Training your monkey mind

Before mental training a person is likely to be asleep to, and unaware of, what goes on in their monkey mind. After mental training a person is calmly awake to and aware of what goes on.

Everyone has a monkey mind. Evolution made it that way. Its function is to monitor and react to the continuous flow of inputs from the sense organs. The goal in real time is to rate the inputs as good, neutral or bad. When snakes and lions were about the rating had to be done not philosophically but fast; and, if that involved using biased intuitions and rough rules of thumb, then so be it. For at least 100,000 years, as individuals, families, groups and cultures, we survived and prospered on diets of exotic myths and magic.

When a person's bias box is well stocked their mood can be peaceful. And old people can be respected because they have seen it all before. So - if it aint broke don't fix it? The rules and regulations of the conservative status quo will create the winning herd mentality. Let it be?

No! - physical and cultural environments change and myths and magic lose their relevance. Cognitive dissonance motivates radical revolution. Paradigms shift; and creative people inspire new rounds of myth and magic.

There are those who reckon that science is nothing but the latest round of myth and magic and there are those who reckon that it is a uniquely more insightful, evidence-based and rationally controlled process. The issue can be best discussed by people that have undergone two types of mental training aimed at taming the monkey mind – scientific method and mindfulness meditation.

Personal note: I learnt and taught about science and its methods for more than 10 years and I have practised mindfulness on and off for more than 40 years. I am now retired. But I maintain a blog that records my subjective impressions of what my monkey mind gets up to when exposed to recent thinking about changing minds.

It is never too late to train your monkey mind.