Tara Brach, a clinical psychologist and meditation teacher, gives this talk on golfing with monkeys. She starts with a story of monkeys proliferating on a golf course in Calcutta; the lesson is how we respond to the proliferation of suffering.
Tara Brach opens this talk with the story of monkeys interfering with golf balls in Calcutta, a picture of how the uncertain, uncontrollable flow of life intervenes in our expectations for how things should be. It invites us to reflect: how do we respond to life when things don’t go our way?
The Monkey and Our Sense of Self
The monkey that lives in the mind tells us story after story – stories which create a sense of self. This sense of self, strengthened by all of the beliefs we hold onto tightly, can help us earn approval (or a sense of approval). In response to this attachment to the stories that live in the mind, we plan and worry in an effort to control the world around us. This proliferating of our mental habits can lead to suffering, as we cannot control the external world; we can only work with our relationship to its flow.
Taming the Monkey Mind
Taming the monkey mind begins with our awareness of it. Can we start to catch ourselves when the mind races off into stories of how things should be? Mindful breathing exercises can help us to reconnect with the present moment, which is a starting point for a deeper witnessing of the mind.
From there, we can practice observing the types of thoughts that arise, noticing that they are temporary and that no matter how much we identify with them, they don’t have to define us. Creating this little bit of distance between our mental tendencies and our sense of self can help us relate to them differently.
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