The monkey in Dharma Monkey refers to a concept that I’ve heard a few Buddhist monks describe as Monkey Mind. Claire Bushey, a freelancer and former (Delaware) News-Journal reporter, recently attended a meditation retreat in Thailand and described Monkey Mind as when, “consciousness, willful and capricious as a monkey, darts from thought to thought, resisting all attempts at control.”
As I started to write about my own efforts to embrace my Inner Monkey, it occurred to me that the perfect name for my blog, my Web domain and my online identity would be Dharma Monkey. It is a telling name: I try to embrace the Dharma despite the Monkey, hence I must embrace the Monkey.
November 17, 2006 at
Sean, you’re so cute in this picture!
April 24, 2007 at
OH MY GOD…You’ve completely grown up. I mean really, you’re a grown man for goodness sakes! What the one pub every professional communicator should read to “know” what’s top of mind in the U.S. any given week? If you know the answer to this question, you know who I am!
April 24, 2007 at
Oops, sorry, didn’t know this comment would post immediately…stupendous, remarkable blog…smart, funny, personal AND YET interesting…marvy, dahling, marvy!!!
April 25, 2007 at
Wolf Killer! E-mail me! sean — (at) — dharmamonkey — (dot) — com
October 30, 2009 at
If you were to go back to the original textual references to the “monkey mind” and look into the original Sanskrit, you would probably find that the point was never to control the monkey–it was to take the mind to that infinitely peaceful state where it was satisfied, and would no longer wander. The wandering monkey is your greatest friend, because it is always looking for more happiness, more fulfillment, and will only be satisfied when it experiences it’s own inner nature, Atman.
August 15, 2010 at
the tendency to wander from the focus or the “Wandering Monkey” is what modern science calls ADD. They would have you believe it is neither a deficit or disease.
August 15, 2010 at
Mark: This is not really correct. The purpose of the monkey analogy is to point to the normal, everyday tendency that the mind has to wander, generally in search of something more entertaining (just like the monkey goes from vine to vine). the point is not, though, that the mind should be controlled–that is the mistake many meditations make. Rather it must experience the bliss within, and then it no longer feels the need to wander, because the wandering was only its search for perfection.
May 13, 2013 at
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