Blog 669 – 06.20.2017
Fill Your Mind With Wonder Not Monkey Business

Another blogger, like myself, that I follow posted a story that I would like to briefly retell and use as a launching pad for a few additional observations. My friend related the story of man who sought out a teacher to give him a mantra that would help him to focus his mnd so he would be able to meditate better. The teacher gave him a short mantra to repeat but warned him not to think of monkeys immediately before, during, or after saying his mantra or he would become distracted and not be able to meditate. The man told the teacher that would not be a problem for there were no monkeys on or near his farm and that he rarely ever saw a monkey. The man could hardly wait to get back home to his farm and as he rose from sleep that first morning and began to say his mantra, you guessed it, all he could think about was monkeys. He tried and tried to put the monkeys out of his mind but the harder he tried the more his mind was full of thoughts about monkeys. Morning, noon, and night whenever he tried to say his mantra and meditate all he could think about was monkeys.

After just a few frustrating weeks he gave up, went back to the teacher, told him what had happened, and said, “Please take back your mantra and help me get rid of the monkeys.” The wise teacher told him, “The harder we resist something or someone the more it or they persist. The way to rid our selves of undesirable thoughts is not to struggle or fight against them but instead to fill our minds with wonder.” For sometime now we society has bought into the idea that resistance and obstruction is the way to change our situation and to get our way. That sort of reminds me of a child arguing and angry at a parent that holds its breath to force the parent to give in. Spoiler Alert, in the oldest sense, parents do not worry, for breathing is an automatic bodily function and if the child could hold its breath long enough to pass out when the sleeper quits resisting the lungs will automatically resume their function and the child will start breathing again.

It is a miserable and mistaken way to live always resisting, swimming against the current, as Jesus said converting a last apostle to replace Judas and complete the twelve, to Saul who would be called Paul – “It is hard to kick against the pricks.” Life is not intended to be hard. It is meant to be fun, but we make it hard not going with the flow, always cutting against the grain resisting and fighting those changes the Universe is always encouraging us to accept, to adapt to, and to adopt, and therby to grow, and to glow. We are here not to fight, not to protest, but to accept each days gifts and to shine.

But back to meditating, a great and wise line says something like – as a person thinks in their heart so they truly are. That being so – Think Wonderful, think Wow and Think Now. Fill your heart and mind with the thoughts of the Wonder of You and forget all that Monkey Business – great old movie by the way starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, and the wonderful Marilyn Monroe. Give it a look for in that movie is more than enough Monkey Business for anyone. Here’s to the Wow and the Wonder of You.

Your friend and fellow traveler
David White