Giving the Monkey a Job
As I sustain a meditation practice over many years, I notice that there are similar mind-states that show up in day-to-day life. A formal, silent and still meditation practice has helped me get better at noticing subtle shifts in states of mind, but those states of mind are not attached only to sitting meditation.
For example, I have been doing handwork which is durational in nature for a lot longer than I have practiced formal meditation, and I was aware right away that there are overlaps, in a felt sense. Handwork has an innately soothing aspect (once a person is past the first frustrations of learning the skill) and I understand that they can contribute measurable benefits to a person’s well-being. It is possible to drop into a deeply quiet, peaceful, and abiding state of mind while knitting, spinning, carving, or just doing the dishes or folding laundry. In my experience, these body-involved, un-exciting, non-intellectual acts provide more relief from anxiety than any other practice.
Spinning wool on a Norwegian spinning wheel, Toronto, August 2021.
It is also entirely possible to think big thoughts, to ruminate unhappily, to resist the task and to have a lot of feeling while doing menial work. Distraction, boredom, and obstacles to calm abound. But a focused task that gives our busy mind a job, is sometimes the key to settling it.
Over the past few weekends, I attended an online practice with Chakung Jigme Wangdrak Rinpoche of the Abhaya Foundation, as he taught the “9 stages of resting the mind,” also known as shamata or shiné practice: “calm abiding.” The teaching describes steps to follow while training the mind to settle on an object of concentration. The practices are progressively subtler as they advance. The practice that is usually translated as “mindfulness” is near the middle of these 9 stages—”present moment remembering” to return to the object of meditation. With practice, the mind that was busy, distracted, or dull and sleepy, gets better at coming back to the chosen focus object, more quickly, and the awareness of losing focus in the first place becomes smoother and more adept. Obstacles arise beyond distraction and sleepiness (for example, desire, anger, etc.), and the mind is drawn back to the object of focus, those obstacles become less burdensome, and ultimately fall away. This is the movement toward calm abiding, and at it’s full expression, there is equanimity: awareness unperturbed by distraction, dullness, obstacles, etc. In some ways this is a simple practice — it is nothing dramatic or fancy, settling the mind, then becoming more and more skillful at doing so.
There is a wonderful Tibettan teaching image that shows the nine stages on this dharma path. The mind is represented as a dark and dull elephant, chasing after a monkey, racing past the temple and a monk, who waves in their dust. But the elephant has caught a glimpse of something peaceful and begins to brighten, and to move less fast. Along the way there are worrying obstacles and more monks offering blessings of different kinds, and slowly the elephant becomes more beautiful. At one point a monk offers a decorative leash to the monkey to lead the elephant for a while, and a little later, a rabbit is riding the elephant. Soon the elephant is leading the monkey. As the elephant becomes ever more serene, the monkey goes back to the forest and the rabbit hops away, and even the monk stands aside, waving the elephant along to its peaceful rest, at the feet of a bhodisattva.
In my understanding, not only does this image depict the nine stages of shamata, but also the many aspects of mind — elephant, monkey, rabbit, monk, and bodhisattva alike, are representations of consciousness, potential in all of us. The equanimous elephant, at rest at the feet of the bodhisattva, is an aim in the disciplined practice of shamata. The ability to settle the mind is considered foundational to other practices in these traditions. If the mind cannot settle, how can it practice clarity (vipasana)? “Monkey mind” is also a natural aspect of mind and has it’s place. One teacher I heard long ago gave a funny teaching that said: “Monkey mind thinks it’s the boss. Monkey mind NEEDS A JOB.” Training our attention on a focal object, mantra, counting—these devices help to give monkey a job, while the elephant keeps moving toward calm abiding.
Repetitive handwork, requiring just the right amount of attention, works like this, too. When my focus is steady, body and mind are steady. When monkey goes tearing off after a distraction, the thing I am working on manifests that distraction — the stitches get tighter or are dropped, the pattern is broken, or the thread breaks. So I pick up and focus again.
(Turn the sound on in the video above, for the hypnotic beat of the spinning wheel.)
Join me for simple somatic practice and meditation on Tuesday evenings.
All are welcome!
Tuesday, October 19, 7:30 pm ET
Autumn Sangha
