these monkeys/thoughts are continuously trying to rule, run and ruin your life. They do so because they act from a place of ego and run rampant in your mind because your true warrior self has been suppressed and buried by subliminal negative programming.
With today’s technology and the speed, we receive outside information most of the human race is not in full control of their mind and is instead living their lives like little puppets from beneath the canopy of a dark jungle with the monkeys of their mind pulling the strings.
I found I was able to control the monkeys that were running amuck in my mind once I established their individual identities. I discovered I was able to do this by becoming aware of, and acknowledging, the feelings I was getting at certain times and where in my body these feelings were situated. This is a tricky skill to master, but one you must be vigilant about because these feelings of fear, anger, grief, jealousy etc. can take control of your mind, body and spirit. I understand firsthand that these negative feelings can destroy your sense of worth, making you feel helpless and hopeless.
Looking back on my earlier years I remember having different feelings come over me when different situations would happen. When I sensed I was about to be bullied I would get this tingling sensation through my body, like pins and needles, the hairs on my body would prick up and I'd start to get a little sweaty. I understand now this is the natural fight and flight response that is part of our caveman DNA. A chemical called Cortisol is released in the brain when it senses danger and enables us to take action. This feeling became my Fear Monkey.
Being a Mind Ninja does not mean you don't have the odd crazy thought, nasty word or stuff banging on your mental gate from the inside that wants to come out, No, if you didn't, you wouldn't be a Mind Ninja, you would be a bloody Saint, and I'd like to read your book. We all have what the Buddhists call, the monkey mind. These are the thoughts and chatter we must quiet when we meditate.
These monkey’s relentlessly say “you aren’t good enough,” “you can’t do that,” ‘you won’t do that,” “he/she/they don’t like you,” “you don’t deserve it” etc. etc.
I address seven of these predominant monkeys in my first book Become a Mind Ninja. It took me so long to learn how to control them. You can control them; I will help you discover how. They are still present in my mind and like to have their say, but my relentlessness and diligent training has given me the power to control them. I will be sharing with you very soon some of the amazing visualisation techniques I have discovered that control these monkeys.
These egotistical monkeys have an opinion on everything, every second of the day from people's looks, to food, religion, politics, fashion, and other people's parenting skills. It is the monkey mind that induces fear, stress and anxiety. I'm sure my monkeys have a pair of bolt cutters hidden somewhere in my mind because on the odd occasion they come flying through my gate that was bolted, wiz past my Mind Ninja and blurt out shit before my Mind Ninja gets a chance to grab them by the tail and fling them back inside.
Don't be too hard on yourself throughout any of this process of becoming a Mind Ninja. We are all human, you just have to do your best, nothing more, nothing less, just do your best. With any of these training skills I'm sharing with you, put them to practice, practice, practice, and be persistent, and JUST DO YOUR BEST.
I have a great little saying when my monkeys get out and start flinging shit around the place. It's a saying I adopted from a cool comedian and friend of mine, you may know him best as Steady Eddy. He’s a very funny man and a top bloke. Anytime something comes out of his mouth that does not align to his morals he says, "Sorry, I just had an ABM" which stands for Anti Buddhist Moment. This is fantastic because it is not about what you said, but the fact that you caught yourself saying something that does not align with the person you wish to be, and you acknowledged this fact, hence, giving your Mind Ninja a command to look out in future for bolt cutter carrying, shit throwing monkeys.
One of the greatest and hardest tasks of the Mind Ninja is becoming not only master of the mind but becoming the master of your monkeys. Having weapons and techniques to control the monkeys is the best line of defence. Trying to argue with, fight and destroy your monkeys will prove frivolous and will be a never ending battle and one you shall surely loose. Trust me, I have lost many a bout with these monkeys and lost many good friends, wives and family members because of these free roaming shit throwing little pricks.
Pre Mind Ninja, my egotistical monkeys were in charge of my mind and wreaked havoc on my world. I was stubborn, argumentative and impolite. In short; I was an asshole. I was an asshole who got his daily exercise by jumping on the victim trampoline.
One minute I was up, the next I was down. This was an exhausting exercise not only for myself but for those around me that loved and cared for me. I was unaware of the turmoil I was putting people through because I was too busy trying to bounce higher and higher, and I did, I got so high at times that I forgot to land correctly on my downward spiral. When you are a victim, you forget the laws that have been put in place for your safety. I forgot on many occasions the law of physics, that is, what goes up, must come down. I was a huge authority victim in my teens. No, let me rephrase that, I was a huge authority victim, period! I had an issue from as far back as I can remember of anyone telling me what to do, what I can do, what I can't do, what I should do, what I had to do.
I feel you smiling; I know I wasn't the only one with this issue. If it wasn't or isn't you, you sure know someone with the tendency to flick a finger at those who know best.
I had a finger named Jack that lived in a box and would pop up any time someone opened their mouth to give me good advice. This never won me a lot of friends or respect, but hey, I was a victim and it wasn't my fault they couldn't chill out enough to love the rebel in me. This is what I kept telling myself.
People wonder why they are a loner with no friends, I did for many years, because I wasn't looking or paying attention to the common denominator: me! In every situation I was the common denominator. How could I have been so wrong for so many years to think that everyone else had an issue? My finger was on fast dial and with it I perpetuated my pity parties.
People will only tolerate your insubordination and lack of seeing their love for a certain amount of time, depression or no depression. When you consistently play the victim card you always wind up with the losing hand.
Monkeys love an unguarded mind because they get to party and play on the victim trampoline. Highs and lows are the life force of the victim, the feeling of both these states become so ingrained in the mind that they become habitual and the feeling of these habits become addictive. There is nothing quite as destructive as an addicted egotistical monkey.
The fun and exceptional way I discovered how to control my feelings of fear, anger, sadness, depression and the monkeys that were manipulating them was to use my now well mastered Mind Ninja visualisation techniques. The unique techniques I share with you in Become a Mind Ninja are lifesaving game changers which are at this present moment, helping thousands of people globally reclaim their self-respect and self-worth.
BECOME A MIND NINJA
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